By Alejandro Martínez
Guatemalan journalist and radio host Luis Lima was killed in the early morning of Tuesday, Aug. 6 in front of his radio station in the province of Zacapa, on the southeast side of the country, newspaper El País reported.
Lima, 68, was descending from his car to enter the station where he worked when he was attacked by two unknown men traveling on a motorcycle. Lima was shot twice, in the head and chest, and died at the scene, the Associated Press said. The reason for the attack remains unknown.
Lima, who had been working as a journalist for 40 years, hosted a popular music program where he also interviewed local figures and opened the airwaves to the community.
According to El País, Lima is the third media worker to be killed in the provinces of Guatemala this year. On April 7, Luis Alberto Lemus, the director and producer of a TV show in the department of Jutiapa, was shot and killed. In March, journalist Napoleón Jarquín Duarte was also killed in Jutiapa.
Journalists working in the provinces of Guatemala are generally more vulnerable to threats and attacks.
"Journalists outside of the capital are the most vulnerable because they are often harassed by the local authorities, organized crime and businessmen, which makes their job more difficult and, given the lack of investigation, their journalistic work cannot be discarded as a motive for their deaths," said Miguel Gonzales Moraga, a member of the journalism training non-profit Sala de Redacción, to the AP.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
