On Sunday, September 29, 2013 journalist David Castillo who works for the newspaper La Hora in Huaquillas, was threatened by unknown individuals after publishing a story on the detention of a supposed criminal in the area.
On Sunday, September 29, 2013 journalist David Castillo who works for the newspaper La Hora in Huaquillas (near the border with Peru), was threatened by unknown individuals after publishing a story on the detention of a supposed criminal in the area.
Castillo indicated that the family of the detainee warned him, and then he received three phone calls in which his life was threatened.
“At 13:10, I received the first phone call, in which someone insulted me and warned me that since I had messed with the caller’s friend, I would get a bomb at my house”, Castillo said.
At 13:14, the journalist received a second phone call in which someone warned him that they knew his whereabouts and that they would kill him. Two minutes later, he received a third phone call in which he was requested to tone down his reporting, so that he would not get in trouble.
On September 30 he received a phone call from someone who said that his colleague “Ojitos” (Little Eyes), had called him from jail to tell him that he was upset about Castillo’s publications.
Castillo said that the report he published under the title “Cayó Ojitos” (“Ojitos has fallen”), was based on police reports and on the statements of the family of people that “Ojitos” had presumably killed. His colleague, Silvio Nole was killed a year ago.
Castillo presented a report to the local authorities on September 29, but he has not yet received protection.
