HONDURAS: Gunmen shoot into the house of Honduran journalist Jose Chinchilla, injuring his 24-year old son

Record ID: 625694

  • Title: HONDURAS: Gunmen shoot into the house of Honduran journalist Jose Chinchilla, injuring his 24-year old son
  • Date: 6th August 2012
  • Summary: EL PROGRESO, HONDURAS (AUGUST 5, 2012) (REUTERS) JOURNALIST JOSE CHINCHILLA SHOWING BULLET HOLES ON HIS CAR AND HOUSE DAMAGE FROM BULLETS ON DOOR OF HOME CHINCHILLA DESCRIBING HOW THE ATTACK HAPPENED AS HE WAS AT HOME ON THE TELEPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JOSE CHINCHILLA, JOURNALIST, SAYING: "I feel unprotected. I feel alone. I don't want the same thing to happen to me as
  • Embargoed: 21st August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Honduras
  • Country: Honduras
  • Topics: Communications,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA6V72I52XZSBNHSZHY6M975FZR
  • Story Text: A Honduran journalist plans to ask for political asylum in the United States after his son was wounded when gunmen attacked his house on Friday (August 3).
    Honduran journalist Jose Chinchilla says that two gunmen on motorcycles shot at him and his son as they sat at home in the northern Honduran city of El Progreso on Friday. Chinchilla's 24-year old son was wounded in the attack.
    Chinchilla is a crime reporter for Radio Cadena Voces in the city of El Progreso, where the attack occurred.
    "I feel unprotected. I feel alone. I don't want the same thing to happen to me as happened to my journalist colleagues," Chinchilla told Reuters on Sunday.
    The journalist added that his son was saved by a car parked outside the house.
    "He survived by luck. Thanks to the grace of God, and also because of this car that was parked outside. When they were shooting at the house, my son was right there," he said.
    Journalists have increasingly become the victims of violence in Honduras in recent years.
    Dina Meza, the director of Honduras's Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), said that the government has not done enough to protect journalists in the Central America country.
    "We have had more than 20 journalists in the country who have been victims of murders. That should have produced more concrete actions on the part of the Honduran state, and it has been mentioned on several occasions by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, when they've said that the Honduran state should protect the lives of journalists," she said.
    Chinchilla plans to ask for asylum in the United States after consulting with Honduran human rights authorities.
    On May 15, Alfredo Villatoro, a well-known media personality, was found shot in the head a week after being kidnapped.
    Villatoro was a director of HRN radio, one of the oldest broadcast stations in the country. He was the second journalist killed in May, after journalist and gay-rights activist Erick Martinez was murdered a week earlier.
    On May 25, thousands of journalists and their supporters gathered in Tegucigalpa to protest against the rising death toll of reporters in the violence-ravaged nation.
    Four other broadcast journalists were murdered in 2011, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
    A Honduran press group, the Committee for Free Expression, says that 22 journalists have become the victims of violence since 2010, making it one of the world's most dangerous place for journalists.
    Honduras has the world's highest murder rate - more than 80 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year - as the isthmus nation is increasingly used as a transit route for cocaine moving from South America to the United States.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register