(IPYS/IFEX) – On the night of 5 August 2003, an explosive device was lobbed into the parking lot of Televisora Regional del Táchira (TRT) station, in the city of San Cristóbal, Táchira state, southwestern Venezuela. Thus far, the assailant has not been identified. The incident occurred at approximately 10:20 p.m. (local time). According to the […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the night of 5 August 2003, an explosive device was lobbed into the parking lot of Televisora Regional del Táchira (TRT) station, in the city of San Cristóbal, Táchira state, southwestern Venezuela. Thus far, the assailant has not been identified.
The incident occurred at approximately 10:20 p.m. (local time). According to the station’s security guards, no one was hurt, nor were there any damages to the station’s studios as a result of the explosion.
Officers of the Táchira Police’s Security and Public Order Division were the first to arrive at the scene. According to the security guards, the officers dismissed the incident as “unimportant” and allegedly destroyed some of the evidence by disturbing the scene of the crime. The police left the site before the arrival of the Criminal Investigations Unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas, CICPC).
Representatives of the CICPC and the security police (Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención, DISIP) visited the station to gather information and have begun investigating the attack.
The explosive device contained pamphlets signed by a group calling itself the Frente Urbano Bolivariano.
According to the CICPC, thus far there is no information on the identity of the man who threw the device and although no hypotheses have been discarded, they believe it is an isolated incident.
This is the second time TRT has come under attack in the last nine months. On 9 December 2002, a group of individuals burst into the station’s studios, destroyed some of its equipment and vandalised the premises. In spite of the government’s and security forces’ expressed commitment to shed light on the incident, no charges have been laid (see IFEX alert of 11 December 2002).
