Behind Mexico, tied in second place are Brazil and Honduras as the Latin American countries with the most killings of journalists this year, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Paramilitary groups represent one of the greatest threats to the press in Colombia, where 84 cases of aggression and harassment against journalists were recorded in the first semester of this year, leaving 104 victims.
Nicaraguan police shot at the truck of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper La Prensa in Managua, Eduardo Enríquez, and then detained him for 12 hours for obstructing a motorcade with the president of the Supreme Electoral Council and "jeopardizing the lives of officials," according to La Prensa.
Journalist Carlos Walker was beaten and shot in the legs on Friday, July 29, in Mar del Plata, in eastern Argentina, while he was photographing posters with political propaganda, reported TN.
Unidentified gunmen fired on a Venezuelan state-run television station, Vive TV, in the country's western state of Zulia on Sunday, July 31. leaving two people injured, reported El Universal.
Dominican reporter José Agustín Silvestre for Cana TV was kidnapped and killed Tuesday, Aug. 2, in the city of La Romana, Dominican Republic, local press reported. His body was found near a pond with two gunshot wounds, according to El Día.
Hardly seven months have gone by and 2011 is already the most "tragic year in the last two decades for the Latin American press."
The junior soccer team Atlético Tubarão, located in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, attacked journalist Eduardo Ventura who was covering a game for Rádio Santa Catarina and channel Unisul TV, reported Diário Sul.
In a São Paulo court, six witnesses testified in a civil case of the death of journalist Luiz Eduardo da Rocha Merlino, who was tortured and killed 40 years ago during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), according to Agência Brasil.
The ex-director of the Liberal political party in Colombia, Francisco Ferney Tapasco González, is going to be tried in the killing of the assistant editor of the newspaper La Patria, Orlando Sierra.
A man suspected of killing political journalist Auro Ida was arrested by the police July 25 in the neighborhood of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso where the crime occurred, G1 reports. Soon after, the 19-year-old man was released by the police when the victim’s girlfriend – the principal witness to the crime – failed to recognize him, Terra explains. The police say he is still under investigation.
Forty years after journalist Luis Eduardo Merlino was arrested, tortured, and killed during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), retired Army Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra is being tried for his alleged role in the crime, Correio do Brasil reports.