Marco Antonio Estrada

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An unidentified assailant fired four shots at Estrada, a local correspondent for the national television station Tele Diario, as he was getting off his motorcycle on a street in Chiquimula, 140 miles (225 kilometers) east of Guatemala City, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews.

Witnesses quoted in the local press said the gunman fled in a car that was parked at the scene of the crime. Amílcar Rodas Ruano, a reporter for Tele Diario, told CPJ that Estrada’s cell phone had been taken in the 8 p.m. attack.

Estrada, 39, covered general assignments, which included stories on organized crime and drug trafficking. He had worked for more than 20 years as a journalist, local reporters told CPJ, covering Chiquimula for about half that time. His wife told local reporters that she did not know of any threats against him.