(IPYS/IFEX) – On the morning of 22 April 2004, Aníbal Barreto, a photojournalist for “Correo del Caroní” newspaper, was threatened and forced to hand over some of his equipment to officers of the National Guard’s Security and Public Order Unit and Caroní’s municipal police. The incident took place while the journalist was covering the eviction […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the morning of 22 April 2004, Aníbal Barreto, a photojournalist for “Correo del Caroní” newspaper, was threatened and forced to hand over some of his equipment to officers of the National Guard’s Security and Public Order Unit and Caroní’s municipal police.
The incident took place while the journalist was covering the eviction of squatters from the Colinas de la Bahía settlement, located in Ciudad Guayana, 700 kilometres south of Caracas.
During the eviction and destruction of their shacks, the residents began a demonstration, positioning themselves at the entrance to the settlement and burning tires in the street. The National Guard shot pellets to disperse the crowd and Barreto was surrounded by National Guard officers who told him to hand over his equipment.
Barreto, who has three years experience working as a photojournalist, told IPYS that when he refused to give his camera to the officers, they forced him to hand over the diskette on which the photographs he had taken were saved. The diskette was destroyed, eliminating the evidence of the officers’ abusive actions against the residents. “I imagine that they didn’t want me to take photographs of them attacking the residents of the settlement. I took some photographs of the officers grabbing a people by the neck and throwing them to the ground. That is probably what they were worried about,” the journalist said.
The Ciudad Guayana Photojournalist’s Society (Círculo de Reporteros Gráficos de Ciudad Guayana) condemned the incident.
