Native Indian broadcaster shot at in southern Mexico

An Amuzgo Indian woman who works as a broadcaster for Radio y Television de Guerrero (RTG) in the southern Mexican city of Ometepec was attacked by gunmen and wounded, state officials said.

Marcela de Jesus Natalia, who was shot as she left the RTG offices on Saturday, was in serious condition, Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez Heredia said, Efe reported.

Two gunmen shot the broadcaster and then fled in a white automobile with tinted windows, eyewitnesses said.

The 54-year-old Natalia, who was shot in the head, was initially taken to the General Hospital in Ometepec and later flown to the Pacific port city of Acapulco.

Doctors decided not to operate "since the bullet did not affect any of the vital parts of the brain and she is expected to recover", Alvarez Heredia said.

"However, she is listed in serious condition," the state security official said.

The Guerrero Attorney General's Office was investigating the shooting and has notified other agencies involved in protecting journalists.

The National Human Rights Commission said in a statement that it asked Guerrero's government to protect the broadcaster and her relatives, and it called for a thorough investigation of the shooting.

The hit on Natalia took place in the wake of meetings held by Guerrero's government in Acapulco and Chilpancingo to unveil new protocols for protecting journalists.

Natalia, a former head of the Integrated Family Development System in her hometown of Xochistlahuaca, has been employed by RTG-Ometepec for 15 years, working on radio programmes in the Amuzgo language.

--IANS

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