Radio Globo journalist Rony Espinoza reported that he was attacked and threatened with death by Liberal Party leaders accompanying Monsignor Luis Alfonso Santos to a political event.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – 19 April 2012, Tegucigalpa – Radio Globo journalist Rony Espinoza reported on the station’s morning news programme on 19 April 2012 that he was attacked and threatened by Liberal Party leaders accompanying Monsignor Luis Alfonso Santos at a political event.
According to Espinoza, while he was covering a political meeting at Liberal Party headquarters on 18 April in the capital, he was surprised by the sudden departure of Monsignor Santos and decided to follow him and question him about why he had left even though the event was still going on.
Espinoza said he was intercepted by various people who blocked access to the priest, including politicians Víctor Cubas, a former deputy, and Fredy Cerrato, the former minister for the Department of Trade and Industry during the Manuel Zelaya Rosales administration.
“I tried to interview Monsignor Santos and for a few minutes I followed him. When I saw the blockade of people I decided to turn on my tape recorder. The reaction of the people near him was violent . . . Cerrato elbowed me forcefully and Víctor Cubas threatened me saying, ‘you want to die?’,” said Espinoza.
In the first four months of 2012, C-Libre has recorded 41 violations of free expression, of which 14 have been death threats against journalists and two have been killings of media workers.
