(AMARC/IFEX) – Journalist Carlos Galeas has been threatened for reporting on allegations that Honduran police are involved in smuggling coffee and lumber across the border to El Salvador. Galeas, of Radio San Miguel station, based in Marcala, southern Honduras, received death threats after conducting his investigation. In an interview with the Salvadoran Participatory Radio and […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – Journalist Carlos Galeas has been threatened for reporting on allegations that Honduran police are involved in smuggling coffee and lumber across the border to El Salvador. Galeas, of Radio San Miguel station, based in Marcala, southern Honduras, received death threats after conducting his investigation.
In an interview with the Salvadoran Participatory Radio and Programming Association’s (Asociación de Radios y Programas Participativos, ARPAS) news network, Galeas said that he is being harassed by police. “We obtained a statement from a police officer who told us all about the smuggling of coffee and lumber from Honduras to El Salvador, and we broadcast this information on our radio station,” Galeas said. “The police then began sending us threatening messages. The matter is very complicated because the husband of one of the attorneys at the Public Prosecutor’s Office has also been implicated in the smuggling,” the journalist added.
Radio San Miguel staff are investigating allegations that a number of police officers and members of the judiciary in southern Honduras are implicated in the smuggling operations. A defamation complaint was filed against Galeas after he refused to reveal the identity of his source. Thus far, the investigation has only implicated the Honduran police, although the possibility that Salvadoran authorities are also involved has not been ruled out.
