Journalist receives death threats from mayor

**Updates IFEX alert of 1 March 2000** (IPYS/IFEX) – Lorenzo Sánchez Cabanillas, mayor of the province of Chepén and leader of the governing alliance Perú 2000, has been accused of issuing death threats against journalist Luis Villanueva Lopez. Villanueva is the director and host of the news radio programme La Voz Informativa, broadcast by Los […]

**Updates IFEX alert of 1 March 2000**

(IPYS/IFEX) – Lorenzo Sánchez Cabanillas, mayor of the province of Chepén and leader of the governing alliance Perú 2000, has been accused of issuing death threats against journalist Luis Villanueva Lopez. Villanueva is the director and host of the news radio programme La Voz Informativa, broadcast by Los Ángeles radio station.

According to a statement by the Chepén branch of the Peruvian National Association of Journalists (Asociacion Nacional de Periodistas del Perú, ANP), this incident constitutes typical “scare tactics and hindrance of journalists’ professional work”. This is particularly evident because Villanueva’s programme has revealed a series of irregularities in the management of Sánchez’s government.

The attack against Villanueva, according to a complaint he lodged with Chepén’s Joint Provincial Attorney’s Office, occurred on 26 February 2000 at 10:45 a.m. (local time) on Gonzáles Cáceda Avenue. Mayor Sánchez began to insult the journalist from his vehicle, a Toyota Corona with licence plate number BC-2360. Sánchez then got out of his vehicle and continued to verbally assault Villanueva, threatening to kill him. He went on to say that he would do everything in his power to shut down the radio programme.

According to the daily newspaper “La Republica”, Villanueva “uses his radio show to judge the mayor’s irregular management of the institution he runs, including incidents such as work which has been overvalued and the corruption of officials”. The journalist has become a harsh critic of the current municipal management, and by interviewing guards and equipment operators, he has actively participated in interventions with provincial inspectors who observed machinery owned by the district of Chepén being improperly used on lands belonging to the mayor.

In the charges filed against the mayor, the journalist also named Giovani Iturrizaga Isla, who accompanied the mayor and also threatened Villanueva. Allegedly, Iturrizaga was carrying a firearm, and the incident was witnessed by various passersby.

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Appeals To

Alberto Fujimori Fujimori

President of the Republic

Fax: +51 1 427-6722 / 426-6535

Alberto Bustamante Belaunde

President of the Council of Ministers

Fax: +51 1 447-1628 / 475-0689

Dr. Blanca Nélida Colán

Attorney General

Fax: +51 1 426 2474

Lieutenant General Fernando Dianderas Otonne

Director General of the Peruvian National Police

Fax: +51 1 225 1775

Jorge Santistevan de Noriega

Ombudsman

Fax: +51 1 426 6657

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.