Unidentified callers threatened to kill Arnulfo Aguilar and Luis Galdamez even though both journalists have been granted precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – Tegucigalpa, 11 November 2011 – Journalists Arnulfo Aguilar and Luis Galdamez reported that they were threatened recently, even though they have both been granted precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Aguilar is the director of the Radio Uno station in San Pedro Sula, and Galdamez is the director of the news programme “Tras la Verdad”, which airs on Radio Globo.
According to the report that Aguilar filed with the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH), he received several calls on his cellular phone in which the caller threatened to kill him. Aguilar also said that his family was also threatened. In a separate call, the caller said that Aguilar and his daughter were going to be killed if he did not stop speaking out.
Galdamez received a phone call while his programme was on the air. The caller, allegedly a government official, told him to stop talking, that they would be waiting for him in the Miramontes neighbourhood, and that he was spreading lies about the military and the police.
Both journalists were targeted during the 2009 coup d’etat. Aguilar and his station were targeted for reporting on the country’s armed forces. Galdamez, who accompanied former president Manuel Zelaya while he took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, survived an assassination attempt and was threatened by the military and the police.
(Please note this is an abridged translation.)
