Honduras - IFEX

Honduras must strengthen protection mechanism after TV reporter’s murder

Marianna Tzabiras — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:49:37 +0000

This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 3 January 2024.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Honduran authorities to do what is necessary to reinforce the country’s mechanism for protecting journalists after a local TV reporter was killed despite having a permanent police bodyguard since an earlier murder attempt in May. They must also solve his murder, RSF says.

Local Canal 24 TV reporter Francisco Ramírez was ambushed and killed on 21 December in Danlí, a city 100 km southeast of the capital in El Paraíso department, even though the national mechanism for protecting journalists assigned him a bodyguard after he was shot three times in a murder attempt on 3 May, and although its alleged perpetrators were identified and arrested.

The 39-year-old Ramírez had stopped working out of concern for his safety since the shooting attack in May, but he was well known for his coverage of criminal groups in the Danlí region, whose activities include drug trafficking, and he continued to be under threat.

He was driving back to his home in Danlí on the night of 21 December when gunmen opened fire on his car, hitting him five times and killing him instantly. His police bodyguard sustained two gunshot wounds and was later reported to be in a stable condition in hospital.

“Francisco Ramírez’s murder highlights the tragic plight of local journalists in Honduras. When state protection is not enough to guarantee their safety, the conditions for journalistic freedom are no longer assured. It is imperative that the authorities investigate this murder thoroughly in order to identify and convict its perpetrators and instigators. Rendering full justice would send a key message about the government’s commitment to protecting journalists in Honduras. It is also essential for the government to examine all the flaws in the protection mechanism, particularly in the risk analysis and the type of protection provided to journalists, in order to address the problems.”

Artur Romeu, Director RSF’s Latin America bureau

RSF voiced concern about the precarious state of the national mechanism for protecting journalists in August 2022, after much of it was dismantled as a result of the new government’s decision to fire many of its employees. This latest murder shows that the media continue to be the targets of attacks and that the mechanism must be reinforced.

As a first step, the government must increase the mechanism’s budget in order to ensure that it has sufficient, adequately trained staff and is able to provide effective protection. Also, civil society participation within the National Protection Council and the Technical Committee – the body that decides on individual cases – must be increased in order to improve its legitimacy in the eyes of its beneficiaries. And finally, the speed and manner in which the police implement protective measures, especially in the most serious cases, such as that of Francisco Ramírez, must be closely monitored.

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Honduran journalist Edwin Josué Andino shot, killed in Comayagüela

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 05:29:08 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 24 October 2022.

Honduran authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Edwin Josué Andino, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

In the morning of October 10, unidentified individuals dressed in police uniforms kidnapped Andino from his home in Comayagüela, northwest of the capital of Tegucigalpa, and later shot and killed him, according to a report by the Honduran free expression group C-Libre and news reports. Andino’s body was found on the street near his home, with his mouth taped shut and gunshot wounds to his face.

The journalist’s father, Edwin Emilio Andino, whom assailants took from the same home hours before, was found shot and killed in a different neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, according to those reports.

Andino, 23, graduated from journalism school in 2021 and worked as a producer for afternoon shows on the national La Tribuna TV (LTV) station, according to news reports and a statement from the outlet. LTV director Raúl Morazán told AFP that Andino had worked for the channel for two years and was unaware of any threats against the journalist.

“Honduran authorities should thoroughly investigate the killing of Edwin Josué Andino and his father and determine if it was related to his work as a journalist,” said Natalie Southwick, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, in New York. “The Honduran government must end the impunity that has prevailed in the killings of journalists for so many years by conducting a swift and credible investigation that identifies all of those responsible and brings them to justice.”

On October 12, police said two cars used by the shooters, which were found in a warehouse with plastic handcuffs, tape, and traces of blood, were taken to the forensic examiners, according to news reports.

On October 15 and 18, police arrested several people with alleged ties to the Barrio 18 gang, including four who are allegedly connected to the killing of Andino and his father, according to multiple news reports.

Police chief Gustavo Sánchez told media outlets that mobile devices confiscated from the suspects included “technical and scientific” evidence that at least three of the individuals were involved in killing the pair, according to those reports.

Security Minister Ramon Sabillon told CPJ via messaging app that police investigations were still ongoing.

Since 1992, at least eight journalists in Honduras have been murdered in connection with their work, according to CPJ research. CPJ is investigating the killings of 28 other journalists to determine if they were work-related.

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IAPA condemns the latest murder of a journalist in Honduras

Marianna Tzabiras — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 15:00:28 +0000

This statement was originally published on en.sipiapa.org on 11 October 2022.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned and deplored a recent murder of a journalist in Honduras. The organization called on the authorities to investigate to find out if the murder of Edwin Josué Andino was linked to his professional work.

At its next General Assembly, to be held at the end of October in Madrid, the IAPA will pay special attention to 35 murders this year, making 2022 one of the most tragic years for journalism in the Americas. The murders occurred in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States. In addition, the IAPA awarded its 2022 Grand Prize for Press Freedom postmortem to 18 journalists from Mexico who were murdered in the last 12 months.

Edwin Josué Andino, producer of the La Tribuna TV (LTV) channel, was murdered yesterday in Tegucigalpa. Unknown shooters dressed in police uniforms took Andino and his father from their home and then killed them, according to LTV director Raúl Morazán, who said that the journalist had not received any threats. The body of Andino, 23, was found in his underwear on the street in Colonia Villafranca de Comayagüel and showed “a point-blank shot in the face,” according to statements to AFP by the director of the non-governmental organization Comité por la Libre Expresión (C-Libre), Amada Ponce. The father’s body was found in another neighborhood of the Honduran capital.

IAPA President Jorge Canahuati expressed “solidarity with the family of the victims and the Honduran colleagues.” Canahuati, of Grupo Opsa, of Honduras, called on the authorities of his country to “deepen the investigations and not to rule out Andino’s journalistic work, [in order to determine] if the murder was related to his profession.”

Carlos Jornet, chairman of the Press Freedom and Information Committee and the editor of La Voz del Interior of Argentina, said: “We call attention to the severe violence that we are observing against journalists this year in the Americas, where 34 other journalists have been murdered.”

The IAPA officers also stressed the importance of strengthening and allocating the necessary resources so that the system of protection and security for journalists in Honduras can effectively fulfill its mission of guaranteeing the lives of journalists.

Ricardo Ávila and Pablo Hernández Rivera were also murdered this year in Honduras. Ávila, journalist and cameraman of the Metro channel and radio station in Choluteca, was attacked on May 25. Unknown shooters shot him in the head while riding his motorcycle to work, and he died four days later. Hernández Rivera, director and journalist of the community radio station Tenán 94.1 F.M, “La Voz Indígena Lenca,” was killed on January 9 in San Marcos de Caiquín, in the department of Lempira.

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Honduran journalist Sonia Pérez criminally charged over reporting on Indigenous evictions

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 18:17:55 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 29 July 2022.

Honduran authorities should immediately drop all criminal charges against journalist Sonia Pérez López and stop using the country’s legal system to silence the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On May 22, Juan Argueta, a landowner in the municipality of San Jose, filed a criminal complaint against Pérez, a correspondent for the local broadcaster Radio Progreso, accusing her of trespassing and damage to private property, according to news reports, a report by Radio Progreso, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via phone.

In the complaint, which CPJ reviewed, Argueta alleged that Pérez had trespassed on his property while covering the eviction of dozens of Indigenous people from the area on May 18, according to those sources.

A criminal court in the municipality of Marcala, in the western department of La Paz, held an initial hearing in the case on June 19, Pérez said. In a subsequent hearing on Thursday, July 28, prosecutors asked for the case against Pérez and her co-defendants to be dropped, citing a lack of evidence, according to Radio Progreso, which said a court decision was expected on Friday.

“Land rights are an issue of fundamental concern to Indigenous and rural communities in Honduras and across the region, and community journalists must be able to cover these stories without being treated like criminals,” said CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Honduran authorities should drop the criminal charges against Sonia Pérez, allow her to work freely, and stop prosecuting journalists for doing their jobs.”

During that June 19 hearing, the court prohibited Pérez from leaving the country or approaching Argueta, and ordered her to report to the judiciary every 30 days while the case was ongoing, the journalist said.

Argueta’s complaint alleged that Pérez was a member of the Nueva Palestina Indigenous council, a group representing the leadership of the Lenca community, whom police had evicted from that land on May 18. The complaint accuses 30 members of the Lenca Indigenous community of trespassing and damaging property.

The Honduran prosecutor’s office also issued a statement claiming that Pérez was part of the council after “being found among a group of people who claimed to own the land in 2020.”

Pérez told CPJ that, while she is a member of the Lenca Indigenous group, “I’m not a council member. I was there reporting as a journalist.”

If convicted of trespassing, Pérez could face up to four years in prison, and damaging private property carries a prison term of up to five years, according to the Honduran criminal code. Argueta’s complaint also accused the journalist of “changing boundaries,” or attempting to change a property line, which can carry a prison term of up to four years, according to the criminal code.

When CPJ emailed Honduran judiciary spokesperson Melvin Duarte for comment, he responded with a document repeating Argueta’s allegations and declined to comment further. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Argueta.

Radio Progreso broadcasts to a national audience from the town of El Progreso, near the northern city of San Pedro Sula, according to the outlet’s website. Pérez started working for the outlet in 2018 and covers local issues, including social movements, politics, and corruption, according to the coordinator of the broadcaster’s press department, Iolany Pérez, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

In 2011, Radio Progreso manager Nery Orellana was shot and killed by unidentified assailants in the western department of Lempira.

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Honduras recognizes its responsibility in 2009 killing of transgender woman and activist

Marianna Tzabiras — Mon, 16 May 2022 08:27:46 +0000

This statement was originally published on hrw.org on 13 May 2022.

Groundbreaking commitments in implementing regional court’s ruling

By Cristian González Cabrera, Researcher, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program

“We recognize before the international community, the Honduran people, and the family of Vicky Hernández, the responsibility of the Honduran state in the events that led to her death,” President Xiomara Castro said on May 9.

Vicky Hernández, a trans woman, sex worker, and activist with trans rights group Unidad Color Rosa was killed in San Pedro Sula in June 2009 during a military coup. In 2012, Cattrachas Lesbian Network, a Honduran LGBT rights organization, filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the family to hold the state responsible for her murder.

The commission submitted the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which in March 2021 found Honduras responsible for Hernández’s killing.

The court found a violation of the right to life based on the fact that police harassed Hernández hours before she was killed and, due to the coup, the military and police had effective control of the streets on the night she died. The court also noted the violence lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people faced in Honduras at the time Hernández was killed and the prevailing impunity for such acts.

The court also found that Honduras violated the right to life because the authorities did not comply with their obligation to effectively investigate Hernández’s death, as Human Rights Watch argued in an amicus brief submitted to the court in November 2020.

President Castro, who took office in January, made trailblazing commitments to implement the court’s ruling. She committed to creating a legal gender recognition procedure in Honduras that will allow transgender people to modify their legal documents to reflect their gender identity. This will go a long way to address the risk of discrimination that many transgender people face because of a mismatch between their gender and the gender marker on their official documents.

Castro also undertook to continue the investigation into Hernández’s murder and agreed to comply with other aspects of the court’s ruling, including implementing LGBTI awareness trainings for security forces and a protocol for criminal investigations in these cases, and improving data collection in cases motivated by anti-LGBTI bias.

Honduras has taken a notable step forward in recognizing the rights of transgender people and contributing to a more just and equitable society. Countries in the region lagging on trans rights should take note.

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Women seizing the word: The participation of women writers in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua

Marianna Tzabiras — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:45:42 +0000

This statement was originally published on article19.org on 11 April 2022.

PEN Vida UNESCO Count report

PEN International, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts (VIDA), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO), today release: Women Seizing the World, The Participation of Women Writers in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. This report was born out of a need to analyse and account for gender inequality within the literature, publishing, and journalistic sectors in said countries. The results are clear: today, women writers continue to be discriminated against because of their gender.

Download the report in Spanish

Download the Executive Summary in English

“Our hope is that the figures and stories represented here will not only expose deep seated patriarchy but bring true change. As the PEN Women’s Manifesto states: “Humanity is both wanting and bereft without the full and free expression of women’s creativity and knowledge.” Burhan Sönmez, President of PEN International and Jennifer Clement, President Emerita of PEN International.

The report Women Seizing the Word: The Participation of Women Writers in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua, provides insights into the patterns of systemic discrimination which marginalise women, and remain deeply entrenched in both the publishing industry and the protocols of literary awards in five Latin American countries. Our preliminary research indicates that only 30% of writers in both the literary and journalistic sectors in the selected countries are women. Such unequal representation has a detrimental impact for the careers of women writers, limiting their access to professional spaces and opportunities to develop their professions.

Women continue to be discriminated against because of their gender — in which other intersecting identities can aggravate the discrimination experienced. Our preliminary research suggests that cultural policies and practises within the publishing industry fail to promote and ensure equal participation — both in their design and intent.

Discriminatory practices across these five countries — including harassment, intimidation and abuse — in which women journalists, writers, as well as those in the publishing industry face specific risks and additional challenges because of their identity.

Nevertheless, the emerging generation of women writers and journalists are finding alternative means by which to make their voices heard. Social networks platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, virtual resources such as Zoom, as well as cloud-based applications are increasingly host to self-published work. However, these are also increasingly host to a spectrum of online harms.

PEN International, VIDA and UNESCO call on governments, among others, to outline and implement the necessary measures to ensure that a gender-inclusive and diverse perspective is fully integrated within public cultural and publishing programmes. It calls on the States Parties to respect and guarantee the compliance with their international commitments as signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Discrimination in Education and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

PEN International, VIDA and UNESCO also call on relevant media, cultural industries, and publishing houses to publicly acknowledge the importance of and promote the full and unhindered participation of women in these sectors.

For a full report, and a list of recommendations in Spanish click here.

PEN VIDA UNESCO Count

PEN VIDA count is a project by PEN International’s Women Writers Committee, established in 2018 with the goal of fostering gender equality in literature. It was inspired by PEN International Women’s Manifesto, a set of principles approved in 2017 during PEN International 83rd Congress in Lviv, Ukraine, which aim to protect free expression for women by combating and eliminating their silencing worldwide.

In 2020 PEN International partnered with UNESCO to create a pilot program, the PEN VIDA UNESCO Count, for five countries in Latin America: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Nicaragua. This report is the result of this partnership.

The participation of UNESCO in this ambitious research is of great importance, not only because it aligns with the United Nations’ 2030 Global Goals, but because since 1945 the organization has worked to promote gender equality as well as the rights and autonomy of women.

This report is possible thanks to the support of the 2020-2021 Participation Programme that UNESCO granted to the PEN International and its Civil Society Programmes, as funded by SIDA, which has enabled greater collaboration between PEN International and PEN Centers in Chiapas, México; Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

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Police make 2 arrests after alleged gang members shoot at ‘Radio Globo’ newsroom in Honduras

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:58:17 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 15 March 2022.

Honduran authorities should swiftly and transparently investigate the recent attack on Radio Globo’s office and ensure that the perpetrators are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

At about 3 p.m. on March 7, a man on a motorcycle fired multiple gunshots at the broadcaster’s office in Tegucigalpa, the capital, according to news reports and Radio Globo Director Hector Amador, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Amador said that he was in the station’s parking lot when he heard the shots, which destroyed several windows of a neighboring shop but did not hit the office itself, which is on the building’s second floor.

No one was injured in the attack, Amador said. He added that police arrested one suspect on the night of March 7, and a second suspect, the alleged gunman, on March 8. Police have accused both men of being members of a local gang, according to those news reports.

“Honduran authorities must fully investigate the recent attack on Radio Globo, determine its motive, and bring all the perpetrators to justice, including whoever orchestrated the attack,” said Natalie Southwick, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, in New York. “Radio Globo staff members were fortunate that nobody was hurt, but they must be able to work without fearing for their lives. Honduran authorities must show that such a brazen attack in broad daylight carries real consequences.”

Amador said that he called an emergency number run by the National Protection Mechanism for Journalists immediately after the attack, but no one answered. He then contacted Security Minister Ramon Sabillon, who sent a police team to open an investigation.

Radio Globo is a Tegucigalpa-based radio station that covers national news, politics, and sports, and produces the TV news channel Globo TV. Amador told CPJ he believed the attack may have been retaliation for the outlet’s coverage of extradition proceedings against former President Juan Orlando Hernández. Hernández was arrested in February and faces possible extradition to the United States on drug trafficking and weapons charges, according to news reports.

Amador said that the former head of the national police threatened legal proceedings against him in 2019 over the outlet’s coverage of his alleged links with drug trafficking.

When CPJ contacted Sabillon via messaging app for comment, he said he would respond to questions but did not do so by the time of publication. CPJ also messaged Danilo Morales, the director of the protection mechanism, but did not receive a response.

In 2019, Radio Globo Director David Romero was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly defaming a former prosecutor; he died of COVID in detention in July 2020.

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RSF: A study of journalists’ murders in Latin America confirms the importance of strengthening protection policies

Marianna Tzabiras — Wed, 26 May 2021 14:18:27 +0000

This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 13 May 2021.

Journalists’ investigations of political issues, corruption, and organized crime in small and medium-sized cities in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Honduras account for 139 murders of media professionals during 2011-2020, a study by Reporters Without Borders shows. Half of these journalists had received threats related to their work.

In the framework of “In Danger: Analysis of Journalist Protection Programs in Latin America,” a UNESCO-supported project, RSF analysed the major methods by which journalists were murdered in order to better understand the challenges that media protection programs must take into account. RSF based the study on information from its Barometer, which reports major attacks on journalists worldwide (see note on methodology below).

In 2020, Latin America was the region with the greatest number of journalists killed for practising their profession. Taken together, four countries account for 80 per cent of journalists’ murders committed in this part of the world during the 10-year period. In that timeframe, 139 journalists and media workers were killed in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Honduras, according to data collected by RSF.

Data analysis was carried out in partnership with Volt Data Lab, which produced the graphics that illustrate this publication.

Fifty per cent of the murdered journalists were working as reporters, photojournalists or cameramen, contributing to at least one news organization. An analysis of the RSF data also shows that 39 per cent of the victims covered topics with a political connection. Other issues most frequently covered by the murdered journalists were crime and corruption. Journalists most often targeted were those working in the field, reporting on and criticising illegal schemes in their regions.

Programmed executions

The study deliberately uses the term “target” because, in 92 per cent of cases, evidence showed that the attackers deliberately focused on a specific journalist. Of all deaths recorded in 2011-2020, only 7.2 per cent (10 of 139 cases) occurred in the course of dangerous assignments, when a journalist may not have been killed intentionally.

Some of the journalists were killed in their workplaces, while in newsrooms, or studios. But most (58 per cent) were attacked near their homes, or while traveling between home and work. The details of the great number of these crimes were also often identical: The journalists were tracked by their attackers, and the killings were clearly mapped out by professional hitmen.

Most of the victims were men, living in small cities

The majority (93 per cent) of the victims were men. This should not lead to the conclusion that women journalists in the region are better protected. In the region as a while, where 41 percent of reporters are women, these journalists are also reduced to silence by violent threat campaigns and harassment, generally online, directed at them and their families. At times these campaigns are run by local political bosses.

The RSF study also shows that risks are greater for journalists who work in small cities. Of those who were killed, 56 per cent lived in cities with populations of less than 100,000. And at least 54 per cent of journalists killed in cities with populations of 100,000 to 500,000 – medium-sized municipalities in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia – had already received threats before they were murdered.

The statistics do not fit the popular image of an investigative journalist who works for a major newspaper based in a capital city, who is killed for having reported information of national importance. To the contrary, most of the journalists murdered in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Honduras in 2011-2020 lived far from major urban centres, often worked in precarious economic circumstances, contributing to several media organisations, and covered issues that directly affected local officials and inhabitants.

More effective protection programmes urgently needed

Another conclusion to be drawn from the RSF study is that many of the killings could have been prevented. At least 45 per cent of the victims* had reported receiving threats and had made them public – either in the media they worked for, on their social network accounts, or directly to local security forces.

However, only 10 of the 139 murdered journalists – none of them women – received government protection. This number represents 7.2 percent of total victims, and nearly 16 per cent of those who had received threats. These data pose the question of why only a minority of murdered journalists had received protection, and why the 10 journalists who did receive protection were murdered.

Although Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras are not officially at war, the statistics are cause for great concern. At the end of 2020, RSF’s annual Round-up showed that Mexico was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, with at least eight journalists murdered. The killings, often carried out savagely, targeted reporters because they had investigated links between organized crime and member of the political class.

Structural violence

Murder of journalists, the most extreme form of censorship, is only the most visible part of anti-press violence. This practice takes place within a larger regional context of permanent threat and structural violence. Human rights advocates and all those who condemn the powers that be, whether in politics or criminal organisations, are affected in systematic form.

When a country is the scene of structural violence against the press, individual journalists’ freedom of expression is not the only issue at stake. The entire society’s collective right to be informed is also affected. In the words of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: “Journalism can only be freely practiced when those who do so are not victims of threats or physical, psychological, or moral attacks or other acts of harassment.”

Journalists have been reduced to silence because the political and public safety environment in their region does not guarantee conditions in which they can practise their profession safely. In addition, most of the media organisations for which they work are too economically strained to protect them. And 10 per cent of them are independent journalists or contributors to community radio stations.

One of the goals of “In Danger,” a project that has received UNESCO support, is to understand how national journalist protection policies can change this grim reality. The project aims to evaluate the operation and effectiveness of journalist protection mechanisms in the four countries in question. Acting on the principle that governments are responsible for guaranteeing conditions allowing the free and safe practice of journalism, RSF will present a detailed report to public authorities that includes strategic recommendations designed to contribute to the consolidation of these measures.

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IFEX-ALC condemns arbitrary detention of journalists Miriam Grizel and Cesario Padilla, members of the C-Libre team

Viviana Ordoñez Salazar — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 21:24:23 +0000

In their work for C-Libre, Grizel and Padilla are part of a team responsible for issuing alerts about aggressions against journalists and providing accompaniment to those journalists. They were detained on 2 November, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

Grizel was detained when she asked police who had installed a checkpoint not to occupy the whole street, completely blocking movement. She was detained after making the comment and after identifying herself as a journalist. Her colleague, Cesario Padilla, who filmed her detention, was also taken into custody.

Padilla and Elvir were taken to four different police stations, making it difficult for their families and others to determine their whereabouts. They were detained for more than eight hours and were only released after signing a document conceding that they had committed an offense and agreeing not to publicise information about what had taken place.

Organisations such as C-Libre have been denouncing human rights infringements perpetrated by the Honduran authorities, including violations of freedom of expression and information rights. They have also been speaking out against the increasingly repressive environment in the country, which has worsened since the onset of the pandemic. This has been reflected, for example, in a pattern of journalist detentions at checkpoints established to control movements.

The 24 member organisations of IFEX-ALC express their solidarity and support for C-Libre and its team members, and call on the national authorities to:

Investigate and punish those responsible for the human rights violations committed against Miriam Grizel and Cesario Padilla.
Guarantee the security of journalists in Honduras.
Abstain from using state apparatuses and armed security forces to attack and censor critical voices.
Comply with international commitments contained in human rights instruments ratified by Honduras. These instruments guarantee the full exercise of professional and independent journalism in order to provide trustworthy information on issues of public interest, protecting the right of citizens to be informed and ensuring respect for and promotion of the free flow of information.

About IFEX-ALC:

IFEX-ALC, which forms part of the global IFEX network, is comprised of 24 organisations in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries dedicated to defending freedom of expression and press freedom.

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Honduran journalist Luis Alonzo Almendares shot and killed

Marianna Tzabiras — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 22:11:17 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 29 September 2020.

Honduran authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Luis Alonzo Almendares, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.At about 6 p.m. on September 27, in the central Honduran city of Comayagua, two unidentified individuals on a motorcycle shot Almendares, a local freelance journalist, three times and then fled the scene; bystanders brought the journalist to a local hospital, and he was then transferred to the Escuela Universitario hospital in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, where he died yesterday morning, according to news reports and a report by Honduran free expression organization C-Libre.Almendares posted his local news reporting to his Facebook page, where he identified himself as “The Voice of the Comayaguans.” He had more than 40,000 followers, and frequently reported on alleged corruption and mismanagement by local officials.

In a meeting with the press yesterday, Carlos González, chief of the National Police in Comayagua, said that an investigation was underway and that he hoped the case would be resolved shortly, according to audio of that press briefing reviewed by CPJ.

“Honduran authorities must do everything in their power to conduct a credible investigation into the killing of journalist Luis Alonzo Almendares, determine whether it was related to his work, and prosecute those responsible,” said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Violence against journalists is happening with terrifying frequency in Honduras, and impunity prevails in almost all cases. The government must act urgently to show that the killers of journalists will be held to account.”

After the attack, Almendares streamed a brief video on Facebook live, where he can be heard saying that he was shot and asking for help from passersby.

According to C-Libre representative Cesario Padilla, who spoke with CPJ in a phone interview, Almendares had repeatedly contacted the press freedom group about various threats he had received in response to his coverage since 2017, including death threats.

A local journalist who knew Almendares and who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns, said that Almendares “denounced acts of corruption from various local authorities in Comayagua, and was very critical about how the COVID-19 aid had been distributed.”

The journalist suggested that the attack may have been connected to a video that Almendares posted to Facebook on September 23, which showed an alleged killing committed by someone driving a car with police lights. The Honduran Journalists Union, a local press association, tweeted a link to that video, saying that it should be “a starting point” for the investigation into Almendares’ killing.

Earlier this year, on July 1, two unidentified individuals shot and killed German Vallecillo Jr., a host for the local privately owned TV station Canal 45, in an attack that also killed Jorge Posas, a camera operator and technician at the station, while they drove in the northeastern Honduran city of La Ceiba, as CPJ documented at the time.

Since 1992, at least seven journalists have been killed in Honduras in direct relation to their work, according to CPJ research. CPJ is investigating more than 20 other cases to determine if journalism was a motive in the killing.

Reached via messaging app, National Police spokesperson Jair Meza told CPJ that the investigation was ongoing and no suspects had been detained as of today.

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