Two People Were Arrested in Honduras After Two Gang Members Shot at a Radio Station's Newsroom

In the evening of March 7, a man riding a motorcycle fired multiple shots at the office of radio station Radio Globo in Tegucigalpa, its capital, according to news reports and director of the radio station, Hector Amador.

Amador said that he was in the station's parking lot at the time the shots were fired. The bullets struck a neighboring shop's windows, but did not hit the station's second-floor office, he said.

There was no one injured in the attack, Amador said. A police officer said one suspect was arrested on March 7 and a second suspect, the alleged gunman, on March 8. Both men are being accused by the police of being members of a local gang, according to those news reports.

Immediately after the attack, Amador attempted to contact the National Protection Mechanism for Journalists, but nobody answered. Following that, he contacted Police Minister Ramon Sabillon, who responded by sending a police team to investigate.

Globo TV is based in Tegucigalpa and is owned by Radio Globo. Amador told CPJ that the attack could have been retaliation for the broadcaster's coverage of extradition proceedings against former president Juan Orlando Hernández. In February, Hernández was arrested on drug trafficking and weapons charges and may be extradited to the United States.

As a result of the article's coverage of his alleged links with drug trafficking, Amador was threatened with legal action by the former head of the national police.

Radio Globo Director David Romero was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for defaming a former prosecutor; he died of COVID in detention in July 2020.