A Guatemalan radio host was seriously injured Wednesday when unidentified assailants shot him in the face as he was jogging in Guatemala City, according to news reports and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Two men approached Vinicio Aguilar Mancilla, host of a daily political show on Radio 10, near his home at around 7 am. Aguilar is recovering after undergoing surgery.
Station Director Oscar Rodolfo Castañeda said he spoke to Aguilar who told him that one assailant said "that is the guy from the radio" as the other shot him at close range. Aguilar was struck in the hand and mouth by one shot and was taken to a local hospital. The assailants, who fled in a motorcycle, did not attempt to rob Aguilar. At the hospital, Aguilar told reporters that he did not know what prompted the attack.
Castañeda told CPJ that he knew of no threats against Aguilar, but the station had been threatened repeatedly for its reporting on a lawsuit involving AvÃcola Villalobos, one of Central America's largest agricultural conglomerates. The latest threat came on Tuesday morning, when an on-air caller warned Castañeda to stop reporting on allegations of tax evasion connected to the case. The caller went on to say Castañeda would be killed if he did not leave the country within eight days.
Castañeda also said an economic boycott was organised against Radio 10 stemming from its coverage of the lawsuit in which a founding partner accused executives of tax fraud and money laundering. The case has received little coverage in other media.
"We are alarmed by the violent attack against our colleague Vinicio Aguilar Mancilla," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We urge local authorities to investigate the assault thoroughly and bring all those responsible to justice."
Journalists in Guatemala have been having a tough time in August. Journalist Jairo Gamaliel CholotÃo Corea, 34, was shot and killed in front of El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús church on August 4 in Zone 8 of the capital, by a criminal robbing him of his cell phone. CholotÃo worked as a photographer for the Centre for Folklore Studies at the University of San Carlos.
There were attacks on Noti-7 news programme editors and reporters, in two operations which appeared to have been carried out by organised crime gangs in retaliation for reports and investigations on drug trafficking, according to the Comisión de Libertad de Prensa de la Asociación de Periodistas de Guatemala (APG). Noti-7 is broadcast nationally on Channel 7.
On August 4, several unidentified armed men travelling on two motorcycles and in a car, stopped a news team in the Bosques de San Nocolás neighbourhood, in Mixco, a town to the west of the capital. Journalist Carlos Aquino and photographer Marvin Pérez were robbed of the vehicle and their film equipment. The vehicle was abandoned two days later, minus the equipment and the footage of an investigation on violence in the region, according to police.
On June 12, another Noti-7 news unit had been attacked and its driver, Mario Cruz, who was alone at the time, was kidnapped by four men in a southwestern sector of the capital; they threatened him with guns and questioned him for an hour-and-a-half before letting him go.
Given the way in which both attacks were carried out, Noti-7 representatives believe they were committed by organised crime gangs, in retaliation for their reporting on the violence and drug trafficking in the country.
On August 7, there was an abortive to kidnap doctor and journalist Emilio Méndez Meda, president of the Union of Parliamentary Journalists (Unión de Periodistas Parlamentarios, UCP). UCP is a labour organisation comprising of journalists who cover the sessions of the Guatemalan Congress.
Méndez Meda's usual car, driven by his chauffeur, was intercepted by the armed would-be kidnappers at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and Eighth Street in Quinta Samayoa neighbourhood, in Zone 7 of the capital city. The assailants assaulted the driver and held him captive for a number of hours, releasing him eventually in another area of the city. The perpetrators made off with the vehicle. Méndez Meda had decided to drive to work that day in a different car, and therefore avoided the kidnapping.
On August 13, armed individuals, seated in a vehicle, kept continuous watch on Méndez Meda's house, according to APG. On August 18, Méndez Meda filed a complaint with the National Police and the Public Prosecutor's office regarding this incident.
Méndez Meda believes that he has been subject to these forms of intimidation because of his journalistic work, in which he has repeatedly denounced organised crime and government corruption. "I have not considered fleeing into exile yet, since I am confident the situation will be clarified and that the criminals who sought to rob me of my freedom will be identified and brought to justice", Méndez Meda said.
Journalists have been threatened as well.
On August 16, MarÃa Teresa López Lima, a journalist for Prensa Libre newspaper, published in the city of Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez department, was threatened by former army captain Marvin Estuardo Mena Pons, brother-in-law of the city's mayor, César Antonio Siliézar Portillo.
That day, the captain's wife, Ana Petrona Eugenia Rivera Vega, summoned the journalist to Police Station 74 (ComisarÃa 74 de la PolicÃa Nacional Civil), where she showed the journalist a file marked "don't touch, Cap. Mena", containing a photograph of the journalist, basic personal information about her, and a list of calls and telephone numbers, including that of her mother.
Rivera, who identified herself as Mena's wife, told López Lima in the presence of police officers, that her husband was investigating the journalist in order to intimidate her and harm her physically, on Siliézar Portillo's orders, because she has reported on community dissatisfaction with the way the city is being run. Three hours later, López Lima reported the incident on Noticiero Central de Antigua, a radio news programme she hosts, saying the captain should be held responsible for any attack on her and her family.
During the programme, she received a call from Mena, who demanded that she "stop telling lies"; five minutes later, Mena aggressively burst into the radio station's broadcasting booth, insulting the journalist, who then handed the microphone to him and asked him to discuss the list of people, which she had at hand. He became nervous, and mumbled something inaudible.
López Lima's complaint was backed up by Óscar Enrique Flores Sosa, director of La Voz de Antigua bi-weekly newspaper, as well as José Antonio Palomo Cajas and Carlos Roberto Mérida Reynoso, two of its columnists, who have also been threatened, by telephone and Internet, for reporting on the mayor's corruption and misconduct.
The journalists told Centro de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala (CERIGUA) that Mena worked in the army's intelligence department, and therefore has the logistical means to harm them; he also worked in Antigua Guatemala's Heavy Transit Department and now owns a company, Servicios Integrados, which runs the transit police and the city's market square.
