Two journalists and two activists have been missing for almost a day after an encounter with the Venezuelan military in a conflict zone, various sources said on Thursday.
Venezuelan journalists Luis Gonzalo Perez and Rafael Hernandez, who work for the Colombian NTN24 TV channel, and two activists from the Fundaredes non-governmental organization “have been detained and incommunicado for 20 hours,” the SNTP national press workers union wrote on Twitter.
“We don’t know where they are, how they are or which branch of the security forces has them,” it said.
Photo: AFP
NTN24 issued a statement demanding “immediate information” on its journalists’ condition and called for them to be released.
The group were in a town called La Victoria in the western Apure state on the border with Colombia.
It was the scene of clashes 10 days ago between Venezuelan military and suspected Colombian Marxist guerrillas that left nine “terrorists” and four soldiers dead, authorities said.
The journalists and activists were detained at 12:30pm on Wednesday, said the SNTP, one of Venezuela’s main press unions.
Communication with them was lost four hours later.
“They were held by the national guard ... and taken to the Guard’s control post. That’s where we lost contact,” Fundaredes director Javier Tarazona said.
“Human rights violations are continuing in Apure, this time against journalists simply for reporting on the truth of what’s happening in that area,” opposition leader Juan Guaido tweeted.
Colombian authorities have claimed the confrontation was a Venezuelan military strike against dissident Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro said that FARC dissidents could be responsible for the killing of civilians and clashes with Venezuelan armed forces in the border area.
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