Journalist kidnapped and forced to abandon his work

(IPYS/IFEX) – In Aucayacu, a district of Leoncio Prado province in the department of Huánuco, journalist José Luis Bardales, director of the biweekly “Quincenario Matutino” and director of the Matutino news programme, broadcast over Radio Panamericana, has been forced to leave the district and abandon his journalism work since the end of October, after being […]

(IPYS/IFEX) – In Aucayacu, a district of Leoncio Prado province in the
department of Huánuco, journalist José Luis Bardales, director of the
biweekly “Quincenario Matutino” and director of the Matutino news programme,
broadcast over Radio Panamericana, has been forced to leave the district and
abandon his journalism work since the end of October, after being kidnapped
for several hours. His kidnappers’ purpose was to put pressure on him to
leave the region.

After a little more than a month in hiding, he granted IPYS a personal
interview. He told IPYS that on 27 October 1998, at around 10:30 a.m. (local
time), as he was on his way to school, he was stopped by a car bearing no
licence plates. The four men inside the car invited him to entertain a party
in Pucayacu, a nearby district. They said they had been told of his quality
as a professional. Bardales, who could not identify the men, declined the
invitation, claiming he had a previous engagement. The strangers then told
him to get in the car, since nothing would happen to him if he did not
resist. They threatened to injure him on the spot if he refused. He got in
the car and was driven to the jungle, some forty five minutes drive from the
city, via a side road. Having arrived and being sure they would not be seen,
they explained to him why he had actually been stopped.

The kidnappers told him that they had been hired to inform him that he had
twenty four hours to leave Aucayacu, and threatened to kill him otherwise.
They discouraged him from getting into any greater trouble by trying to find
out who had given the order, and also said they did not want to kill him at
that moment, but would if he disregarded the deadline.

After that dramatic incident, Bardales was abandoned by the side of the
road, with a few coins to pay for his ticket back to the city. After
arriving in the city, he left quickly, telling no one. He went to the
capital, where IPYS, after a difficult search, was able to talk to him
directly. The journalist is afraid of reprisals, and asked that his case
only be covered outside Peru. He believes he could benefit from
international support.

Bardales stated that he did not know who was behind this harassment. It was
possibly someone involved in his investigation of the company RAF
Contratistas Generales, where he had exposed management irregularities and
contract abuses against workers. Another investigation which could form the
basis of the threats involves workers from the Aucayacu clinic who own
drugstores, where they allegedly sell medicines stolen from the clinic.

Finally, despite having recognised one of his kidnappers as a hired assassin
with the gang of a drug dealer known as “el champa”, he ruled out any
possibility that his kidnappers could be drug dealers or terrorists, since
that modus operandi is unusual for them. Rather, he pointed out that the
recent reduction in drug smuggling operations had led to unemployment for
many assassins, who could now be hired for private acts of harassment and
hired assassinations.

Recommended Action

Sr. Elmer Puyo Fasanando

Aucayacu Governor

Capitán EP Carlos Corsa Barrera

Chief of the Antisubversion base of Aucayacu
Capitán PNP Jorge del Río Pajuelo

Chief of the Aucayacu Police Station
Dr. Armando Césare Guerra

Mayor of Aucayacu district
Dr. Ruperto Culca Rabanal

Provincial Attorney of Leoncio Prado
Send all appeals to the following fax number: +511 64 488 062