September 1, 2024, 6:12 PM
September 1, 2024, 6:12 PM
Two television crews were held for two days by attackers and community members who resisted a police action deployed for the recovery of a private property, in the Caranda communityin the municipality of Bella Vista, in the department of Santa Cruz, according to sources from the Monitoring Unit of the National Press Association (ANP).
He journalist Joel Orellana and host Miguel Ángel Rivero of the private television network Unitel; Journalist Fabricio Escalante and the driver of the mobile unit Mauricio Sandóval, of the Red Uno, were affected.
The press officers entered a rural area in the early hours of Monday, August 26, to cover the news of the police intervention in a house that served as the office of the accused of the seizure of agricultural land.
The Caranda community, where the police actions took place, is located about 100 kilometers north of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, between the municipalities of Buena Vista and Portachuelo.
The community members reacted by calling for a concentration of people; they also set off fireworksthen They knocked down trees on the dirt road and organized a vigil, which prevented the police, journalists and four officials from the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) from returning to the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Contradictions of authorities on the fact
The Vice Minister of Internal Affairs, Jhonny Aguilera, had indicated last Tuesday, that the Overwhelming crowds prevented police, journalists and other people from that were in the placer will return to the capital of Santa Cruzafter the private property in Caranda was seized.
However, in later statements, the departmental commander of the Police, Erick Holguín, contradicted him and said: “Any other comment regarding a “The alleged ambush or some kind of siege that the same (overwhelmers) had carried out has been completely ruled out.”
The disempowerment
Last Monday, August 26, more than 200 police officers arrived in the area with the court order to recover (dispossession) of 33 occupied hectares, of a total of 128 hectares, which correspond to the agricultural property “Causal de Caranda”.
The lockdown was extended for the remainder of Monday and Tuesday, August 27. During that time, the journalists approached the camp set up by the police to seek protection. To eat, they had to prepare their food with ingredients bought in a local store, they told ANP.
For two nights they slept in the rented vehicleswhich were used for their transportation; during that time they endured temperatures that dropped to 14°C in the early morning.
“We were intimidated into not recording images of the moment when the INRA officials were prevented from leaving. “They accused us of giving bad information,” Joel Orellana told the ANP Monitoring Unit.
Due to the blockade, On Tuesday afternoon a Bolivian Air Force (FAB) helicopter came to the community to leave supplies for the police contingent. In the early hours of Wednesday 28th, when the security on the road disappeared, the two press teams managed to leave the place and return to the capital.
The action of the attackers brings to mind the kidnapping and torture of six journalists recorded On October 28, 2021, at the Las Londras agricultural propertyin the Guarayos province of the department of Santa Cruz, and which remains unpunished.
