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Journalist killed by unidentified assailant

TV reporter Marco Antonio Estrada was shot down in Chiquimula, Guatemala just as he was stepping off his motorcycle on 8 June, report the Journalists' Observatory of the Centro de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala (CERIGUA), the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Estrada, 39, covered general news, including organised crime, for the national television station Tele Diario. Local reporters told CPJ the Chiquimula region had seen a spike in drug trafficking and criminality but the motive behind Estrada's killing remains unclear.

Estrada's wife told reporters she was unaware of threats against her husband, who had worked more than 20 years as a journalist.

CPJ and CERIGUA are urging Guatemalan authorities to investigate possible links between Estrada's murder and his journalism. Estrada's death follows the killing of another Guatemalan journalist in 2009 and two in 2008. According to CPJ, journalists are so fearful of retaliation that gun battles between drug traffickers in the interior of the country often go unreported.