IPI condemns attack on Polish journalist by Venezuelan security forces

Demands perpetrators be brought to justice

Mar 15, 2019

The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, media executives and journalists, vehemently condemned an assault by Venezuelan security forces on Tomasz Surdel, correspondent of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza in Caracas. Surdel has been reporting on anti-government protests in Venezuela since the beginning of February.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Surdel was severely beaten by members of the Venezuelan special police unit FAES on the evening of March 14. The attack reportedly took place when Surdel was stopped while driving through the Bello Monte district in Caracas.

The newspaper told IPI that Surdel presented his passport to the police as requested, who communicated over a radio and ordered him to step out of the vehicle. As Surdel did so, he was overpowered, and his face covered with a black hood. Police officers then beat him, injuring his face and ribs.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported that officers then removed Surdel’s hood, held a pistol close to his face and pulled the trigger to simulate an execution. They then left the scene, abandoning Surdel on the street.
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IPI condemns attack on Polish journalist by Venezuelan security forces

This type of repression against journalists who would dare post the truth about socialist dictatorships, such as the one in control of Venezuela, are normal occurrence under such dictatorships.

The repression against journalists is always an attempt by the socialist dictatorships to control the narrative, and attempt to control all information coming out of Venezuela.

"Espacio Publico" an NGO backing freedom of expression in Venezuela has counted around 50 detentions of news media employees in Venezuela this year alone.

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Two weeks ago, the two biggest Spanish-language TV networks in the United States, Univision and Telemundo, condemned the brief detention of their reporters and crews after they interviewed Maduro.

Last week, a US journalist, Cody Weddle, who had worked in Venezuela for several years, was detained then deported after a 12-hour interrogation by military intelligence officers in Caracas.

An NGO backing freedom of expression in Venezuela, Espacio Publico, has counted around 50 detentions of news media employees in Venezuela so far this year.

Polish reporter tells of being beaten by Venezuela police

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Maduro, leader of the Socialist Party, accuses foreign media of exaggerating the country’s problems to tarnish the government’s image abroad.

The increasingly isolated socialist government this week arrested well-known radio journalist Luis Carlos Diaz after state media accused him of involvement in an unprecedented nationwide blackout. Diaz was later released under a court order not to make public statements.
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Polish journalist beaten by Venezuelan police: press union

Like always the socialist dictatorship claims that those journalists "work for the imperialist nation to make up lies about the situation in Venezuela."
Even socialists and communists who live in capitalist nations believe the lies from such left-wing dictatorships, and ignore or dismiss entirely about the truth of countries like Venezuela.

One thing I do want to point out is that I watched an interview in Spanish done to Surdel, and he stated he wasn't sure that these officers were part of the special Venezuelan unit known as FAES because he didn't see any identification that would show them to be part of FAES. In the back of their black uniforms there is a velcro in which special units use to identify themselves, but he only saw the velcro and no special identification, except for a logo that he did see for the National police in the sleeve of one of the officers.

These officers had the equipment of the police in Venezuela, including vehicles and were also armed, meanwhile the rest of the Venezuelans are not. Only those loyal to the socialist dictatorship of Maduro, such as Chavistas, or criminals who work for the government of Maduro, plus the armed forces are armed in Venezuela.

At night the units of the National police wear black clothes, and balaclavas, and one of these units at a checkpoint stopped Surdel while he was driving through the Bello Monte district in Caracas. They asked for his identification, which he gave it to them and which showed he is a foreign journalist.

The Leftists / Socialists will beat their ideas into you if they have to.

a reply to: Metallicus

It is what they always do. I have seen leftists "living in capitalist countries" claim that what is happening in Venezuela is a lie made up by the "imperialists and the CIA..."