(FLIP/IFEX) – Barranquilla-based “El Heraldo” newspaper photojournalist Johnny Olivares was assaulted at mid-day on 1 April 2007 while covering recent cases being dealt with by the national forensic medicine institute (Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal). Two people threw stones at him, knocking him unconscious. His camera was damaged in the incident and Olivares was rendered […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Barranquilla-based “El Heraldo” newspaper photojournalist Johnny Olivares was assaulted at mid-day on 1 April 2007 while covering recent cases being dealt with by the national forensic medicine institute (Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal). Two people threw stones at him, knocking him unconscious. His camera was damaged in the incident and Olivares was rendered unable to work for the next two weeks (see photographs of the incident at http://www.flip.org.co ).
The assailants – Pedro and Juan Acosta Velásquez – were trying to prevent Olivares from entering the forensic medicine institute, and from taking photos of them or of the body of their brother, Jean Paúl Acosta Velásquez, who had died in the early hours of the morning that day in a shootout. Their half-brother, José Nicolás Cure Velásquez, had been wounded in the same shootout.
Although Olivares had not gone to the institute to cover that particular story, it was clear that the assailants did not want him to report on it. Cure Velásquez is under investigation for the 2002 theft of 2,800 kilograms of cocaine by members of the National Police. According to local reports, this has generated various incidents involving the “settling of scores” in the last few years.
One of the assailants – Pedro Acosta Velásquez – told Olivares and some of the other journalists at the scene, “This is for being a snitch, and sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
After the incident, the assailants were turned over to the public prosecutor’s office and charged with injuring another person and damaging another’s property.
The commander of the National Police in the Atlántico region, General Álvaro Caro Meléndez, told the local media that the assailants had hit Olivares because “they weren’t interested in appearing in the press.” However, according to some of the journalists present at the scene during the assault, the assailants also threatened Olivares, alleging that they would use public authorities – specifically an Army colonel and a regional prosecutor – against the journalist.
FLIP is alarmed by the assault on Olivares and by the increase in these kinds of incidents involving private individuals. FLIP also deplores the statements made by the authorities, who virtually suggested the violence against the journalist was justifiable.
