(IPYS/IFEX) – On 1 March 2005, at least three reporters were insulted and attacked by former paramilitary group members in Guatemala City. At the time of the incident, the journalists were covering a protest by former members of Guatemala’s Civil Defence Patrols (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, PAC). One of the protesters hit Ewin Silva, a […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 1 March 2005, at least three reporters were insulted and attacked by former paramilitary group members in Guatemala City. At the time of the incident, the journalists were covering a protest by former members of Guatemala’s Civil Defence Patrols (Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, PAC).
One of the protesters hit Ewin Silva, a journalist for the “Telediario” news programme, on the arm with a sheathed machete. Another protester hit him with a stick and tore his shirt. Carlos Garcia, a cameraman for the same programme, avoided being seriously injured when the box of a videotape which he had in his vest pocket acted as a shield to stop him from being stabbed with a machete. Neither Silva nor Eduardo Mendoza, the news programme’s director, were able to confirm if this was a deliberately aggressive act or just an accident. Carla Solorzano, a reporter for Radio Universidad radio station, was also struck on the arm with a stick and Adolfo Argueta, a reporter for the “Noti7” news programme, was shoved around.
The attacks started after the protesters began accusing the press of covering in greater detail the activities of another group of former paramilitaries, who are more closely linked to the current government. Before the journalists were attacked, some protesters began yelling at them, “Traitors, betrayers, you only give coverage to the others.”
A number of the ex PAC leaders finally intervened to calm the situation. After convincing the group to stop the attacks, “they apologised and asked us to understand that their people were upset after having spent so much time in the sun and without food,” Solorzano told IPYS.
Since 2002, the former PAC members have been demanding that the government pay them approximately US$625 dollars per person for “services rendered to the country”. In the 1980s, the army organised the PACs to fight left-wing guerrilla insurgents in Guatemala’s rural areas.
