(IPYS/IFEX) – On 8 July 2003, the security police (Dirección General de los Servicios de Inteligenica y Prevención, DISIP) attempted to arrest journalist Ibéyise Pacheco, director of “Así es la Noticia” newspaper and a columnist for “El Nacional” newspaper. Commissioner Miguel Rodríguez Torres, DISIP director, was responding to a 3 July order to locate and […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 8 July 2003, the security police (Dirección General de los Servicios de Inteligenica y Prevención, DISIP) attempted to arrest journalist Ibéyise Pacheco, director of “Así es la Noticia” newspaper and a columnist for “El Nacional” newspaper. Commissioner Miguel Rodríguez Torres, DISIP director, was responding to a 3 July order to locate and bring the journalist to court, issued by Judge Cristina Pérez of the Caracas 21st Tribunal.
Pérez requested that Pacheco appear before the court in order to respond to a defamation suit filed against her by Colonel Ángel Vellorí in March 2002. Vellorí accused Pacheco of having published “lies” about him in her column “En Privado”, which is published on a weekly basis in “El Nacional”.
Pacheco informed the media that she was being pursued for “political reasons.” “If they want to put me in prison, here I am, I am not hiding,” she said. She explained that the legal time frame for action on the complaint launched by Vellorí expired two months before the attempt to detain her. She added that, although the case had been reactivated, she had not been called to make a statement.
Pacheco’s lawyer, Ramón José Medina, said that according to the Venezuelan Penal Code (Código Orgánico Procesal Penal, COPP), individuals can only be taken into custody when there is a risk of flight or actions which could hinder the investigation. “In this defamation case, if it goes forward, the evidence will be in what was written. As such, the investigation cannot be hindered. Risk of flight is even less of an issue since Pacheco is constantly in the public eye. This is yet another case of persecution of a journalist by the government,” Medina stated.
According to the case file, the journalist has been summoned 10 times to make a statement regarding Vellorí’s accusation, but has failed to do so. Article 410 of the COPP establishes that, if the accused fails to make a declaration, the court can order the police to locate and bring the accused to court at the request of the complainant.
Vellorí, who is also a lawyer, explained that the 21st Tribunal’s order was not an arrest warrant. “Pacheco should make a declaration before a judge because she has an outstanding complaint to which she has never responded,” he said. He further stated that, in spite of the fact that he has provided evidence to support his complaint, Pacheco has not granted him the right to respond guaranteed by Article 58 of the constitution. Vellorí said that Pacheco accused him of having forged his qualifications to obtain his lawyer’s licence.
Judge Pérez has also requested that the Caracas Public Prosecutor’s Office open an investigation into the Scientific and Criminal Investigations Unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas) and the Libertador Municipal Police for having failed to carry out previous orders to bring Pacheco before the court.
In a separate case, on 9 May 2003, Iris Varela and Pedro Carreño, members of the ruling Movimiento Quinta República party, asked the attorney general to launch an investigation after Pacheco published transcripts of a conversation that allegedly took place in the presidential palace on 17 February 2003. The transcripts were published in Pacheco’s column “Entre Líneas”, in “El Nacional”. In the conversation, government officials were reportedly planning the assassination of several opposition leaders. Pacheco has stated publicly that she has a recording of the conversation. Varela and Carreño have denied Pacheco’s allegations, saying, “We want an investigation into this campaign to discredit public officials.”
On 12 March 2002, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for precautionary measures in support of Pacheco and three other Venezuelan journalists, after she received telephone and written threats and there was an explosion outside the “Así es la Noticia” office (see IFEX alerts of 25 March and 15 February 2002).
