While journalist Carlos Augusto Lara Cruz was covering a confrontation between the Honduran military and some farmers, he was threatened and warned that he would meet the same fate as journalist Nahúm Palacios, who was killed in March 2010.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – Journalist Carlos Augusto Lara Cruz, director of “Telenoticias” broadcast locally in the municipality of Tocoa, Colón, and a correspondent for Canal 11, was threatened by an employee of the Dinant corporation. Lara Cruz was covering, along with his cameraman, a confrontation between Xatruch command military personnel and peasant farmers.
Lara Cruz told C-Libre that the incident took place on 1 March 2013 in the morning, when a backhoe driver working for Dinant, a company owned by businessman Miguel Facussé, told him “You . . . shit, stop filming, or you’ll end up like Nahúm Palacios”.
The journalist said he was reporting the incident because of the reference to the still unsolved murder of journalist Nahúm Palacios on 14 March 2010. That crime took place in Tocoa, Colón.
“I had a professional working relationship with Palacios,” said Lara Cruz. “I am very concerned about the driver’s comments. I can’t identify him, though, because his face was hidden by the backhoe.”
Lara Cruz said that the incident has unnerved him and that his wife and mother are worried something will happen to him.
The journalist has said that if anything does happen to him, he will hold the driver of the backhoe responsible. He calls on the judiciary to provide him with security and a guarantee that he will be able to safely carry out his work.
