New day of protests in Bolivia 1:47
(CNN Spanish) -
Bolivian journalists' unions demanded this Saturday from the government guarantees for their affiliates, after the kidnapping and attacks that they denounced suffered by the workers of various media in the city of Santa Cruz by armed groups, during coverage for subjugations and land conflicts in that eastern region of the country.
According to reports from the journalists themselves, last Thursday at least 20 hooded and armed people kidnapped them and physically assaulted them together with the police and civilian entourage that accompanied them when they tried to carry out coverage in the community called Las Londras, in the Guarayos province. from the department of Santa Cruz.
All were released seven hours later.
The journalists carried out the coverage to verify the complaints of land subjugation in that region, at the invitation of the Association of Oilseed and Wheat Producers (Anapo).
Subjecting an 11-year-old girl to a forced pregnancy is `` torture '', says the UN in Bolivia
This Saturday, the Association of Journalists of Bolivia and the Association of Journalists of La Paz emphatically repudiated the fact, which they described as cowardly and a violation of human and constitutional rights, freedom of expression and of the press due to the attack on colleagues , policemen and civilians who accompanied them.
"Bolivian journalists declare ourselves in a state of emergency until the unconstitutional, unconstitutional and illegal acts of this irregular group of alleged bullies, who operate in Guarayos, are fully clarified and duly sanctioned," the statement said.
advertising
For its part, the government sent a contingent of 200 police officers to the place this Saturday, with the aim of continuing the investigation into the presence of irregular groups and any type of organization that threatens the internal security of the country, reported in its account of Twitter the Minister of Government, Carlos Eduardo del Castillo.
Bolivia's law against the legitimation of illicit profits could be used as a political vendetta, says expert
Hours earlier, the State Attorney General's Office announced an "urgent" investigation to find those responsible.
"The Public Ministry initiated criminal investigations for the alleged commission of the crimes of attempted homicide, serious and very serious injuries, illegal possession of firearms, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, qualified damage and deprivation of liberty," said the prosecutor General, Juan Lanchipa.
The event has also generated repercussions in opposition political circles, which have demanded that the government immediately clarify and punish those responsible.
This is the case of the former president and leader of the opposition Citizen Community, Carlos Mesa.
“The kidnapping and degrading treatment of journalists by armed bullies is criminal and inadmissible and must be punished immediately.
The government of the MAS (Movement to Socialism) endangers the work of the press and private property due to its inaction and inefficiency, which seem complicity ”, he affirmed through his Twitter account.