Mexican activist slain during radio broadcast
Mexican activist slain during radio broadcast
The Associated Press
October 13, 2014 Updated 54 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY — Two gunmen walked into a radio station and killed a local activist while he was giving his weekly radio program, prosecutors in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa said. It was the first on-air killing in recent memory in Mexico.
The victim, Atilano Roman Tirado, was the leader of a group of about 800 farm families whose lands were flooded by dam construction several years ago. His group, known as the Displaced Persons of Picachos — after the name of the dam — has been demanding compensation for the land.
Roman Tirado had a weekly variety program on the local Fiesta Mexicana radio station in the Pacific coast port of Mazatlan. In past years, the movement had staged blockades and protest marches, which had resulted in some arrests.
Sinaloa state prosecutors said Sunday that two men walked into the station Saturday and asked for Roman Tirado. The station is in a building that also houses the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlan.
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Activist killed while hosting show Atilano
Román Tirado led a movement to aid families displaced by Picachos dam
Mexico News Daily | Sunday, October 12, 2014
A community activist who fought with government officials for several years on behalf of villagers in Sinaloa was killed yesterday while hosting his weekly radio program.
Atilano Román Tirado, 47, began working in 2009 on behalf of some 800 families displaced by the Picachos dam, which was officially opened in 2012. He alleged that the state had failed to honor its obligations to the villagers and became the community’s voice for seeking compensation.
One of the forms of that compensation was to be fishboats, but their delivery and the licences to operate them were slow in coming. As late as last week there were protests in the city’s tourist zone, but the protest ended Friday upon delivery of the licences.
A year ago Román Tirado accused federal and state officials of authorizing fishing licences to other individuals ahead of the 189 would-be fishermen affected by the Picachos dam, and this week charged authorities with favoring illegal fishing. Early Saturday morning some 120 fishermen whose boats had been obtained as a result of the activist’s efforts left to go fishing.
In the meantime, two armed men entered a broadcast booth at the Mazatlán radio station Fiesta Mexicana where Román Tirado was interviewing several guests for his program, called This Is My Land. He was shot three times, and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after.
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