{"id":116887,"date":"2021-04-02T15:14:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T07:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116887"},"modified":"2021-04-02T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T07:14:06","slug":"venezuelan-journalists-activists-freed-by-military-ngo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116887","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan journalists, activists freed by military: NGO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CARACAS, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two journalists and two activists
missing for more than 24 hours after an encounter with the Venezuelan
military in a conflict zone have been freed, an NGO said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuelan journalists Luis Gonzalo Perez and Rafael Hernandez, who work for the Colombian NTN24 TV channel, and two activists from the Fundaredes NGO were \u201creleased without appearing\u201d before the courts, Gonzalo Himiob, a lawyer and director of the human rights NGO Foro Penal, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their release came after \u201c25 hours of arbitrary detention and forced
disappearance,\u201d the SNTP press workers union wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group were in a town called La Victoria in the western Apure state on
the border with Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clashes in Apure between the Venezuelan military and \u201cirregular armed
Colombian groups\u201d that began on March 21 left nine \u201cterrorists\u201d and four
soldiers dead up to Wednesday, the defense ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journalists and activists were detained at 12:30 pm on Wednesday, said
the SNTP, one of Venezuela\u2019s main press unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication with them was lost four hours later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were held by the National Guard \u2026 and taken to the Guard\u2019s control
post. That\u2019s where we lost contact,\u201d Javier Tarazona, the Fundaredes
director, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities have not commented on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuman rights violations are continuing in Apure, this time against
journalists simply for reporting on the truth of what\u2019s happening in that
area,\u201d opposition leader Juan Guaido tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombian authorities have claimed the confrontation was a Venezuelan
military strike against dissident FARC rebels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro recently admitted that FARC dissidents
could be responsible for the killing of civilians and clashes with Venezuelan
armed forces in the border area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bogota has long accused Caracas of shielding leftist rebels on its soil, a
charge Maduro denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a
historic peace agreement in 2016 to end a half century of armed conflict with the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some guerrilla fighters refused to join the peace process and have
continued their struggle, while also mixing with and battling drug-
traffickers in lawless areas of Colombia, including close to the Venezuelan
border. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two journalists and two activistsmissing for more than 24 hours after an encounter with the Venezuelanmilitary in a conflict zone have been freed, an NGO said. Venezuelan journalists Luis Gonzalo Perez and Rafael Hernandez, who work for the Colombian NTN24 TV channel, and two activists from the Fundaredes NGO were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":116888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116887"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}