The Venezuelan Supreme Court approved the request to seek extradition of Walid Makled, alleged Venezuelan drug dealer arrested in Colombia last week, reported the Associated Press. Makled is considered the mastermind behind the 2009 killing of journalist Orel Sambrano, according to El Universal.
A police operation ended in the capture of Marco Álvarez Barahona, the lead suspect in the killing of radio reporter David Meza Montesinos, who was shot to death last March, La Tribuna reports. According to El Tiempo, two other suspects remain at large.
Alleged members of the organized crime group Los Zetas directly threatened the editors of La Jornada Zacatecas, Imagen, and El Diario NTR– all based in the state of Zacatecas– and demanded they put a letter denouncing the Mexican military on the front page of their newspapers, La Jornada reports.
The Paraguayan Journalists Union condemned an attack against Martín Caballero, a radio announcer from Radio Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in the city of Villa Hayes. The group also came out against attempts to censor the radio station.
Mexican authorities are investigating grenade attacks at the offices of media giant Televisa in the cities of Matamoros and Monterrey. The first incident happened in Matamoros the night of Saturday, Aug. 14, and no one was injured. In the case of Monterrey, the attack occurred at dawn on Sunday, slightly injuring two employees and damaging a car and nearby buildings, reported Agencia Reforma and La Crónica de Hoy.
Milenio is reporting that the Mexican Public Safety Secretary announced the capture in Durango of five alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel suspected of being linked to the kidnapping of two television videographers and a reporter at the end of last July.
Ten days after being kidnapped from his home in Zacatecas, Ulises González García was freed and then immediately hospitalized, reported Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The editor of the weekly newspaper La Opinión showed signs of having been tortured.
In the wee hours of Wednesday, Aug. 12, a car bomb exploded in the financial district of Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The explosion, which did not kill anyone, occurred in front of a building complex that was home to Caracol Radio, one of the most important stations in the country, and the Spanish news agency EFE, reported the Associated Press and BBC.
Journalists in the interior of Brazil are complaining of various attacks and threats involving politicians and their parties during the ongoing election period. Journalist Bruno de Lima, from the small state of Paraíba, in the northeast of the country, said he had received death threats after publishing stories about pedophilia in the state, explained Paraíba Agora.
A driver, a security guard and a technician from TV Brasil were assaulted by a group of 10 armed robbers on Tuesday, Aug. 10, in the Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro, reported O Globo. The victims were in the park repairing a broadcast antenna.
The office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed “deep concern” over threats received by Fausto Rosario Adames, the editor of the now-closed newspapers Clave and Clave Digital, after he had published articles about drug trafficking.
Faced with systematic attacks against journalists and the media in parts of Mexico, the United Nations (U.N.) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have proposed a new risk category for reporters who work in conflict zones that aren't within the definition of war outlined by international treaties, reported La Jornada.