On the day he received the threats, Alex Roberto Sabillón Gómez had reported on increases in water rates and human rights violations against street vendors and market tenants.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – 19 March 2012, Tegucigalpa – Journalist Alex Roberto Sabillón Gómez, a reporter for the TV station Multicanal, based in Choloma, Cortés department, reported receiving death threats to the Criminal Investigations Department in San Pedro Sula.
Sabillón Gómez could not identify the person who threatened him, but he said that he got the threats over the phone on 13 March 2012, between 7:00 and 8:00pm, the same time slot when his programme airs.
The journalist told C-Libre that the topic of his show on 13 March was about increases in water rates by the Aguas de Choloma company, as well as human rights violations against street vendors and market tenants.
He added that he had also discussed safety issues, the rise in taxes, and corruption. He said his life was “in the hands of local influential and corrupt groups.” Sabillón Gómez clarified that he does not think these threats were issued by executives from Aguas de Choloma, or the mayor of Choloma, Leopoldo Crivelli Durant, whom he described as “non-confrontational”. However, the journalist said he is worried about potential actions against him by the mayor’s supporters.
Sabillón Gómez added that he believes the threats could also be related to his covering of events, marches and sit-ins by local factory workers, teachers and members of the National Popular Resistance Front (Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, FNRP). He first received death threats in 2010 from a Choloma municipality alderman, whom he did not name. At that time he filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but nothing came of it.
(Please note that this is an abridged translation.)
