Paraguayan journalist shot to death along Brazil border
Gerardo Servian worked for a local radio station near the city of Pedro Juan Caballero.
ASUNCION, Paraguay: (AP) - A Paraguayan radio journalist has been shot to death in a Brazilian city bordering a crime-ridden area that is a hotbed for drugs and arms smuggling, officials said on Friday.
Gerardo Servian worked for a local radio station near the city of Pedro Juan Caballero. The 45-year-old was killed Thursday in the Brazilian city of Ponta Pora when he was shot nine times on a street by unidentified gunmen who escaped in a motorcycle, said police chief Walter Vazquez.
The victim s brother Francisco said Servian had never received death threats, and that he had recently moved to Ponta Pora because his daughters attend a school in the Brazilian city. But "in this area of the country it s normal to silence journalists with gunshots," added the brother, who is also a journalist.
Four other journalists have been killed since the start of last year while working along the porous and crime-ridden northern border with Brazil.
"The security situation in the country s northern area bordering Brazil is like something out of fiction. The state is weak. Drug dealers and other criminals set the pace throughout more than 370 miles (600 kilometers) of a lawless border," said Paraguayan political analyst Ignacio Martinez.
In a statement, Paraguay s press union said Friday that "this new assault on the life of a press worker shows the urgent need to end the impunity."
Anti-drug chief Luis Rojas has estimated more than 100 gangs, made up of Paraguayan and Brazilian drug dealers, operate in Paraguay s northern region.
