Nahúm Palacios Artiaga is the third journalist to be killed in two weeks.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – On 14 March 2010, journalist Nahúm Palacios Artiaga was shot and killed in the city of Tocoa, Colón, on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. He is the third journalist in the country to be killed in the past two weeks.
Palacios Artiaga, 34, was on his way home on the evening of 14 March when strangers shot him with AK-47s. According to police, he was shot more than 20 times. His body was found tossed by the side of the road. His companion, Yadira Sánchez, was taken to hospital.
Last week, Palacios Artiaga, who was the news director of the local television station Canal 5, and a colleague, Jorge Otts, received threatening messages on their cell phones warning them to “stop defending the poor”.
C-Libre reported that on 7 July 2009, during the coup d’etat, military police raided Palacios Artiaga’s home, assaulted him and confiscated his equipment. They also pointed guns at his children, seized his car, detained him and tortured him by forcing him to look directly at the sun.
Palacios Artiaga is the third Honduran journalist killed in two weeks. On 2 March, Joseph Hernández Ochoa was killed and Karol Cabrera was injured in an attack in Tegucigalpa. On 11 March, David Meza Montesinos was killed under similar circumstances in the city of La Ceiba, on the Atlantic coast.
On the morning of 15 March, journalists staged a protest march in the city of San Pedro Sula and demanded authorities investigate the murders. At this time, the police have no leads in the case.
