WMC Women Under Siege

Women journalists face life-threatening risks in Venezuela


A woman attends a protest for press freedom in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2017 wearing the words "Freedom" and "We'll be back" across her face. (Nathalie Sayago)

Caracas—In 2017, Lorena*, a 28-year-old Venezuelan photojournalist, was on assignment covering a national strike in Caracas when she was abducted by a group of twenty armed men.

“The city was very calm,” she told Women Under Siege. “The shops were closed and the streets were empty. When I stopped to take some pictures, I heard the sound of motorbikes approaching. I was afraid it might be the security forces or armed groups—men with guns who have the authorization to kill.”

Both options, in this case, were just as dangerous as the other. Back when she worked in a local government press office, she became well acquainted with dangerous neighborhoods, as well as with the colectivos, armed men who threaten journalists and protesters and, often, collaborate with the government.

They encircled Lorena and her driver, shouting insults. “They accused us of depicting a negative image of the country in our work.” The two were then dragged to a nearby abandoned building, where they were held for several hours.

They were only released when one of the men recognized her from her days at the press office. “I had worked with him at that time. He remembered me and didn’t want to attack me,” Lorena said. “If he hadn’t, I can only imagine what would have happened to me and to my driver.”

Even though both were unharmed, she said the incident left a severe mark on her. Lorena eventually decided to leave Venezuela. “The risk of staying in the country was too high,” she said. “When you are a woman in this profession, they see you as a weak and easy target. Anything can happen in a lawless country with a high level of impunity, and this political crisis and government have made it much worse.”

Venezuela is currently facing an unprecedented political and humanitarian crisis. The country is struggling with a lack of drinking water and gas, frequent electricity blackouts, a healthcare system crisis, and high levels of impunity for violence against women.

Of the 184 attacks against journalists and media employees reported to the Institute for Press and Society in Venezuela (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, or IPYS) between January and December 2019, there were 53 cases of physical assault, 91 cases of intimidation, and 21 cases of harassment, and 26 journalists reported that their equipment was either stolen or destroyed.

Acts of intimidation and physical attacks against journalists were perpetrated mainly by state security forces, government supporters, and organized crime groups. “At least 73 women reporters were direct victims of these attacks,” said Daniela Alvarado, one of the authors of the report.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also documented how authorities have detained journalists and their fixers, threatened reporters at gunpoint, blocked outlets, and imposed intermittent blackouts and internet outages. Both local and international journalists covering the Venezuela crisis are increasingly at risk from authorities under Nicolás Maduro and colectivos, according to the organization.

In March 2017, reporter Elyangelica González was brutally assaulted by members of the Guardia Nacional Bolivariana (Venezuelan National Guard, or GNB) while covering a student protest outside the Supreme Court in Caracas. “They told me I was a prostitute and didn’t deserve to be Venezuelan,” González told Women Under Siege. González also said that she faced threats of rape, death, and attacks against her family if she did not stop her work. She finally decided to leave the country for her own safety and that of her family. Today, she is based in the United States, where she can safely honor, as she puts it, her responsibility to inform people.

A global survey, conducted between August 2013 and January 2014 by the International News Safety Institute and the International Women’s Media Foundation, on harassment and violence against female media workers found that nearly two-thirds of survey respondents said they had experienced some form of intimidation, threats or abuse as a result of their work, with more than one-fifth of respondents saying they had experienced physical violence—the most frequent forms of which included “pushing, “shoving”, and “assault with an object or weapon.”

In 2014, Maolis Castro was on assignment with another journalist and two photographers near the Bolivarian University of Venezuela in Caracas when a group of armed men assaulted them. “They saw us taking pictures of the university,” Castro said. The men first confiscated one of the photographers’ memory cards before “[he] started hitting my colleague on the head,” she said.

Castro identified the men as supporters of Hugo Chavez, members of a so-called Chavistagroup. “When they found out that we were working for a news outlet opposed to Chavismo, one of the men ordered the others to kill us. All of this happened to us in front of a GNB member, who did nothing to protect me or my colleagues,” Castro told Women Under Siege. “When we finally managed to escape, we were stopped by a police officer who pointed his gun at us and accused us of stealing a camera. We explained to the police officer that we were robbed by an armed group, but he refused to help us.”

Castro said that it was hard enough to be an independent journalist in Venezuela, “but being a woman journalist is twice as difficult: as a woman, you must deal with everything from the gender pay gap to assault and violence.”

Castro would later find herself a target again in 2016 when a member of the security forces started sending her threatening and intimidating messages following the publication of one of her articles.

But the online threats would not be the last time Castro would feel her life was at risk in the country. In February 2019, while she was working in Tachira, a state near the Colombian border, she witnessed how the colectivos attacked protesters calling for the entry of humanitarian aid to Venezuela. “When I heard the sound of gunshots, I knew I had to hide. A woman who lived nearby offered to help me. But then the bullets hit her house, and in that moment, I thought that I would die.” She fled Venezuela shortly after.

While the assaults themselves can cause great harm or injury, the aftermath of these incidents can be extremely difficult as well. “After the kidnapping, I was extremely anxious and always checking my surroundings,” Lorena said. “I was always looking around, making sure that I wasn’t being followed, especially when I was entering my house.” Castro still has nightmares. But, she said, such is the state of Venezuela these days. “I believe that many Venezuelans feel traumatized by violence,” she said. “These fears are common in the country.”

Even so, Castro, like González, remains committed to her work denouncing violence and injustice in Venezuela—albeit from a safer distance. “This is the main task of journalists, after all.”

Lorena agreed. “If we do not continue doing our work as journalists, the history of our country will remain untold,” she said. “I hope that telling the truth will [create] change.”



*Lorena is not her real name, which was redacted for her safety.



More articles by Category: Gender-based violence, International, Media, Misogyny, Online harassment, Violence against women
More articles by Tag: Venezuela, Violence
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