Shots fired at radio station in Maracaibo

JULY 16, 2008

Posted August 27, 2008

Radio Marabina
ATTACKED

Unidentified individuals fired several gunshots at the offices of local Radio Marabina on the night of July 16 in Maracaibo, 439 miles (706 kilometers) west of Caracas, said the station’s director Sorcire Rodríguez. No one was injured.

The night guard at Radio Marabina heard gunshots outside the station’s offices around 10 p.m. and immediately called Rodríguez, she told CPJ. Rodríguez said she called regional and city police, who arrived at the scene minutes later. The building was shot at 11 times with a .40- caliber weapon, she said. Neighbors who said they saw the attack gave Radio Marabina staff two different versions of the facts that included two men aboard a black motorcycle and, alternatively, a brown sedan.

Rodríguez said she didn’t know why the radio station, which plays music and covers general news, had been attacked. 

However, according to Rodríguez, on the morning of the attack, journalist Armando Hernández, host of the political daily program “Libertad de Expresión” (Freedom of Expression), received several anonymous text messages accusing him of taking a stand in favor of the local government.

Rodríguez said authorities did not immediately take any bullet shells as evidence, but that she filed a report on the attack to national authorities.