(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 June 2004, journalist Luis Mamani Huillca, of Radio Sicuani station, was assaulted at the offices of the Sicuani provincial municipality, in Canchis province, Cusco department. Mamani Huillca and other journalists were covering two events that were taking place at the municipality’s offices. Mamani Huillca had left one event and was on […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 June 2004, journalist Luis Mamani Huillca, of Radio Sicuani station, was assaulted at the offices of the Sicuani provincial municipality, in Canchis province, Cusco department. Mamani Huillca and other journalists were covering two events that were taking place at the municipality’s offices.
Mamani Huillca had left one event and was on his way to cover the other event taking place in the same building, when he was intercepted by four individuals who assaulted him. The journalist asked for assistance from his colleagues, who managed to stop the assault and captured one of the assailants, municipal employee Jerson Guzmán Valencia.
On 30 May, Guzmán Valencia also reportedly assaulted journalist Samuel Achahuanco Flores, although the circumstances of that incident have not been clarified.
Radio Sicuani was broadcasting live at the time that Mamani Huillca was assaulted and, as a result, about a hundred people arrived at the municipality’s offices within minutes to protest against the attack on the journalist.
In recent months, journalists in Sicuani who report on Mayor Ricardo Cornejo Sánchez’s activities have been harassed on a regular basis. They have reported receiving threatening telephone calls, their windows have been broken and broadcasting equipment belonging to several Sicuani radio stations has been stolen. The events taking place when Mamani Huillca was assaulted involved important projects that had been initiated by the mayor and, according to some media outlets, their financing has been inflated by as much as 300%.
