An unidentified individual launched a fragmentation grenade at influential Honduran radio station HRN, causing an explosion that injured two people and left minor damage to the transmission plant. “I heard it fall on the roof like a rock and begin to roll. Then suddenly, there was a great roar that shook everything,” radio technician Alejandro Salgado told AFP of the late Wednesday attack.
Salgado sustained minor injuries to his back and firemen took another person who was not identified to hospital to be treated for minor injuries as well, HRN sources said. The injuries at the country’s oldest radio station, which marked its 76th anniversary on Sunday, were caused by debris that fell from the ceiling.
The attack came in the midst of a political crisis that has gripped the impoverished Central American nation for over four months since President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a June 28 coup. The M26-type hand grenade was launched around 10:30 pm (0430 UTC) from a vehicle, security ministry spokesman Orlin Cerrato said.
During the incident, which caused minor damage to the roof of the main radio transmission cabin, the station was airing the “Tegucigalpa de Noche” program featuring journalist Andres Torres and his colleague, Abilio Reyes.
Police found the grenade’s safety clip in the back of the building, which is only guarded by security guards at the front entrance that overlooks Suyapa Boulevard in the east of the capital. The telephone operator said he had received no threats and that no one had claimed the attack.
Other media outlets have come under attack during the Honduran political crisis. Three Molotov cocktails were thrown at El Heraldo newspaper, damaging windows and an office on the second floor of the two-story building. Major media outlets in Honduras have moved to identify themselves with the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, which had issued and then lifted an emergency decree that had suspended some civil liberties. The interim government shut down Radio Globo and Channel 36 television seen as close to Zelaya.
(Source: AFP)
