Nicanor, radio host and owner of Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe, based in the
city of Limoeiro do Norte, in the northeastern state of Ceará, was
killed by at least two unidentified gunmen at around 8 p.m. while he
was recording his daily show “Encontro Político” (Political Encounter)
at his station’s studios.
According to the daily Diário do Nordeste, which is
based in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará State, a sound operator who
witnessed the murder said the gunmen came into the studio, shot Nicanor
several times at close range, and fled on a motorcycle. Nicanor was
taken to Limoeiro do Norte’s public hospital and pronounced dead on
arrival.
The Fortaleza daily O Povo reported that “Encontro
Político,” broadcast on weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., was one of
the most popular radio shows in the region. According to O Povo,
Nicanor was considered a controversial journalist whose hard-hitting
commentaries had angered many local politicians and public officials.
Ceará State parliamentary deputy Paulo Duarte was quoted in Diário do Nordeste
as saying that he had heard about a plot to kill Nicanor, and that the
journalist had received threats. According to Duarte, Nicanor had
scheduled a July 1 meeting with him and another state government
official to discuss his safety.
Several members of Nicanor’s family who gave testimony to the police believe that he was killed for his journalism, O Povo reported. Prior to his death, the journalist had actively supported a mayoral campaign on
his show and fiercely criticized rival candidate Maria Arivan de Holanda Lucena
on a daily basis.
In
October 2003, prosecutors accused Arivan and her husband, federal judge José
María de Oliveira Lucena, of hiring the two hit men who gunned down
Linhares. In May 2004, at the request of federal prosecutors, a judge
from the Brasília-based Superior Tribunal of Justice, the nation’s second
highest court, indicted the couple. Lucena was formally charged on March 20,
2008, by the Superior Tribunal of Justice, which has the power to try judges,
according to local news reports. Arivan asked to be tried with her husband, but
in December 2008, the tribunal ruled that she should be tried before a trial
court, said local news reports. No trial dates were immediately set.