Peruvian journalist assassinated after he criticized lack of citizen security
Posted by Wolfy Becker on March 19th, 2007
(JP-wb) — Ironies of destiny. Peruvian radio host and journalist Miguel Perez Julca (38) was assassinated last Saturday, March 17th, after he openly criticized the lack of citizen security in Peru’s northern Andean city of Jaén a week earlier.
However, at this time it is unknown if his criticism also provided the motive for his murder.
What is known from Perez Julca’s daily afternoon radio program “El informativo del pueblo”: he was a harsh critic of Jaén’s current Mayor, Jaime Vílchez Oblitas.
Yesterday the bishop of Jaén, Monsignor Jose Garcia, condemned the murder apparently committed by two suspects. The crime happened at 7:25 p.m. on Saturday when Perez Julca, his wife and two kids returned to their home located in Jaén’s Las Palmeras district. He was shot in the head twice by the two hooded gunmen. His wife was also wounded by a bullet near her left knee while the kids stood there shouting and crying. Fortunately they were not hurt.
“The population is unprotected and now is the time for our police to step up and make every effort so that peace and calm is restored in our city”, the bishop demanded. Several local journalists of Jaén, located in Peru’s region of Cajamarca, will express their solidarity tomorrow by coordinating a massive mobilization in the city’s streets.
Jaén’s local radio stations were off the air between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday as a silent protest and in honor of Miguel Perez.
Peru’s Interior Ministry announced yesterday that a special task force of the Direction for Criminal Investigation (Dirincri) will be send to Cajamarca to shed light on the heinous crime and its motive. An official note handed out by the ministry states that elite police group will us all its experience to find the people in charge of this senseless murder.
Perez’ wife Nelly Guevara Arrascue (32) told police that she saw both suspects but not their faces because they were hooded. One was wearing a white polo shirt and the other a shirt with pictures. She was committed to the general hospital of Jaén.
In April of 2004, journalist Alberto Rivera Fernandez was assassinated by hit men in the junge city of Pucallpa (Ucayali region). The mayor of that city, Luis Valdez Villacorta, is now on trial for being the presumed intellectual mastermind and responsible for the crime.
