Rolando Santiz

Rolando Ardani Santiz de León was a Guatemalan television journalist who was murdered in Guatemala City on April 1, 2009.

Career Santiz worked as a reporter for more than 30 years and, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “was well-known in Guatemala.” During the last 15 years of his life he covered “the police beat.” At the time of his death, he was a reporter for the news program “Telecentro Trece” on the national television station Telecentro 13, on which he often covered graphic crime stories.

Santiz was also a volunteer firefighter.

Murder Santiz and his cameraman, Juan Antonio de León Villatoro, were driving in a company-owned vehicle at around 5:10 pm on April 1, 2009. They had just been covering the murder of a suburban bus driver in Alameda IV colony, Zone 18, and were heading back to their workplace in Guatemala City when two people riding motorcycles shot at them repeatedly. The assault took place at 4th Avenue and 20th Street in Zone 1 of the capital city. Santiz was struck four times and killed; de León Villatoro was struck three times and wounded. De León was taken to the Hospital General San Juan de Dios, where he was reported as being in stable condition. He was put into protective custody. In January 2010, the CPJ also reported that the motive for the murder still remained “unconfirmed.”

2009 was Guatemala's most violent year in recent history, with 6,451 homicide victims, including several journalists. “After Rolando Santiz was assassinated, attacks against journalists have increased,” Raúl Morales, a journalist with Radio Sonora, said in April 2010. “When I leave my house, I look all around to be sure there is no one around me.” Gonzalo Marroquín, vice president of the Inter-American Press Association and director of the Guatemalan daily newspaper Prensa Libre, said that the situation had become so dangerous that journalism in Guatemala was on the way to extinction.