(IPYS/IFEX) – During an 11 March 2004 press conference, Juan Carvo Iparraguirre, Junín’s regional education director, assaulted journalist Ginés Barrios Alderete and his wife, Clorinda Romero Quispe. Barrios had organised the press conference to disseminate information about a 1997 attack by Carvo against a student. At 3:30 p.m. (local time), Carvo arrived at the press […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – During an 11 March 2004 press conference, Juan Carvo Iparraguirre, Junín’s regional education director, assaulted journalist Ginés Barrios Alderete and his wife, Clorinda Romero Quispe. Barrios had organised the press conference to disseminate information about a 1997 attack by Carvo against a student.
At 3:30 p.m. (local time), Carvo arrived at the press conference where Barrios, accompanied by his wife, was showing a video in which Carvo was seen assaulting a San Ignacio de Loyola Institute student in 1997. At the time of the incident, Carvo was the director of the institute.
After the press conference, Carvo apologised and said he had acted against the journalist “in indignation.” However, Huancayo citizens and political leaders demanded his dismissal from the regional education director’s position. Carvo also admitted to having assaulted the student, Oswaldo Núñez, seven years ago, but said the student did not die, which was proven by the fact that Núñez subsequently appeared at a 16 March press conference.
The journalist and his wife sustained injuries to the face and head as a result of the attack. On 15 March, Barrios filed a complaint with the Huancayo Fourth Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. He did not mention the injuries sustained by his wife in the complaint.
In 1997, Barrios reported that he had been kidnapped and tortured. At the time, he accused Carvo, who is married to his aunt, of being behind the incident. Carvo denied the accusation and Junín’s public prosecutor eventually closed the case for lack of evidence (see IFEX alerts of 10 July and 10 April 1997).
