Prensa Libre fulfills the thankless duty of informing its readers that our director and general manager, journalist Pedro Julio García, was kidnapped last night five minutes before midnight, when armed men destroyed the main door of his house with bullets and violently removed him. García has always distinguished himself for being a good man and for his proven love for just causes through independent, honest and dignified journalism, as stated in the motto of this journalistic house.
This is how it happened
Pedro Julio García and Mrs. María Dolores García, at around 11:20 at night, were returning from a meeting, when upon arriving at their residence two unidentified young men approached the car in which they were traveling. They approached the vehicle pointing machine guns at them and ordering Pedro Julio to get out. He obeyed the order and at that moment five shots were heard, the impacts of which hit the metal door of the residence.
It happened that when the gate was operated by an automatic electrical system, it closed when Pedro Julio and the kidnappers were in the hallway, so the group of kidnappers fired shots at the lock, which allowed them to go out onto the street and then take Pedro Julio in a car, heading in an unknown direction. Having been released, Mrs. María Dolores García immediately contacted the executives of Prensa Libre by telephone to inform them of what had happened. Among the demands of the kidnappers, identified as members of the clandestine Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT), were the publication of a manifesto in newspapers in Guatemala, Central America and the United States, as well as an economic ransom.
Multiple expressions of repudiation of the kidnapping and demands for the journalist’s release were received from the media, social, political and religious entities.
Release
After two weeks of captivity, on October 23, 1983, journalist Pedro Julio García was released. Family, friends, acquaintances and Prensa Libre staff feared that his health could suffer. On October 24, he got up early in the morning to resume his activities. He went out into the garden, a nation hummed. Visitors began to arrive. They offer him a Quetzaltecan pache and he gladly receives it. He eats while talking with some people who, finding out about his release, have come to visit him. The phone rings constantly. They are friends who call you to express their joy at knowing that you are free.
*With information from notes of editions 9951, 9952 and 9966
write the story
This note is part of the commemorative series of our diamond wedding, it is a journey through news that marked the history of Guatemala, with original texts and images from each era, as a reliable testimony of our mission of service.