23 June 2008
Raúl Rodríguez
Shooting
Radio Sucre deputy news director Raúl Rodríguez was murdered in the western city of Guayaquil. The motive has yet to be established but Rodríguez, 64, had been the target of attacks in the past.
The attack took place at about 7:20 a.m. as Rodríguez returned to his home in the northern district of Guayacanes after presenting his early morning programme “Good Morning Ecuador” on Radio Sucre. He was getting out of his jeep when he was attacked by two gunmen wearing hats. One of them - who was accompanied by a woman, according to some accounts - shot him in the back.
The other emerged from behind a corner and shot him head on. Rodríguez tried to take cover behind a parked car and, although wounded, pulled out his own gun in order to return fire. Police believe a total of 13 shots were fired.
According the daily El Universo, the assailants fled in a Lada taxi with the licence number GNZ-119. Hit in the neck, thorax and left leg, Rodríguez died as a result of injuries in a nearby hospital to which he was rushed by a relative he had been about to visit. After 20 years presenting radio HCJB2, an evangelical radio station he founded, Rodríguez joined Radio Sucre in 1984 and became its deputy news director.
He hosted three programmes - “Good Morning Ecuador,” “News Reports” and a Saturday new programme. His family said he was often outspoken on the air in his condemnation of alleged local government corruption and his criticism of the national government.
A social conservative, he also criticised homosexuality and abortion. His family said he occasionally received telephone threats and shots were fired at the facade of his house in 2005. The following year, six men tried to kill him as he was parking his car.
