In Honduras, gunmen kill TV station director in hail of bullets, setting off protest

Honduras: Killing of TV journalist spawns protest

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Dozens of journalists took to the streets Monday in northern Honduras to protest attacks on their colleagues after gunmen killed a television journalist in a hail of bullets — the third such slaying in two weeks.

Nahum Palacios, director of a TV station in Tocoa near the Caribbean coast, was shot to death Sunday night as he drove home and was intercepted by two other vehicles, said Leonel Sauceda, a spokesman for the federal police.

It was unclear whether the killing of the 36-year-old was related to his work as a journalist.

The car in which Palacios traveled was pocked with 42 bullet holes. A woman also in the vehicle was treated at a hospital and a cameraman was unharmed.

The protest took place in San Pedro Sula, a northern industrial city plagued by organized crime and youth-gang violence. Journalists demanded justice for dead colleagues and a halt to violence.

On Thursday, a 51-year-old radio journalist was ambushed and killed in the nearby northern city of La Ceiba. David Meza, whose career spanned three decades, was shot as he arrived home in his car.

Joseph Ochoa, of the Canal 51 television station in the capital of Tegucigalpa, was killed earlier this month in an attack on another journalist, Karol Cabrera, who was wounded. A previous attack on Cabrera in December killed her pregnant 16-year-old daughter.

Police investigations have not solved the three killings.