06 June 2009
Marco Antonio Estrada
Shooting
An unidentified gunman shot and killed Guatemalan television reporter Marco Antonio Estrada on Saturday night in the eastern city of Chiquimula.
Estrada covered general news, which included organized crime and drug trafficking, for the national television station Tele Diario. Local reporters told CPJ that Estrada’s region has experienced both increasing criminality and drug trafficking recently.
Around 8 p.m. on Saturday, an unidentified individual approached Estrada as he was stepping off his motorcycle on a street in Chiquimula, 138 miles (222 kilometers) east of Guatemala City, the assailant fired four shots, killing Estrada immediately, Amílcar Rodas Ruano, a reporter for Tele Diario, told CPJ. Witnesses quoted in the local press said the gunman fled in a car that was parked at the scene of the crime. Rodas said Estrada’s cell phone was missing.
Estrada, 39, had worked for more than 20 years as a journalist, local reporters told CPJ. He had covered Chiquimula for Tele Diario for the last 10 years, reports in the local press said. Estrada’s wife told local reporters that she did not know of any threats against her husband. Chiquimula reporters told CPJ that local authorities are looking into Estrada’s work as a possible motive.
