Pedro Alonso Flores Silva had been receiving threats from unidentified persons that may have been connected to his investigations into corruption.
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 8 September 2011, Pedro Alonso Flores Silva, director of the news program “Visión Agraria”, broadcast on TV station Canal 6 in Casma, died days after he was shot in cold blood by an unknown individual. He passed away in Nuevo Chimbote, Áncash region, in northern Peru.
On 6 September, an individual intercepted Flores Silva a few meters from his home in Casma and shot him twice. One bullet penetrated his liver and colon resulting in severe wounds and a generalized infection which was the cause of death. This was confirmed by doctor Javier Vega Carrión, director of the hospital where the journalist died at 6 a.m. on 8 September.
According to statements made to the press by Flores Silva’s wife, Mercedes Cueva Abanto, the journalist had been receiving threats from unidentified persons over the last three months. She has linked these threats and her husband’s murder to accusations he had made about alleged acts of corruption in the municipality of Comandante Noel, the mayor of which, Marco Rivera, had even sued the journalist.
This is the second murder of a journalist in Peru this year and both have been carried out in the north of the country, statistically the most unsafe. In May, Julio Castillo Narvaéz was shot six times in Virú, La Libertad region.
IPYS condemns the journalist’s murder and requests that the relevant authorities ensure there is a speedy investigation so that those responsible for the attack can be identified.
