24 February 2006
TWO JOURNALISTS MURDERED
Police in Ecuador are investigating the murders of two journalists killed in the space of a week, report the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). At press time, it is unclear whether the journalists were killed because of their work.
On 13 February 2006, the body of radio reporter José Luis Léon Desiderio was found in a ditch near his home in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
As the host of the daily news programme "Opinión" on Radio Minutera, Léon often denounced gang violence and police inaction in the city, according to CPJ. Léon had received anonymous threatening phone calls at Radio Minutera warning of consequences if he continued to report on gangs.
A day after Léon was murdered, freelance photographer Raúl Suárez Sandoval was shot dead in the city of Durán, near Guayaquil. According to RSF, Sandoval was shot four times by an armed man in a car just after making a call from a public telephone.
Suárez Sandoval was a contributor to the daily newspapers "La Hora Durandeña" and "La Prensa de Durán". There are reports that he may have owed debts to several people, notes RSF.
Visit these links:
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/ecuador17feb06na.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16494
- IAPA Report on Ecuador: http://www.sipiapa.org/pulications/informe_ecuador2005o.cfm
- IPI Report: http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Americas/ecuador.htm
- CPJ Report: http://www.cpj.org/attacks04/americas04/ecuador.html
(Photo: Raúl Suárez Sandoval)
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