Salvadoran Journalists Request Official Protection Due to Threats Following Coverage of Slain Activist

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Oscar Luna, from the Defense of Human Rights in El Salvador speaks to the media about his request for official protection for the threatened journalists. (Photo Courtesy of DiarioCoLatino)

CABAÑAS, El Salvador - The public attorney for the Defense of Human Rights in El Salvador has requested protection for three journalists who have received telephone and letter death threats.  The journalists work for Radio Victoria, a community station that informs the public of Cabañas about an organized movement in resistance to mining operations run by the Canadian company, Pacific Rim.

The journalists claim that the death threats are related to Radio Victoria's coverage of the disappearance and death of a well known environmentalist and social activist, Marcelo Gustavo Rivera.  The threats made direct reference to Rivera's murder and stated that the reporters were "next on the list."

Radio Victoria is a community radio station that frequently covers environmental and political activists. (Photo Courtesy of democracyinaction.org)

Marcelo Gustavo Rivera was extremely active in Cabañas environmental issues and  politics.  He led a denunciation of electoral fraud that led to a suspension of elections in San Isidro, Cabañas. Rivera's body was found in a well, with clear evidence of torture.  Leading up to his disappearance, Rivera was the victim of an attempted bombing, death threats and a smear campaign.  Rivera's family has expressed dissatisfaction with the Prosecutor's work on the case, saying that he has not linked the earlier harassment to the murder.

  

Community members and social organizations are demanding an investigation of the threats made to the Radio Victoria reporters by "competent authorities" of the new government of the province. They are also demanding an investigation into the motive behind Rivera's murder.

Anti-mining activists, Marcelo Gustavo Rivera, pictured above, was tortured and murdered.  (Photo Courtesy of DiarioCoLatino )

For more information, please see:

DiarioCo Latino - Periodistas Denuncian Amenazas a Muerte - 27 July 2009

IFEX - Three Journalists Receive Death Threats in El Salvador - 31 July 2009

Upside Down Radio - El Salvador: Community Radio Journalist Receive Death Threats - 31 July 2009

Journalism in the America's - El Salvador's Human Rights Office Wants Protection for Threatened Journalists - 28 July 2009