Journalist is 19th slain in Honduras in three years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Journalist is 19th slain in Honduras in three years
Published on 8 May 2012 - 5:49pm

A journalist and gay rights activist who also was a running for a seat in Honduras' legislature has been found killed, an associate from the left-of-center group he belonged to told AFP on Tuesday.

"Erick Alex Martinez Avila, 32, was found dead in the street" about five kilometers (three miles) outside the capital, said Gilberto Rios, who like the slain journalist is a member of the left wing Necios activist group.

Police told local media that the reporter had been found strangled and his body left Monday on the side of a road.

His death brings to 19 the number of journalists who were supporters of former president Manuel Zelaya, who have been killed since his overthrow in a coup three years ago next month.

Read more: http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/journalist-19th-slain-honduras-three-years

[harmonicon]

1. USA!! USA!! USA!! (nt)

[TBF]

4. Bingo. nt

[edwardferry]

2. like wise in Venezuela

i´m an american imprisoned in maturin Venezuela, I´m in total sympathy with the family Avila for their loss, cut down in the prime of life, and left dead in the street, I´m lucky now to have my first benefit, which is the venezuelan version of parole, i was incarcerated in La Pica, infamous for its violence. The prevailing attitude here is a gross form of homophobia, in the carcel of la pica gays were openly executed, although this may have been a political motivated murder, i´m more inclined to think it was more than likely linked to the gay angle, 19 journalists,however, is a shocking amount,clearly someone is trying to mandate control and influence, which direction left right or center i´m not in the loop to speak, but this is a form of terrorism for sure, as so is the oxymoron Venezuelan Justice, its public knowledge that Zelaya and Chavez are good friends and support each others revolution

[Judi Lynn]

3. Honduras: Killing Free Expression

Honduras: Killing Free Expression
Posted: 08/05/2012 22:50

Erick Martínez Ávila, a 32-year old Honduran journalist and gay rights activist, was found dead and dumped in a ditch in Guasculile on 7 May 2012. His killers strangled him, and in doing so, brought the total number of journalists murdered in Honduras since 2007 to twenty-seven.

Martínez was a well-known spokesman for the lesbian and gay rights group Kuculnan and was politically active in Libertad y Refundación, the party of Manuel Zelaya, the former Honduran president who was deposed by a military coup in 2009.

The motive for Martínez' killing is unknown. But as a journalist critical of the current Honduran government, and as a Zelaya-supporter, Martínez was doubly vulnerable in a country where the rate of attacks on members of the press and the political opposition is accelerating. He is the seventeenth journalist to be murdered in Honduras in the last two years. Many more have suffered beatings and death threats, with government officials - including the army and the police - regularly implicated in these attacks.

~snip~

The coup of 2009 produced an illegal regime that ruled by force, suppressed opposition and censored the press. It was eventually succeeded in 2010 by President Porfirio Lobo Sosa's government - still unrecognized by some countries - which immediately offered an amnesty to all those involved in the coup.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/cathal-sheerin/honduras-killing-free-exp_b_1501260.html

[EFerrari]

5. The golpistas started kidnapping and torturing reporters almost immediately

after they ousted President Zelaya.