Zelaya, 56, a reporter for Radio Internacional, was found
shot to death along a rural road near the northern city of
He had been shot twice in the head and once in the chest.
Zelaya was last seen earlier that day at a local gas
station, where he was talking with a man in a taxi, the daily Tiempo reported. He had not
mentioned receiving recent threats, but his home had been damaged in a fire of
undetermined origin three months earlier, according to Radio Internacional
colleagues. Zelaya reported on a range of local topics, including politics and
crime, his colleagues told CPJ.
Honduran authorities did not immediately disclose possible
motives or suspects. Zelaya’s murder was part of a rash of journalist killings
in
In July 2010, CPJ published a special
report that found a pattern of botched and negligent investigative
work in the killings.