The journalist Alfonso Lessa presented a complaint in the Ministry of Interior after being chased by a car on the highway, an event that occurred on August 19, when he was going to publish the following week a report on his channel 4 program about the case of Saul Feldmanreported MVD News and confirmed the journalist in statements to Underlined.
The journalist explained that on August 19 he was going east along the interbalnearia route when, as he passed the second toll booth in Solís around hour 22, a car, traveling at high speed, pulled up next to him. He moved to let him pass, but the car pulled up behind him and he turned off the lights. so they toured “several kilometers” at more than 145 kilometers per hour, detailed the journalist. “We entered a very complicated state. The only thing that interested me was not to lose control of the car. Sometimes I lost track of whether he was behind me and every once in a while he turned on the lights”, he narrated. Upon reaching a more illuminated area, the journalist noticed that the car had already stopped following him.
?INVESTIGATION? The Inter-American Press Association issued a resolution calling on the Ministry of the Interior and the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the threats against journalist Alfonso Lessa, reported @MVDNews
– Eduardo Preve (@EPreve) November 3, 2022
The next day, the journalist made the complaints to the Ministry of the Interior and was contacted by the Intelligence Secretariat. Currently, according to the journalist, the investigation is paralyzed because the toll workers refused to give the images of the cars that passed through there that day. The journalist commented that he does not know if the car was following him or if he joined a side road.
“It left us a bit shocked. I can not believe it. It is a disturbing fact. It was like living a horror movie. Today I would not like to drive on a highway at night. For a few days I took precautions,” he assured. It leaves me shocked even from an institutional point of view and indignant because not only my life was put at risk but also that of my wife”.
Lessa was investigating the case of Saúl Feldman, a man who died in a shootout with police in Shangrilá in October 2009 and in whose house more than 1,000 weapons were found. In addition, Lessa was trying to establish a connection between that event and the murder of Miriam Mazzeo, which occurred that same month, as a result of a bomb explosion. A blueprint for a bomb similar to the one that killed her had been found at Feldman’s house. “I began to realize that there were inconsistencies and information that had not been taken into account.” That report was broadcast the following week on the program Another lookwhich leads on channel 4.
The IAPA complaint
The complaint has already been received by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). “If this complaint is confirmed, which I understand is being investigated by the Justice, it would be an extremely serious event and could affect, if the authors are not identified and convicted, it could be much more serious than until this moment we have in the complaint”, said his President, Carlos Jornet, a MVD News.
In addition, the agency issued a resolution that states the following: “Considering the complaint filed by the journalist Alfonso Lessa about threats received and even an attempt to cause a car accident as at least a type of direct warning, unusual in the country, considering that the journalist filed a complaint with the Ministry of the Interior and reported the incidents to the Attorney General’s Office, the 78th IAPA General Assembly resolves: To request the Ministry of the Interior and the Attorney General’s Office to speed up the corresponding investigations, and to provide all the measures necessary to guarantee the safety of the journalist.”
