The National Association of Journalists (ANP) informed that the photojournalist of the Agency EFE, Aldair Mejiareceived a projectile in the leg during the coverage of protests in the city of Juliaca, in the Puno region.
Through its Twitter account, the ANP demanded that the authorities identify and punish those responsible. In accordance with EFEthe projectile was thrown by the police.
Hours earlier, the journalistic union denounced that Mejía had suffered attacks by the police when he was covering the protest demonstrations in the vicinity of the Juliaca airport.
“They wanted to break his credentials and one threatened him ‘if you do that again, I’ll blow your head off and you’ll leave dead here,'” he detailed in another publication.
Own Aldair Mejia confirmed the facts in a video published by the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) on its Twitter account.
They ask for a sanction for “police excess”
According to EFE, Aldair Mejia he was hit with a shield by police agents “and they tried to snatch his press credentials, when he was moving around the place and some uniformed men chased him.”
For its part, the Association of Foreign Press in Peru (APEP) considered “inadmissible” that visibly identified journalists “have been attacked and threatened with death” for carrying out their reporting task during the demonstrations in Juliaca.
In a statement, he specified that Aldair Mejía was injured after receiving the impact of a pellet in the leg. Given the fact, he was taken to a hospital for his evaluation. “We may be a privileged and uncomfortable witness, but we fulfill a moral duty to society,” he remarked.
Likewise, he asked the Peruvian authorities to sanction “any police excess”, as well as to investigate attacks by protesters against journalists from local media.
Transfer to Cusco to continue medical care
the photojournalist Aldair Mejia Lopez —who is in a local clinic in the city of Juliaca in the province of San Román, in the region of A lots of— will be derived in the next few hours to the city of Cusco where you will receive care for your recovery.
As is known, Mejia López covered the information on the confrontation between the police and the demonstrators, where he was injured and was transferred to a local clinic. According to medical examinations, he suffered a broken leg and a location of pellets.