(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 16 August 2006, María Teresa López Lima, a journalist for “Prensa Libre” newspaper, published in the city of Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez department, was threatened by former army captain Marvin Estuardo Mena Pons, brother-in-law of the city’s mayor, César Antonio Siliézar Portillo. That day, the captain’s wife, Ana Petrona Eugenia Rivera Vega, summoned […]
(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 16 August 2006, María Teresa López Lima, a journalist for “Prensa Libre” newspaper, published in the city of Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepéquez department, was threatened by former army captain Marvin Estuardo Mena Pons, brother-in-law of the city’s mayor, César Antonio Siliézar Portillo.
That day, the captain’s wife, Ana Petrona Eugenia Rivera Vega, summoned the journalist to Police Station 74 (Comisaría 74 de la Policía Nacional Civil), where she showed the journalist a file marked “don’t touch, Cap. Mena”, containing a photograph of the journalist, basic personal information about her, and a list of calls and telephone numbers, including that of her mother.
Rivera, who identified herself as Mena’s wife, told López Lima in the presence of police officers, that her husband was investigating the journalist in order to intimidate her and harm her physically, on Siliézar Portillo’s orders, because she has reported on community dissatisfaction with the way the city is being run.
Three hours later, López Lima reported the incident on “Noticiero Central de Antigua”, a radio news programme she hosts, saying the captain should be held responsible for any attack on her and her family.
During the programme, she received a call from Mena, who demanded that she “stop telling lies”; five minutes later, Mena aggressively burst into the radio station’s broadcasting booth, insulting the journalist, who then handed the microphone to him and asked him to discuss the list of people, which she had at hand. He became nervous, and mumbled something inaudible.
López Lima’s complaint was backed up by Óscar Enrique Flores Sosa, director of “La Voz de Antigua” bi-weekly newspaper, as well as José Antonio Palomo Cajas and Carlos Roberto Mérida Reynoso, two of its columnists, who have also been threatened, by telephone and Internet, for reporting on the mayor’s corruption and misconduct.
The journalists told CERIGUA that Mena worked in the army’s intelligence department, and therefore has the logistical means to harm them; he also worked in Antigua Guatemala’s Heavy Transit Department and now owns a company, Servicios Integrados, which runs the transit police and the city’s market square.
