07 April 2008
Teresa Bautista Flores and Felicitas Martinez
Shooting
Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martinez, 20, two women journalists working for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio ("The Voice that Breaks the Silence"), a community radio station serving the Trique indigenous community, were shot and killed on 7 April in Putla de Guerrero, in the southern state of Oaxaca.
La Voz que Rompe el Silencio was launched by the Trique indigenous community in San Juan Copala (in the west of Oaxaca state) on 20 January, a year after the locality was granted administrative autonomy. The community appointed Bautista Flores and Martinez to manage and present the radio station, which is dedicated to promoting indigenous culture.
The two young women were returning from doing a report in the municipality of Llano Juarez in the early afternoon when they were ambushed and, after being threatened with abduction, were finally shot with 7.62 calibre bullets of the kind used in AK-47 assault rifles. Investigators found 20 bullet casings at the scene. Three other people were wounded in the shooting.
