(IPYS/IFEX) – On 13 May 2003, journalist Roberto Giusti filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office denouncing the attack he suffered on 2 May and death threats he has been receiving since that day. On 2 May, the journalist was confronted by a group of individuals when he arrived at the Radio Caracas Radio […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 13 May 2003, journalist Roberto Giusti filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office denouncing the attack he suffered on 2 May and death threats he has been receiving since that day.
On 2 May, the journalist was confronted by a group of individuals when he arrived at the Radio Caracas Radio (RCR) studio. Giusti hosts the station’s “Golpe a golpe” programme. A group of about 10 people was at the building entrance and began shouting offensive slogans at the journalist, calling him “murderer.” The demonstrators punched and kicked the studio’s door and sprayed graffiti on the building’s walls and Giusti’s car.
Giusti told IPYS that the legal representatives of media outlets RCR and the daily “El Universal”, his employers, authored a formal complaint that he presented to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In the document, Giusti calls for the launch of an investigation into the incident and possible links to his reports on the presence of Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela and the creation of the so-called Bolivarian Liberation Forces (Fuerzas Bolivarianas de Liberación), which operate on the Colombia-Venezuela border. Jorge Nieves, a former regional leader of the Patria Para Todos (PPT) party, which supports President Hugo Chávez’s government, may have been involved in the creation of the group. Nieves was recently assassinated.
The journalist also informed the Public Prosecutor’s Office that he has been receiving death threats. He does not know who might be behind the threats.
