On 22 May 1996, police came to the home of Adolfo Fasanando, Panamericana Television’s correspondent in the city of Tarapoto, department of Huanuco, to summon him to the police station. Waiting were Colonel Nestor Via, regional head of police operations (Jefe del Frente Policial) for the province of San Martin, department of Huanuco, and provincial […]
On 22 May 1996, police came to the home of Adolfo Fasanando,
Panamericana Television’s correspondent in the city of Tarapoto,
department of Huanuco, to summon him to the police station.
Waiting were Colonel Nestor Via, regional head of police
operations (Jefe del Frente Policial) for the province of San
Martin, department of Huanuco, and provincial prosecutor Dr. Juan
Jose Reyes Gutierrez (the Fiscal Titular Provincial). Without any
notice, they asked Fasanando to make a formal statement and both
pressed him to reveal a source he interviewed on 21 May. Fasanando
refused.
On 20 May, Panamericana Television reported on a raid in which
police seized 442 kilos of drugs in the outskirts of Tarapoto,
located in the Huallaga Valley, the heart of Peru’s drug industry.
On 21 May, Fasanando interviewed an alleged drug trafficker who
claimed the contraband seized was his. The source, however, said
police had seized 1,250 kilos (not 442 as police had reported),
and confiscated US$ 32,000.
Since his encounter with police, Fasanando reports a veiled but
constant harassment. He says unidentified individuals constantly
walk by his home and the television network’s offices, filming.
Again, on 28 May when General Ketin Vidal, Director General of
Peru’s National Police, and intelligence agents arrived in
Tarapoto to investigate the seizure, police officers sought
Fasanando out at his office to politely ask him to collaborate
with them and reveal his source. Police claimed they had the drug
trafficker in custody and needed the journalist’s information to
identify him. Police also contacted Panamericana’s Television’s
Channel 5 in Lima to ask for copies and a retraction of the
allegations in the story.
Fasanando, who is IPYS’s correspondent in the region and organized
IPYS’s seminar on the press and the drug trade, also told IPYS
that on 29 May he received a written summons from Major Guillermo
Zegarra Cardenas asking that he appear before Tarapoto’s anti-drug
command (Direccion de Antidrogas de Tarapoto) to answer to charges
of obstructing justice (“delito contra la administracion de
justicia”). Authorities again asked the journalist for a statement
detailing his notes on the story, and Fasanando says police have
told him that if he does not reveal the identity of his source, he
will be implicated in the trial.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities below:
Appeals To
Ing. Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President
Palacio de Gobierno
Plaza de Armas
Lima 1, Peru
Fax: +511 4266770 (or +511 4266535 via presidential press office)
General E.P. Juan Briones Davila
Minister of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior
Lima 1, Peru
Fax: +511 4752441
Ketin Vidal
Director General of the National Police
Fax: +511 4752388/4752441
Colonel Nestor Bia Angulo
Jefe del Frente Policial (regional head of police operations)
San Martin, Huanuco
Fax:+519 4524436
Sr. Paco Rivero
Panamericana Television
Fax: +511 4334787
