A reporter for the Tele Diario news show of Guatemala’s Channel 3 television was gunned down in the eastern city of Chiquimula, police said on Sunday, the Latin American Herald Tribune website has reported. Marco Antonio Estrada was killed after parking his motorcycle on an avenue in Chiquimula, located some 222 km (nearly 140 miles) east of Guatemala City, the National Civilian Police, or PNC, said.
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The 39-year-old reporter was gunned down by a short man who fled in a vehicle, eyewitnesses told the PNC. Investigators have not been able to identify a motive and it is not known if Estrada had received death threats.
The reporter’s relatives called on authorities to find those behind the killing, while the Chiquimula Journalists Association condemned this act of violence against the press.
During his career, Estrada worked for a number of media outlets, including Radio Sultana de Oriente, Radio Perla de Oriente, Radio Estereo Amistad and Radio Sonora. He had worked for Tele Diario for the past 10 years.
Estrada is the latest journalist murdered in this Central American country. Rolando Santis, a correspondent for the Telecentro Trece news program, was gunned down and cameraman Antonio de Leon was seriously wounded April 1 in Guatemala City. The 42-year-old Santis and his cameraman were attacked by two gunmen on a motorcycle. Two other unidentified people were hit and injured by the reporter’s vehicle when it went out of control.
Jorge Merida Perez, a correspondent for the Prensa Libre newspaper in the western city of Coatepeque, located some 180 km (112 miles) from the capital, was murdered on May 11, 2008. The 40-year-old Merida Perez was shot four times inside his residence in Coatepeque.
