(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of Sunday 11 March 2001, in the city of Huaquillas, Ecuador, near the Peruvian border, Ecuadorian police officers detained two journalists of the Frecuencia Latina Canal 2 television station. The journalists were carrying out an investigation into the trafficking of the so-called “Andean Cards” (“Tarjetas Andinas”). Cameraman Carlos Mego Terrones, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of Sunday 11 March 2001, in the city of Huaquillas, Ecuador, near the Peruvian border, Ecuadorian police officers detained two journalists of the Frecuencia Latina Canal 2 television station. The journalists were carrying out an investigation into the trafficking of the so-called “Andean Cards” (“Tarjetas Andinas”).
Cameraman Carlos Mego Terrones, assistant Ulises Navarro and reporter Juan Manuel Guimarey Schereiber were putting together a report on the mafia which deals in permits allowing individuals to travel from Peru to Ecuador, and vice versa, and from there to Colombia. The report was to be aired on the television station’s Dialogo programme.
When the journalists were about to complete their investigation, a member of the criminal organisation realised that a television camera was hidden in their vehicle. The mafioso called the Ecuador police on his cellular phone and subsequently the journalists were detained by police officers who also attempted to retrieve the filmed material. Guimarey managed to avoid being identified as a journalist and return to Tumbes, on the Peruvian side of the border, where he denounced his colleagues’ detention. According to Guimarey, his colleagues were taken to prison under the charge of “invading the home” of an individual known as “Juaneco”. During their investigation, the journalists spoke with this individual, who offered to sell them false identification that would allow them to enter Colombia for a price of US$200 a person. “Juaneco” severely reprimanded the journalists and even issued death threats against them.
Mego Terrones and Navarro were transferred to the Huaquillas Third Barracks, where they were detained until dawn on 12 March. At that time they were released as the result of actions taken by the Peruvian authorities. While they were held at the Ecuadorian military headquarters, the journalists were told that they were dealing with a very important mafia which is made up of both Peruvian and Ecuadorian civilians and corrupt police officers.
The information obtained by the investigative team provided evidence about this mafia organisation and led to the arrest of a number of its members, including the Ecuadorian known as “Juaneco” and Johanna Rugel Sullon. The latter is a Peruvian immigration officer, based in the Peruvian border town of Zarumilla, and was in charge of providing her “clients” with new identities and documents which permitted them to enter Ecuador. In the particular incident captured by the journalists, a Portuguese citizen, who was collaborating with the investigation, was given an Andean card and identity document by Rugel Sullon, allowing him to enter Ecuador by posing as a Peruvian citizen.
