(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 December 2006, journalist Miguel Ángel Palomino, of the newspaper “Diario de Chimbote”, was threatened at gunpoint by the National Police’s Chimbote Division’s Emergency Squadron chief, Captain Jorge Gonzáles Sánchez, after he took a photograph of the officer drinking alcohol with a group of other policemen in the back of the police […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 2 December 2006, journalist Miguel Ángel Palomino, of the newspaper “Diario de Chimbote”, was threatened at gunpoint by the National Police’s Chimbote Division’s Emergency Squadron chief, Captain Jorge Gonzáles Sánchez, after he took a photograph of the officer drinking alcohol with a group of other policemen in the back of the police station in the city of Chimbote, northwestern Peru.
The journalist photographed the policemen from inside a car. When the officers noticed what was going on, they chased the reporter in a patrol car. According to Palomino, the patrol car intercepted the car in which he was riding. Captain Gonzáles got out and aimed his gun at the journalist. He then snatched the journalist’s briefcase and did not return it until several hours later.
Captain Gonzáles admitted having met with a group of policemen and having chased a car from which they had been photographed, but he denied having threatened the reporter with his gun.
