José Altuve was assaulted by police while taking photographs of a student rally in Venezuela's capital.
(IPYS-Venezuela/IFEX) – On 5 July 2011, José Altuve, a photojournalist for the Caracas mayor’s office, was assaulted by intelligence officers who detained him and deleted the photographs he had taken during a students’ rally in Venezuela’s capital.
Altuve was covering the negotiations between a student leader and the police, who wanted the students to end their demonstration in support of their detained relatives’ hunger strike.
The photographer told IPYS that an unidentified person got out of a car and forcefully tried to take his camera. Altuve was then pushed to the ground, had a hood put over his head and taken to two different bases of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), where some of the demonstrating students had also been taken.
The police officers deleted Altuve’s photographs before they released him. He was never told why he was detained.
