(IPYS/IFEX) – A group of Peruvian journalists has reported that they have been kept under surveillance by officials of Peru’s anti-terrorism units – the national counter-terrorism directorate (Dirección Nacional Contra el Terrorismo, DINCOTE) and the terrorism directorate (Dirección de Terrorismo, DITER) – as well as special agents of the Huallaga police department, since 12 November […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – A group of Peruvian journalists has reported that they have been kept under surveillance by officials of Peru’s anti-terrorism units – the national counter-terrorism directorate (Dirección Nacional Contra el Terrorismo, DINCOTE) and the terrorism directorate (Dirección de Terrorismo, DITER) – as well as special agents of the Huallaga police department, since 12 November 2006. The journalists are Amancio del Águila, a correspondent for Panamericana Televisión, Ernesto Alvarado, of radio station Estúdio 92 de Aucayacu, and Nóbel Panduro, of Radio La Luz. According to them, the surveillance began after they broadcast an interview with “Artemio”, a spokesman for the subversive group “Sendero Luminoso”, which took place on 11 November in the district of Aucayacu, Huánuco region, in east-central Peru. The surveillance has been videotaped.
The reporters have stated that the surveillance is intended to both discourage them from reporting on the subject and to determine the whereabouts of the alleged subversives. The journalists declared that they were contacted by “Artemio” himself and were then taken to him by his lieutenants. In the tape of the interview, which was broadcast nationally, the subversive leader can be seen with around 70 armed men.
Two weeks after the video was broadcast, Interior Minister Pilar Mazzetti and the General Director of the National Police, Luis Montoya, downplayed the significance of the videotaped interview, stating that the campsite where it was taped was fictitious and had only been set up for the interview, as nothing had been found by the police when they reached the area. They therefore ruled out any new terrorist activity in the area.
Aucayacu has been for the last 20 years one of the main areas of the country’s rainforest region where a war against terrorism and drug trafficking continues to be fought.
