Journalist killed on Paraguay’s violent border with Brazil

ASUNCION (Reuters) – A journalist was murdered on Paraguay’s violent border with Brazil on Tuesday, the newest episode of violence in a area more and more besieged by drug trafficking and gang disputes.

Journalist Humberto Coronel was shot in entrance of the radio station the place he labored within the metropolis of Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, the area’s police chief, Ruben Paredes mentioned, lower than three months after Coronel mentioned he and his colleague had obtained loss of life threats.

Situated on Paraguay’s border with Brazil, Pedro Juan Caballero is taken into account probably the most violent metropolis in a rustic that has turn into a horny operation base for Brazilian gangs, together with the Sao Paulo-based PCC and Rio de Janeiro’s Crimson Command.

Coronel labored for Amambay, a station owned by the household of the city’s late mayor Jose Carlos Acevedo, a vocal critic of the city’s safety forces who was shot and killed in entrance of his workplace in late Could.

Authorities mentioned Coronel was shot from behind by a killer wearing black and touring on a bike. A police officer discovered 10 casings for a 9mm caliber pistol on the scene.

“We’re within the early a part of the investigation … it was a single individual in black, with a helmet,” Paredes advised reporters, including that the police guarding the radio station space had been unable to pursue the attacker as a result of they had been on foot.

(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; Enhancing by Brendan O’Boyle and Sandra Maler)