Bolivian journalists strangled to death

GlobalPost

Bolivian journalists Veronica and Victor Hugo Penasco were strangled on Saturday, reported the Associated Press.

The two reporters, who worked at radio stations and transmitted in the Aymara language, were killed early in the day after leaving their home in the highlands city of El Alto.

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According to The Washington Post, local authorities said the same method used to attack the two journalists was used by a gang that was recently rounded up. Members would kill and rob victims before dawn by getting them inside small buses they disguised as public transportation.

According to criminal police chief Felix Rocha, preliminary reports indicated Veronica and Victor were strangled and had their cellphones and wallets stolen, reported ABC News.

Bolivian police recently arrested the leaders of the gang who used this same method, according to the AP. The Huffington Post reported that the gang has been blamed for at least 69 killings, with dozens more who survived the stranglings. The survivors were left for dead in isolated areas of the working class city of one million, which is perched on top of the plateau above Bolivia's legislative capital, La Paz.

"This kind of assault came about because people, of necessity, take whatever transport they can get," said Rocha to the Huffington Post.

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