Journalist Santos Porras, director of the weekly Quién in Huancayo, has reported to Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) that people tried to kill him after he published serious accusations against the local leader Vladimir Cerrón Rojas, who was also a candidate for reelection in the October 5 vote. The incident took place in JunÃn, in central Peru.
Santos Porras told IPYS that on September 13 he was leaving a party when he was approached by two people who forced him into a car and drove him to a field, intending to kill him. Porras managed to jump out of the car and run away, but he was followed and thrown into the Mantaro river.
A few days later, on September 17, when Porras was making a purchase at a pharmacy, he was surprised by three people who threatened to kill him. They told him not to say anything, because they were watching him. The journalist said he thinks that both incidents are related to his professional work.
Porras reported the incidents to the police and the Office of the Ombudsman, which has promised to look into the case. The journalist worked for many years for the newspaper Primicia and later for the paper Correo in Huancayo, where he was the target of harassment and complaints from civil servants and authorities who were investigated by the press.
IPYS highlighted this serious incident and called on authorities to grant measures necessary to safeguard Porras's life, as he monitors the management of the governing authorities in JunÃn.
