This summer we reported on several cases of violence and threats of violence in Cabanas, including the murder of Marcelo Rivera and subsequent attacks on the Radio Victoria in Sesuntepeque, and its employees.
This morning we received an email from our friends at the Radio Victoria reporting that they have received more threats of violence. One of their correspondents who has been an outspoken critic of Pacific Rim Mining and local government leaders, awoke this morning to find a death threat on his door. The note warns that those who committed the acts of violence this summer are still around, and that the radio better stop speaking out against the mayor’s office and representatives from the national assembly, or they will kill again. The note also states that they have received “orders from above”.
Since July, the number of threats and cases of violence has decreased, though they have not stopped altogether. One young woman who works at the Radio and was friends with Marcelo Rivera and Jose Beltran, who has received death threats for his speaking out against Marcelo’s murder, has received threatening phone calls and been followed by men who have been spotted loitering outside her house at night.
Members of the Radio ask that members of the international community denounce these threats by writing an email to the office of Attorney General Romeo Barahona (prensa@fgr.gob.sv).
Voices on the Border 