(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – On 6 October 2002, early in the morning, unknown individuals tossed a Molotov cocktail at the home of journalist María Mercedes Vázquez, in the city of Corrientes. The incident occurred at around 3:00 a.m. (local time). The bomb, which was thrown from a moving vehicle, caused some material damage after exploding, but no […]
(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – On 6 October 2002, early in the morning, unknown individuals tossed a Molotov cocktail at the home of journalist María Mercedes Vázquez, in the city of Corrientes. The incident occurred at around 3:00 a.m. (local time). The bomb, which was thrown from a moving vehicle, caused some material damage after exploding, but no one was injured. Vázquez reported the incident to local police and the provincial governor ordered that the journalist be provided with a permanent police escort.
Vázquez, who works for the programme “En el Aire”, broadcast on LT7 Radio Corrientes, believes that the attack was connected to her broadcast of a recording of telephone conversations that implicate national legislators, the president of the Corrientes Supreme Court and various local
leaders in an apparent conspiracy against the current governor, Ricardo Colombi, of the Union Cívica Radical (UCR) party.
Vázquez said the “political cabal” was behind the attack, in reference to leading political figures in the province. The names of former governor Raúl Romero Feris, of the Partido Nuevo (PANU), José Rodolfo Martínez Llano, of the Justicialista Party (PJ), and Fernando Niz, president of the Corrientes Supreme Court, are mentioned in the recordings. Vázquez is also one of the organisers of several demonstrations that began after the contents of the recordings were publicised, calling for the dismissal of the mentioned legislators.
This is not the first time that Vázquez has been threatened because of her work. In February and March, she faced a call for her arrest at the request of a provincial PANU senator who had invoked an article of the Corrientes constitution that keeps on the books the offence of insult (“desacato”). Some time later, two individuals attacked Vázquez on the street, punching her in the face (see IFEX alert of 8 April 2002).
Journalists in Corrientes are concerned about the recent attacks, which have occurred under a
backdrop of increasing social and political tension. They told PERIODISTAS that some developments have caused them to fear a repetition of events similar to those that took place in late 1999. As a result of social unrest in Corrientes at that time, two individuals were killed, more than 40 were injured and 30 were arrested. Moreover, then-governor Romero Feris was replaced in an intervention by the federal government.
