(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 April 2005, Peru’s ambassador to Spain, Fernando Olivera Vega, assaulted Bettina Mendoza, a reporter with Lima’s Radio CPN station. The diplomat slammed his car door violently on the journalist’s arm, causing serious injury to the ligaments of her right arm. Video images show that the diplomat’s action was apparently intentional. Mendoza, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 April 2005, Peru’s ambassador to Spain, Fernando Olivera Vega, assaulted Bettina Mendoza, a reporter with Lima’s Radio CPN station. The diplomat slammed his car door violently on the journalist’s arm, causing serious injury to the ligaments of her right arm. Video images show that the diplomat’s action was apparently intentional.
Mendoza, along with a group of colleagues, was covering Olivera’s activities in Lima. After leaving a political meeting in one of the city’s hotels, the ambassador stopped his car in front of a private home and waited for the garage door to be opened. Mendoza then approached him intending to ask a few questions. The diplomat opened and slammed the car door violently, hitting Mendoza in the arm and body.
On leaving, Olivera declared that the journalists were invading private property and labelled the incident as an accident, saying that Mendoza had “stumbled against the door.” A few hours later, Olivera got in touch with Mendoza and offered his apologies, repeating that he had not intended to harm her. However, taped images reveal that his actions were deliberate.
Mendoza’s forearm is in a cast and she cannot move her fingers. Doctors have declared that it will take two weeks for her to recover.
