Lima, Dec 7 - The National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) today condemned the assassination of communicator Fernando Núñez Guevara by hitmen. Núñez worked for Kamila TV station in the town of Guadalupe, in the northern La Libertad region.
In a public statement, the ANP expressed its deep sorrow and strong condemnation of the crime, which “once again mourns the guild and strikes freedom of the press in the country.”
The victim was part of the leadership of the ANP branch in the area and was shot dead by hitmen who fired at him while he was riding his motorcycle back to his office after covering a journalistic event.
Núñez was carrying his brother at the time, who was seriously injured by the attackers. This attack represents the third murder of a journalist this year.
Previously, communicators Gastón Medina, in the southern city of Ica, and Raúl Celis, in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, were killed by hitmen in “an intolerable escalation of violence against those who exercise the right to inform,” according to the ANP.
The organization demanded a thorough, swift, and transparent investigation that starts from the hypothesis that the crime is related to Núñez’s work and warns against diverting attention to other issues.
“Impunity in these crimes cannot continue to be the rule; each unresolved murder encourages new attacks and deepens the risk” threatening journalists.
According to figures from the National Death Information System (Sinadef), from the start of the new government of President José Jerí on October 10 until December 4, 306 homicides were recorded in Peru, and according to the newspaper La República, 35 of those were committed with firearms.
