(IPYS/IFEX) – On 1 September 2004, journalist Jenny Velasco was detained by National Guard (Guardia Nacional, GN) officers, in Falcón state, western Venezuela. The journalist was covering an eviction in the Los Semerucos neighbourhood, where employees of the state petroleum company and their families live. Velasco, a correspondent in Falcón for Unión Radio Noticias and […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 1 September 2004, journalist Jenny Velasco was detained by National Guard (Guardia Nacional, GN) officers, in Falcón state, western Venezuela.
The journalist was covering an eviction in the Los Semerucos neighbourhood, where employees of the state petroleum company and their families live.
Velasco, a correspondent in Falcón for Unión Radio Noticias and the Falconia local television station, lives in the same neighbourhood. She was alerted by one of her neighbours that the GN officers were in the process of carrying out an eviction.
When Velasco arrived at the home of David Nieves, where the eviction was taking place, she identified herself as a journalist and the GN officers gave her permission to report on the event. Velasco told IPYS, however, that after she began taking photographs, a GN commander ordered the officers to detain her and confiscate her tape recorder and camera. She was reportedly accused of having breached the military security zone around Nieves’s home.
Velasco was unable to identify the officers who put her in a vehicle and took her to a GN detachment. She was detained for two hours, during which time she was able to communicate with her lawyers and the media. Velasco was then released and her equipment was returned. The officers did not damage or erase any of the photographs she had taken.
