(IPYS/IFEX) – On the morning of 18 October 2004, journalists Beatriz Jiménez Tejero and Luz Marina Herrera were forced to flee from El Estrecho, capital of Putumayo district, Loreto region. Under heavy police protection, the journalists were evacuated in a Peruvian Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Peruana) plane after being threatened and surrounded by a group […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the morning of 18 October 2004, journalists Beatriz Jiménez Tejero and Luz Marina Herrera were forced to flee from El Estrecho, capital of Putumayo district, Loreto region. Under heavy police protection, the journalists were evacuated in a Peruvian Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Peruana) plane after being threatened and surrounded by a group of individuals who were seeking to remove the local mayor from office.
On 17 October, Jiménez Tejero, a Spanish journalist and special correspondent for the Iquitos-based Radio La Voz de la Selva station, and Marina Herrera, of the daily “La Región”, had travelled from Iquitos to El Estrecho to report on a recall process for municipal mayors that was being carried out throughout the country. The recall process offers an opportunity for citizens to eject public officials from office who are not meeting their mandate. The journalists were received in a hostile manner by about 800 people who were in favour of Mayor Víctor Raúl Reátegui Paredes’s dismissal.
While the journalists were reporting live from the town square, the mob accused them of working for media outlets that had “sold out” to Reátegui Paredes and threatened to assault them if they failed to leave El Estrecho within 24 hours.
“The environment was very tense and they demanded that we leave. We had to ask the Peruvian National Police for protection,” Jiménez Tejero told IPYS.
The journalists were forced to hide in a local government office until 8:30 p.m. (local time). After learning that the recall process had resulted in the mayor being confirmed in his post, the journalists were accompanied by soldiers to a bank building, where they spent the night. They were evacuated to Iquitos early on the morning of 18 October.
