Journalists Face Escalation of Violence

CARACAS, Jan 21 (IPS) -- With chilling calm, the killer dismounted from the motorbike, pulled out his gun and shot Ores Sambrano through the head as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The journalist was on his way to a video store on a busy avenue in Valencia, an industrial town 100 kilometers west of the Venezuelan capital.

Sambrano, 63, was a lawyer as well as a journalist. He was the editor of the political weekly ABC, a columnist for the newspaper Notitarde and vice president of the radio station Radio América, all of them based in Valencia, and was known for investigative reporting on drug trafficking and corruption networks.

He was murdered on Jan. 16, the same day that a Commission for the Protection of Journalists (CONAPRO) was formed in Caracas, made up of the Press Workers' Union (SNTP), the National Association of Journalists (CNP), the Circle of Graphic Reporters (CRGV) and the media observatory Espacio Público (Public Forum).

Just a few days earlier, on Jan. 13, unidentified assailants shot from a car window at reporter Rafael Finol in the doorway of his workplace, the El Regional newspaper in Acarigua, a city on the plains about 350 kilometers southwest of Caracas, wounding him in the face. The 62-year-old reporter escaped with his life only because he turned his head slightly right before the bullet struck.

"I'm lucky to be alive, and I want to say that no government official has been trying to intimidate me. This is the beginning of an escalation of violence, and every journalist in the country should watch out," said Finol, who is a supporter of the government of President Hugo Chávez.

And on Jan. 1, Jacinto López, a 22-year-old reporter and photographer, was kidnapped along with fellow-journalist Ricardo Marapacuto by gunmen who drove them by car along roads close to the city of Barquisimeto, 300 kilometers west of Caracas.

The kidnappers then shot them, killing López and wounding Marapacuto, who saved his life by playing dead. He later testified that the murderers had talked about having been paid 1,000 dollars for the killings.

Sambrano's killer neither stole his car, which was parked just a few meters away, nor robbed the journalist, who was carrying a sizeable sum of money. He fired, mounted the motorbike driven by his accomplice and disappeared into the congested traffic of Valencia, according to the stories of half a dozen eye-witnesses.

Carlos Correa, the coordinator of Espacio Público, told IPS that "a likely hypothesis is that Sambrano was murdered by hired killers acting on behalf of drug trafficking networks, although we are making sure the police keep their word to investigate all the angles.

"In these and other cases of attacks on journalists, strong action is required by the state, the government, the police, the prosecution service and the courts, in order to prevent impunity from taking root, which would lead to more crimes and self-censorship" in the media, Correa said.

Self-censorship is already happening. Journalists in the southeast of the country along the Colombian border, and from the northeastern Caribbean coast, told IPS that they avoid covering touchy topics like the actions of hired killers, the penetration of the country by foreign organized crime, drug trafficking or corruption, for fear of violent reprisals.

Correa recalled the case of Mauro Marcano, a journalist murdered Sept. 1, 2004 in Maturín, a city in the oil-rich east of the country, after he aired accusations of collusion between drug trafficking organizations and the police on his radio programme and in press columns.

Then vice president José Vicente Rangel (2003-2007), who is himself a journalist, said that Marcano's murder was "an emblematic crime" because it was the first time that drug cartels had killed a reporter in Venezuela.