(IPYS/IFEX) – On 18 September 2006, journalist Raúl Vento García informed IPYS that he and his family have been receiving threatening telephone calls and e-mail messages since the beginning of September, warning him that they would be assaulted, without explaining the motives. In August 2000, legal proceedings were initiated against Vento García for alleged extortion. […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 18 September 2006, journalist Raúl Vento García informed IPYS that he and his family have been receiving threatening telephone calls and e-mail messages since the beginning of September, warning him that they would be assaulted, without explaining the motives.
In August 2000, legal proceedings were initiated against Vento García for alleged extortion. According to a complaint filed by Óscar Benavides Majino, former mayor of the Ate Vitarte district in the capital, Lima, the journalist was attempting to blackmail him, threatening to investigate Benavides Majino’s administration of the district. Benavides Majino presented two videos in court in which he and the journalist appear together, which the former mayor claims reveal the extortion. Vento García insists that during the meeting taped, they were discussing the complaints he had published in his newspaper, “Cono Este”, about administrative irregularities in the Ate Vitarte municipal government. The journalist says that the videos do not demonstrate that he committed the crime of which he is accused, and that he believes the meeting was part of a premeditated attempt to frame him.
In February 2006 Vento García was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison by the Second Criminal Court of Cono Este, Lima (Segundo Juzgado Penal del Cono Este de Lima), and was jailed. However, in May the First Superior Court (Primera Sala Superior de Reos Libres) of Lima ordered his release, stating that the evidence had not been appropriately evaluated.
Vento García is not certain about the motives for the recent threats against him and his family, but believes they may be related to either the legal proceedings against him or other investigative journalism he is currently carrying out. He has filed a complaint about the threats with the district police.
