Gastón Medina Sotomayor, 60, the owner and news director of the independent Cadena Sur TV and radio station, was shot and killed by an unknown gunman on January 20, 2025, in the south-central city of Ica, Peru, according to Peruvian authorities.
After signing off from his morning TV program that he hosted daily, Medina was chatting with a friend outside his Ica house when an armed man on a motorcycle fired 11 pistol shots at the journalist, hitting him in the thorax, wrist, and foot. He was declared dead at an Ica hospital, Nathalie Caico, Medina’s partner and the mother of their 10-year-old son, told CPJ.
Medina often reported on government corruption and organized crime, and had previously been the target of violent attacks. In February 2022, a bullet was mailed to his office with a death threat following his reporting on allegations of cost overruns at a state-run hospital in Ica. In September 2022, an explosive device detonated outside Cadena Sur station’s premises after Medina reported on allegations of corruption by a then-governor.
An Ica police investigation found that five people spied on Medina’s house and carried out the attack. On May 16, agents arrested the alleged gunman, Pablo Javier Echevarría, a 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant. But Col. Benjamin Trigoso, the Ica police investigations chief, told CPJ it was unclear who hired the hit squad.
Ányela Salazar, the public prosecutor in charge of the Medina case, told CPJ that she believes Medina was killed in retaliation for his critical reporting and is seeking charges in connection with his death on those grounds. Among other leads, Salazar is investigating whether local government officials conspired to kill the journalist in retaliation for his reporting.