(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 March 2005, José Antonio Simons Cappa, director of “El Huinsho” magazine, was assaulted and threatened by municipal officials in Alto Amazonas province, Loreto region, after he videotaped an informal meeting between the officials and a provincial public prosecutor. The incident took place in the main square of the city of Yurimaguas, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 March 2005, José Antonio Simons Cappa, director of “El Huinsho” magazine, was assaulted and threatened by municipal officials in Alto Amazonas province, Loreto region, after he videotaped an informal meeting between the officials and a provincial public prosecutor. The incident took place in the main square of the city of Yurimaguas, capital of Alto Amazonas, in northeastern Peru.
At about 10:00 p.m. (local time), Simons attempted to videotape Alto Amazonas’s mayor, Leonardo Inga Vásquez, as he was meeting in the square with Municipal Manager Rolando Pinedo, Councillor Fernando Fernández Rengifo and the provincial public prosecutor, Jorge Guzmán Sánchez. The meeting attracted the journalist’s attention because several complaints have been launched against Inga Vásquez’s administration. The complaints against Inga Vásquez are being investigated by Guzmán Sánchez, the province’s only public prosecutor.
Simons was able to tape part of the meeting, until the mayor noticed and attempted to stop him. He tried to escape, but was intercepted by Pinedo and Fernández Rengifo, who were on a motorbike. The two officials assaulted Simons, threatened him and seized his equipment. An hour later the journalist went back to the main square and demanded that his attackers return his camera. They gave it back to him, but kept the videotape.
The mayor maintains that he never attacked Simons, but rather that the journalist insulted him.
On 3 March, Simons asked the Alto Amazonas Subprefecture for protection because he was concerned about the threats he had received. He also said he would file a complaint against the officials for violation of press freedom rights.
