The worst experience of Henry Dueñas, the community journalist from ecuavisa and presenter of the segment “Help me, Henry”, he lived it in Esmeraldas. The communicator was investigating illegal timber trafficking when he was kidnapped and beaten along with a soldier.
In an interview with EL UNIVERSO, he reveals how it happened and how he managed to escape from his captors.
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When asked what your worst experience has been, you answer that the kidnapping you suffered in Esmeraldas. As was?
There was an investigation on the environmental issue; I’m fascinated by that. I believed that we could do something for Esmeraldas, and I infiltrated the logging sector, during the time of the president who was in office for six months, Abdalá Bucaram. For that, there were mayors and prefects there who were of the same line, and we found that the ones who made the roads for them to remove the wood were them: there was already a problem. We had to make recordings. At the end we made the mistake of telling the authority: “We have the evidence, the videos of what is happening.” So it was very hard.
We are going to make a current comparison so that you understand what was happening there: a teak stick is valued at around 35 or 40 dollars at the moment; blacks or Afro-descendants were paid one dollar per teak stick, which measured six men hugging it; that was the reality. It wasn’t just destroying nature: they were exploiting it. We tell the authority and the authority decides to join us, but for that the journalist had already changed all the cassettes. And they ask me: “Do you wear the cassettes?”; and I tell them: “Yes, I’m taking you here to continue recording.” And they put a soldier on me, boy, who had a rifle, when outside we were already surrounded by more than 60 men in trucks shooting at us from all sides; and the soldier, scared with the rifle. They beat us, they threatened us.
Help me Henry!
Did they hold them for a while?
Yes. I saved myself from not being taken further inland because I fled from the captors: I ask them to go to the bathroom, I jump over a fence and I arrive at the only center where Pacifictel (Ietel), as it was called at that time, had telephone exchanges. I take out a person and call the channel directly. The channel was live (newscast), and Don Alfonso Espinosa de los Monteros decided at that moment to ask the President of the Republic for a ransom.
Were you and a cameraman kidnapped?
No, it was just me with the authorities, because I was doing an investigation. After that happened, in Esmeraldas you see ecuavisa; they knew they were holding a (military) policeman. These people —as seen in drug-trafficking movies— received calls from everywhere on satellite cell phones, because apparently there was already an order for a special forces command to enter the place where they were holding me to rescue me.
There were injured people?
Beaten up, yes. That shows that it was against us, because they did not hit the official; They only hit the soldier, and the one who was hit hard was the one who was speaking.
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Were there arrests for the kidnapping?
No. It was the time of Bucaram. Who were they going to arrest if his co-ideators were putting the tractors in and we had the evidence?
Did the report air?
Yes, it was done by someone who was an assembly member at the time of the correato. I think he is no longer a journalist; I think he became a lot of things and lost the line.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
