(IPYS/IFEX) – On 12 July 2004, a group of unidentified, masked individuals kidnapped camera operator Daniel Díaz and his assistant, Peter Esteban Córdoba, in the vicinity of Zulia University. The university is located in the northeastern part of Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state, in western Venezuela. Díaz and Córdoba work for the privately-owned Venevisión […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 12 July 2004, a group of unidentified, masked individuals kidnapped camera operator Daniel Díaz and his assistant, Peter Esteban Córdoba, in the vicinity of Zulia University. The university is located in the northeastern part of Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state, in western Venezuela. Díaz and Córdoba work for the privately-owned Venevisión television station and were on their way to cover a university event. They were held by their attackers for several hours and threatened.
Díaz and Córdoba were approached by their assailants in a parking lot near the university’s Humanities and Education Faculty. They were later dropped off at the Faculty of Agriculture. The van that they had been using was looted and burned.
“They aimed their guns at our heads and told us to be quiet, that nothing was going to happen to us. Then they told us they wanted our camera and that they do not want media coverage at the university. Finally, they let us go. All the equipment that we use to cover the news was left in the van,” Córdoba said.
Gustavo Enrique Velazco, a Venevisión correspondent in Zulia, told IPYS that his colleagues received death threats and were forced to hand over their camera.
According to local sources, this is not the first time that vehicles belonging to privately-owned telecommunications or electrical companies have been attacked by masked individuals at the university. For no obvious reason, the vehicles are seized, looted and later burned.
