14 June 2010
Luis Arturo Mondragon
Shooting
A television reporter was shot dead outside his station, becoming the ninth journalist killed in Honduras this year, officials said.
Two gunmen killed Luis Arturo Mondragon as he left Channel 19 station in Santa Clara de Danli, a town outside Tegucigalpa, Security Department spokesman Leonel Sauceda said. Mondragon had just finished broadcasting his show. Police have no suspects or clear motive, but are looking into criminal complaints filed against Mondragon last year for sexual assault and for stealing cattle, Sauceda said. "
Both situations are still being investigated and could be key to the reasons the journalist lost his life," he said. International and local news-media advocacy groups have denounced a string of attacks on reporters since the June 28, 2009 coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Colleagues said Mondragon backed the coup and was known in Danli for carrying a gun. Journalist and activists who opposed the coup have also been attacked. The ambush occurred only a week after GDF reported on the murder of Shamil Aliyev, founder and head-manager of the radio stations Priboi and Vatan and director of the television network TNT-Makhachkala, whose car came under fire from unidentified attackers who fled the scene of the crime.
