(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 August 1997 at 5:00 a.m. (local time), journalist Tito Pilco Mori was found injured. He was alive but unable to communicate. Six days later, without having recovered and without having named his attackers, the journalist died (see IFEX alerts). The political authority and the prosecutor’s report stated that Pilco Mori had […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 August 1997 at 5:00 a.m. (local time), journalist Tito
Pilco Mori was found injured. He was alive but unable to communicate. Six
days later, without having recovered and without having named his attackers,
the journalist died (see IFEX alerts). The political authority and the
prosecutor’s report stated that Pilco Mori had hit his head in an accident.
Pilco Mori was the owner and director of the radio program “Frecuencia
Popular” in Rioja, and he also broadcast the radio program “El Pueblo Quiere
Saber”, in which he maintained a position critical of local authorities,
particularly judges and the police.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 29 October and 5 September 1997**
During the week of 14 December 1998, IPYS was in the city of Rioja speaking
with witnesses and others familiar with the journalist’s case. The
investigation is currently under the leadership of Dr. Eduardo Macedo
Zapata, Criminal Provincial Prosecutor for Rioja, who, on 18 December,
summoned Pilco Mori’s widow, Lleny Valera Ríos, so that she could give her
statement. This had not yet been done because she had not met with Police
Officer Torres Cabrera. Prosecutor Macedo said that he could not take her
statement while the police remained in charge of the investigation. Part of
the police investigation which the prosecutor is working on is currently
under the auspices of the National Police.
Macedo had said that as of June or July 1998 he would take charge of the
investigation and that he had already started working on various statements,
and that those of Pilco Mori’s mother and wife were outstanding. The excuse
offered by the prosecutor and members of the police was that, as President
Alberto Fujimori had come to Rioja, the police were unable to meet with her.
The prosecutor was approached by a police officer who told him that, as the
President had arrived, as well as a Colonel of the Moyobamba Front, all
security activities were terminated and they had to move to Moyobamba for a
meeting, which is why he had to postpone until 19 December 1998. On 19
December, he took the statements of Mrs. Selfia Mori and Lleny Valera, who
provided names of new witnesses. Due to these new developments, Dr. Macedo
said he would turn the case over to the Superior Public Prosecutor’s office
in Moyobamba, which would put it under the control of Prosecutor Rubén
Tejada Villacorta, who is to continue the investigation at a more in-depth
level and get statements from the new witnesses.
