Venezuela is not a safe place for jounalists.
We know at this point what happened to Jorge Ramos and his Univision news team on Monday. But Univision is not the only U.S. Spanish language network to have issues reporting this week from the South American nation.
Telemundo’s Venezuela correspondent Daniel Garrido was abducted Tuesday at 6 a.m. local time on the streets near Hotel Cayena in Caracas, while he was reporting on Maduro’s government detaining and deporting the Univision crew.
“A group of unidentified armed men forced [Garrido] into a vehicle and covered his head with a hood,” according to a Telemundo statement. “After questioning him for six hours and seizing his equipment, the kidnappers freed him without explanation and without returning his equipment.”
Here’s the remainder of Telemundo’s statement:
Our priority at Noticias Telemundo is the safety of our employees. After verifying Daniel’s abduction with his family, we began a search process and proceeded to denounce the case. At 10:30 am ET, the Press Workers Union of Venezuela (SNTP in Spanish) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement via Twitter denouncing Daniel’s disappearance. At 1:20 pm ET the Noticias Telemundo team in Miami received an email by Daniel regarding his release. After contacting him directly, we confirmed that he is free and in good health.
It is not the first time that Daniel has been harassed during the exercise of his journalistic work. On previous occasions, he has been a victim of physical harassment and his equipment has been stolen.
Noticias Telemundo repudiates this type of harassment that threatens freedom of expression and human rights. It demands that the Venezuelan government guarantees our right to inform, as well as the physical integrity of journalists operating in Venezuela, as established by international agreements and local legislation.