(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of 23 May 2004, a group of journalists were attacked by a mob. The incident occurred in the Ilave district, Puno region, southeastern Peru. The journalists were invited to the region to attend a press conference. However, violence erupted after police took down a barricade that local residents had set […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of 23 May 2004, a group of journalists were attacked by a mob. The incident occurred in the Ilave district, Puno region, southeastern Peru. The journalists were invited to the region to attend a press conference. However, violence erupted after police took down a barricade that local residents had set up during a strike action on 21 May.
On 23 May, a few minutes after noon (local time), about 2,000 people led by an individual named Edgar Larijo arrived at the Ilave central square. Some of the demonstrators began to insult the journalists who were covering the event.
Local residents were further angered when the police began to take down a barricade blocking access to the Ilave bridge. Journalist Juan Rizo Patrón and photographer Dante Piaggio, of “El Comercio” newspaper, Elena Cano and Daniel Contreras, of “La Razón” newspaper, and Mónica Cépeda and Óscar Echevarría, of the Frecuencia Latina television station, were attacked with stones and slingshots.
The journalists fled the scene and were chased by a mob for about 3 kilometres. They managed to flee their pursuers with the help of local residents but were once again intercepted by a mob that threw stones at them. At one point Piaggio was separated from the group, but he managed to make his way to the regional capital of Puno.
