Within just a few hours of each other, two facilities belonging to the Televisa media conglomerate were attacked, causing damages to property but no injuries.
(CEPET/IFEX) – Within just a few hours of each other, facilities belonging to the Televisa media conglomerate in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state, were attacked with explosives. The first attack took place at about 9:00 p.m. on 14 August 2010, when unidentified individuals threw a grenade from a moving vehicle, hitting the building that houses Televisa’s local television station in Matamoros, Canal 7, and causing damages to a storage area. According to station personnel, at the time of the explosion there was hardly anybody in the building and, as such, no one was hurt.
A few hours later, at approximately 1:30 a.m. on 15 August, the Televisa offices and studios in Monterrey were attacked. Individuals in a truck threw an explosive device that rolled onto the sidewalk opposite the Televisa station’s entrance. The device exploded under a pickup truck, which was damaged along with another vehicle belonging to the station. The windows of buildings close to the blast were also broken. Although initials reports about the attack stated that two employees were slightly injured, personnel from the Televisa Monterrey news programme said that no one was hurt.
Monterrey Municipal Police officers and agents from the State Civil Protection Agency, the State Public Security Office and the State Investigations Agency as well as soldiers attended the scene of the explosion.
The second attack took place minutes after a comment that the Televisa employees viewed as a veiled threat appeared on the website of the daily “El Norte”. The comment followed a story on the website about the explosion in Matamoros. A reader, whose signature on the message made reference to narco-traffickers, warned, “And next, those in Monterrey and Multimedios.”
The Attorney General’s Office has opened case files on both attacks, although the local prosecutor’s offices will be in charge of the investigations.
It should be noted that Televisa Monterrey previously suffered a similar attack on 6 January 2009 and the attack on the Matamoros location took place 15 days after a grenade was thrown at Televisa’s facilities in Nuevo Laredo, which is also located in Tamaulipas state.
(Please note this is an abridged translation.)