Luis Hernández Núñez, a XEJTV Canal 5 camera operator, was injured when a bomb exploded near a federal police convoy.
(CEPET/IFEX) – Luis Hernández Núñez, an XEJTV Canal 5 cameraman, was injured on 15 July 2010 when a bomb was set near a federal police convoy by individuals associated with organized crime. Four people were killed and at least 10 were injured in the attack in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
The incident took place around 8:00 p.m. at the 16 de Septiembre and Bolivia intersection in the Partido Romero district. According to various accounts compiled the day after the attack, federal police units that had arrived at the scene after receiving reports of an injured officer, were the target of a planned attack. A green Ford Focus was blown up with 10 kilograms of C-4 explosives, using a mobile phone as a detonator.
Hernández Núñez, who was returning from reporting on a double homicide on a nearby street, turned on to 16 de Septiembre when he noticed municipal police vehicles and three paramedics who were administering first aid to the injured officer. He parked his car and started filming.
In an interview with CEPET, the Canal 5 cameraman said that four vehicles with federal officers arrived to cordon off the area. The officers gathered around the supposed injured officer, who was actually a dead man dressed as a police officer. The criminals then blew up the car; the explosion was caught on Hernández Núñez’s camera.
The attack resulted in the deaths of three people, including one federal officer. Hours later a doctor, who was at the scene to help the man who was used as bait, died in hospital.
Hernández Núñez, who was wounded in the right foot, abdomen and chest, did not stop recording the incident, even as he ran for cover in a nearby building. Police officers helped him reach the Centro Médico de Especialidades where bomb fragments were removed from his body. If it had not been for two police vehicles that were between him and the car that exploded, he would have been more seriously wounded.
Hernández Núñez, who is 39 years old, was not the intended target of organised crime, but CEPET considers this incident to be a clear example of the level of danger facing Mexican journalists in many parts of the country.
