(IPYS/IFEX) – On the evening of 15 March 2006, journalist Elizabeth Vargas Pacheco, director of the Democratic Association for the Defense of Human Rights (Asociación Democrática Para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, ASDEH), was kidnapped for nearly two hours after a stranger boarded, with the driver’s consent, the taxi in which she was heading […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the evening of 15 March 2006, journalist Elizabeth Vargas Pacheco, director of the Democratic Association for the Defense of Human Rights (Asociación Democrática Para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, ASDEH), was kidnapped for nearly two hours after a stranger boarded, with the driver’s consent, the taxi in which she was heading home. The man was armed; he threatened to kill her and told her that “they” knew of her work. Her money and her mobile phone were stolen.
Once she was released, Vargas got in touch with Colonel Luis Alfonso Novoa, who sent a patrol car to take her home. The journalist filed a complaint with the neighbourhood police post. So far, only the license plate and the vehicle’s owner have been identified. Vargas believes that the event was linked to threats she received in 2005, to which she had given no importance before this incident.
