Bomb explodes outside journalist’s home

SEPTEMBER 30, 2006
Posted October 5, 2006

Elías Navarro Palomino, La República
ATTACKED

Unidentified assailants hurled a bomb in front of Navarro’s home in the southern city of Ayacucho, according to press reports. No one was hurt in the early morning attack, but a sign threatening Navarro’s children with death was found on the sidewalk.

A small charge of dynamite exploded outside Navarro’s home around 3 a.m., causing minor damage to the house next door, which shares the same street number, according to local press reports. At the spot of the explosion, Navarro found a cardboard sign stating in red letters: “Elías you dog you betrayed your people for thirty coins Judas first your children will die.”

Navarro, Ayacucho correspondent for the Lima-based daily La República and director of the local weekly Línea Roja, reported on human rights abuses, drug trafficking, and corruption in the region.

According to the local press, Navarro believed the attack was linked to series of articles on corruption in a local business association, which were published in Línea Roja in August and September. The journalist said that he had received other threats in the past.

Local and national authorities were investigating, La República reported.