"The Bolivian government condemned on Sunday [Feb. 15] the attack suffered by a journalist in the city of El Alto, the country's second most populous city, and assured that the incident, which was denounced by the main press associations, will not go unpunished.
[...]
After covering a campaign event for the regional elections in a neighborhood of El Alto, the reporter 'was intercepted by unknown individuals as he was returning to his home,' was kidnapped and violently attacked by his assailants, who 'choked him and cut his tongue with a sharp weapon,' amid threats.
The National Association of Journalists of Bolivia and the Bolivian Confederation of Press Workers warned that this 'attack cannot be interpreted as a simple act of citizen insecurity,' since the 'direct' threats received by the journalist, 'the violence exercised' and the theft of his work tools 'demonstrate a premeditated act with the objective of intimidating and silencing his journalistic work.'"
