[ad_1]
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo on Wednesday called for the immediate release of the three Efe journalists, two Colombians and one Spaniard, arrested by the Venezuelan authorities in Caracas, where they traveled from Bogotá last week to cover the crisis in this country.
"The Colombian Government refuses the arbitrary detention in Venezuela of two journalists and a photographer from @EFEnoticias: the Colombians Mauren Barriga and Leonardo Muñoz and the Spanish Gonzalo Domínguez, we demand the immediate release and respect for their lives." said Trujillo on Twitter.
Colombian President Iván Duque has communicated tonight with Efe to express his solidarity and the concern of his government for the three journalists, who are part of the Bogotá office.
According to Efe journalists in Caracas, five members of the Bolivian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) appeared tonight at the hotel where the special envoys are staying and arrested the Spanish Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda and the Colombian Maurén Barriga Vargas.
About Muñoz, whose contact was lost this morning, Venezuelan agents said they "interrogated" him.
Heavily armed Sebin agents ordered Dominguez and Barriga to accompany them and detained them for interrogation.
Efe's director in Caracas, Nélida Fernández, followed with a lawyer from Domínguez and Barriga to try to clarify the situation before the Venezuelan authorities and to obtain their release as soon as possible.
However, he noted that the lawyers were not allowed to enter the headquarters of the intelligence service (Sebin) in Caracas, better known as El Helicoide, where they were taken away.
The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has activated all mechanisms to obtain the release of the three journalists, while Migración Colombia has warned all land and air border checkpoints pending deportation.
For its part, the director of the NGO Foro Penal Venezolano, Alfredo Romero Mendoza, told Efe by phone that the organization he represents would file a complaint with the Office of the Prosecutor for Fundamental Rights tomorrow. Venezuela, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Working Group on Disappearances. Forced of the UN
"Another thing that is also done, what should be done, is the filing of a habeas corpus, these things must be done because it presses release, the common thing is that they question them, remove their mobile phone, investigate them, press them and then take them to Saime (Administrative Service for Identification, Immigration and Immigration) for the purpose of proceeding with an eviction procedure ", added Romero.
The Efe team traveled to Caracas on January 17 to cover the Venezuelan crisis. Upon their arrival at Maiquetía airport, she identified herself as a journalist. After that, intelligence, migration and customs authorities allowed them to enter without restrictions. after having subjected them to several safety filters for nearly three hours.
However, this morning, while the photographer Muñoz was going to cover demonstrations against Nicolás Maduro's regime in the Caracas district of Petare, the contact with him and the driver who accompanied him, José Salas, of Venezuelan nationality, been lost.
When they traveled to Venezuela, the three Efe journalists took a plane ticket to return to Bogotá on February 7. EFE
Source link
