Freedom of Expression

Colombia

            Assassinations

 

            56.       The assassination of journalists is the most brutal form of silencing criticism and of attacking not only the right to life, but also the right to freedom of expression.  In the course of the year, the Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression received information on ten violent deaths of journalists in Colombia.  This report does not include all of these, not because they were unimportant, but because in some cases there were details that were impossible to confirm or clarify as of the moment when this report was completed.  For this reason, and mindful of the complex context of the conflict in Colombia, those cases are mentioned in which, according to the information received, the death of the journalist is clearly related to his exercise of freedom of expression.  Nonetheless, the Rapporteurship hopes that the details of all the deaths are investigated and that the persons responsible are identified and punished, as the Rapporteur reminded the Colombian State in two press releases, dated March 18 and May 1, 2003, respectively.[1]

 

            57.       On March 18, 2003, in the department of Arauca, journalist Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada was assassinated by unknown persons traveling on a motorcycle.  They shot him three times while he waited for the watchman to open the door to the radio station Meridiano 70, for which he worked.  Alfonso Parada had worked in Arauca for ten years, and when assassinated was a correspondent for El Tiempo and a co-director of the news program Actualidad Informativa on Meridiano 70.  Alfonso Parada was known for denouncing corruption and for reporting on the armed conflict, for which he had received threats.  He had availed himself of the Ministry of Interior’s Journalist Protection Program.[2]  In June, in Arauca, three persons suspected of being involved in Alfonso’s death were detained.[3]

            58.       On the morning of April 7, 2003, the body of José Emeterio Rivas was found, along with another body, that of a student, alongside the road leading to Barrancabermeja, department of Santander.  Rivas worked as a technical manager of the community radio station Calor Estéreo 91.2.  In addition, he was director of the program Las Fuerzas Vivas.  Days prior to his death, Rivas had denounced that he had been the victim of an assassination attempt.  He had been threatened and so had availed himself of the Journalist Protection Program of the Ministry of Interior and Justice in January 2001, and had been assigned a bodyguard.  Nonetheless, the week he was killed, Rivas went without protection.[4]  On July 11, three officials of the office of the mayor of Barrancabermeja were detained: Juan Pablo Arica, Fabio Pajón Lizcano, and Abelardo Rueda Tobón.[5]  In addition, an arrest warrant was issued for the mayor of Barrancabermeja, Julio César Ardila Torres, for his alleged participation in the assassination.[6]  On September 17, Ardila Torres presented himself to the Attorney General of Colombia, Luis Camilo Osorio. On September 24, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia issued an arrest warrant, without bond, for Ardila for his alleged participation in the assassination of five persons, including Rivas.[7]  The mayor alleged his innocence.[8]

 

            59.       The night of April 28, 2003, in the city of Neiva, department of Huila, journalist Guillermo Bravo Vega was assassinated by a paid assassin who entered his home and shot him three times.  The journalist was known for his work on economic and political issues, and had obtained many journalism awards.  Bravo had denounced acts of corruption in the municipal administration and had previously been threatened.[9]  At the time of the crime, he was working independently on the program Hechos y Cifras, and was a columnist for the newspaper Tribuna del Sur.

 

            60.       On the morning of April 29, 2003, journalist Jaime Rengifo Revero was assassinated in the city of Maicao, Guajira, in northern Colombia.  According to the information received, a person shot him five times in the Hotel Venecia, where he had been living for three years, and where the assassin had stayed the night before under the name of Luis Alfredo Gómez. Rengifo was the owner of the company Casa Editorial El Guajiro, which directed the newspaper El Guajiro and produced the radio show Periodistas en acción, which was broadcast on Radio Olímpica.[10]  On his radio program, Rengifo denounced crime in Maicao.[11]  Rengifo had received threats earlier.[12]

 

            Kidnappings

 

            61.       On January 18, 2003, near the border with Panama, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) kidnapped U.S.journalist Robert Pelton, who was on a mission for National Geographic Adventure, and his two U.S.colleagues, Mark Wedeven and Megan Smaker.[13]  On January 23, they were released in El Chocó, to the south of the Panamanian border.[14]

 

            62.       On January 21, 2003, U.S.photojournalist Scott Dalton, British journalist Ruth Morris, and driver Madiel Ariza were kidnapped.  They were producing a report for the Los Angeles Times on the public order situation in the department of Arauca, in eastern Colombia.  Ariza was released the next day.  The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) took responsibility for the kidnapping.[15]  The two reporters were released after 11 days in captivity.[16]

 

            63.       On January 26, 2003, journalist Ramón Eduardo Martínez, cameraman Duarley Rafael Guerrero, and technicians Mauricio Vega and Rubén Darío Peñuela, all of RCN Televisión, and free-lance photographer Carlos Julio García, were kidnapped when traveling to Pueblo Nuevo, department of Arauca.  They were on their way to cover the possible release of Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris.  The kidnapping was attributed to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).  During their captivity they were threatened with language warning that they would have to retire from the profession "if they continued to work for government media."  Their communications devices, cameras, and vehicle were stolen.  They were released on January 28.[17]

 

            64.       On March 12, 2003, Pedro Antonio Cárdenas, director of Noticias RCN Radio was kidnapped in the municipality of Honda, department of Tolima, by alleged members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).  Cárdenas was kidnapped at his home.  While he was being transported in a vehicle, it was intercepted by the police, who freed him and arrested several of the persons responsible.  Days before the kidnapping, Cárdenas had denounced the alleged ties between the members of the municipal council and the AUC.  Cárdenas had received threats on March 2 for criticizing municipal leaders.[18]  He left the country in April.

 

            65.       On August 18, 2003, a team of journalists from El Tiempo was kidnapped, including journalist Jineth Bedoya and photographer John Vizcaíno, in the town of Puerto Alvira, department of Meta.  The kidnapping was attributed to the FARC.  The journalists were trying to look into the fate of 70 families that had disappeared.  They were released five days later.[19]

 

            Attacks and threats

 

            66.       During the year, the Rapporteurship received information on the recurrent threats to Colombian journalists and media in the context of the armed conflict.  The Rapporteur is especially concerned about the situation in the region of Arauca, which, in March 2003, saw the flight of almost all the press working in the zone due to threats from the various armed groups, who demanded that they leave in 48 hours and that they not return.  This occurred after March 28, 2003, when journalist Rodrigo Ávila, correspondent for Radio Caracol, received two lists from a deserter of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) that included the names of 16 press workers.  One of the lists was from the FARC and the other was attributed to the paramilitary forces of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), ordering him and the other 15 journalists to leave the city or else be assassinated.  The second “black list” included the names of Efraín Varela and Luis Eduardo Alfonso, assassinated in June 2002 and March 2003, respectively.  Thirteen journalists returned four months later, under strict security measures.[20]

 

            67.       The threatened journalists are: Luis Gedez, of the radio station Voz del Cinaruco; Liz Neira Roncacio and Hernán Morales, of Canal 4; Angel María León and Narda Guerrero, of Radio DIC; Jineth Pinilla, of Colombia Stereo; José Antonio Hurtado, Chief of Press of the Office of the Governor; Henry Colmenares, director of the newspaper Nueva Frontera; Rodrigo Ávila, correspondent for Canal Caracol; Carlos Pérez, correspondent for Canal RCN; Miguel Ángel Rojas, of Meridiano 70; Emiro Goyeneche, of Saravena Stereo; Carlos Báez, of 88.9 Tame; Soraida Ariza, correspondent for Cinaruco; William Reyes, deputy for Arauca; and Álvaro Báez, who at the time was out of the country.[21]  Some of the journalists had previously received threats.[22]

 

            68.       The threats to the journalists in Arauca were a matter of profound concern to the Rapporteurship due to the obvious danger to their lives and physical integrity, and because these threats and the exodus of journalists constituted clear restrictions on society’s freedom of expression.

 

            69.       On May 6, 2003, in the department of Meta, two persons shot three times at José Iván Aguilar, the director and owner of Noticias Ya of the radio station Calor Estéreo and correspondent of Noticias Uno.  He survived the attack with only a superficial wound in the chest.  The next day, he fled to Bogotá with his wife and three children.  Aguilar had not been threatened previously.[23]

 

            70.       In Neiva, journalist Diógenes Cadena, known as Albatros Moro, was forced to flee Huila after receiving death threats.  Cadena worked for the radio station Huila Estéreo.  On April 29, 2003, the day after his colleague Guillermo Bravo Vega was assassinated, Cadena received an anonymous telephone call in which he was warned that he had three days to leave Neiva.  On May 3, he received another telephone call at home that threatened: “Time has run out, three days.  You’re a dead man.”[24]  Cadena left the city.  He had directed the program Hechos y cifras, and often accused departmental and municipal officials of mismanaging public funds.[25]

 

            71.       Journalist Adonai Cárdenas, correspondent for the daily newspaper El País of Cali, in the city of Buenaventura in western Colombia, was a victim of threats after publishing an article on April 2, 2003, on the situation in Cali since the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) had arrived in the region, and describing the relationship between this group and groups engaged in common crime in Buenaventura. Cárdenas also directs the program Buenos días Buenaventura on the local radio station Radio Buenaventura and writes a column in the local daily Marea viva.  Cárdenas had been receiving repeated death threats since 2000.[26]

 

            72.       On September 23, 2003, guerrillas of the FARC dynamited the repeater antenna of Inravisión in the upland area of Las Domínguez, by the border of El Cerrito and Palmira(Valle).  The structure, 170 meters tall, fell on the booth in which the broadcast equipment of the regional channel Telepacífico was located, leading to a total suspension of its broadcasts.  In addition, broadcasts of channels Uno, A, and Señal Colombia were impaired.  As a result of the attack, a large part of Valle, Cauca, Nariño, and Chocó had no public television for several days.  The attack caused US$5 million in damages.[27]

 

            73.       Journalist Pedro Javier Galvis, of the weekly La Noticia, of Barrancabermeja, was threatened on October 15, 2003, when two persons on motorcycles approached him on a downtown street.[28]  They told him he had one week to leave the city, so he left immediately.

 

            74.       On October 24, the news program Noticolombia of the local cable channel CNC in the city of Popayán, in southern Colombia, received an envelope addressed to the journalists of that program containing a threat.  The message exalted one candidate while calling for the death of his enemies.  On October 23, the news program had issued a news item on the improper use of the fax of a public entity for purposes of political propaganda favorable to one of the mayoral candidates.[29]

 

            75.       Journalist Yaneth Montoya Martínez, correspondent for the daily newspaper Vanguardia Liberal in Barrancabermeja, department of Santander, in northeastern Colombia, was threatened on October 22, 2003.  The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman received an anonymous telephone call warning that journalist Montoya was included on a list of persons who the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) were going to kill.  On October 24, she received a new threat at her home.[30]  Due to the death threats she received, she fled Barrancabermeja in December of 2003.[31]




[1] Press Releases from the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression PREN 71/03 and PREN 73/03 in: http://www.cidh.org/Relatoria/English/PressRel03/PressReleaIndex03.htm

[2] Press Release 71/03 of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression <www.cidh.org/Relatoria/Spanish/Compren2003/ComPren7103.htm>; Reporters without Borders (RSF), March 18, 2003, www.rsf.org; Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), March 18, 2003, www.flip.org.co, and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), March 18, 2003, www.ipys.org; Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), March 18, 2003, www.cpj.org. El Tiempo (Colombia), “Asesinado el corresponsal de El Tiempo en Arauca,” March 18, 2003, at: http://eltiempo.terra.com.co.  Centro de Análisis de Información de ASDEH, March 18, 2003, see: www.asdeh.org/cadi.htm.

[3] Journalists against Corruption (Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción, PFC), August 2, 2003, www.portal-pfc.org; Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), October 2003, www.sipiapa.com.

[4] Centro de Análisis de Información of ASDEH, April 8, 2003, see: http://www.asdeh.org/cadi.htm; El Tiempo, “Muerto Periodista en Barrancabermeja,” April 8, 2003 at: http:eltiempo.terra.com.co; Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción (PFC), April 10, www.portal-pfc.org.

[5] Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), July 17, 2003, www.flip.org.co.

[6] Journalists against Corruption (Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción, PFC), July 11, 2003, in: www.portal-pfc.org.

[7] EFE (News Agency), September 24, in www.efe.com; Internation Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), July 17, 2003, www.ifex.org.

[8] Journalists against Corruption (Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción, PFC), September 18, 2003, www.portal-pfc.org.

[9] El País, April 29, 2003; press release by the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression 76/03, <www.cidh.org/Relatoria/Spanish/Compren2003/Compren7603.htm>; Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Periodista, cited in International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), May 13, 2003, www.ifex.org.

[10] El País, April 29, 2003.

[11] Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), April 30, 2003, www.flip.org.co; press release from the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, <www.cidh.org/Relatoria/spanish/Compren2003/Compren7603.htm>.

[12] Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), May 1, 2003, www.cpj.org.

[13] Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), January 22, www.ipys.org.

[14] Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), January 27, 2003, www.ipys.org; Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), January 23 and 24, 2003, www.cpj.org.

[15] Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), www.flip.org.co, January 24 and 28, 2003, www.flip.org.co; Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), January 28, 2003; www.ipys.org.

[16] El Espectador, “ELN Libera Periodistas Extranjeros”, February 2, 2003, www.elespectador.com; Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), January 23, 2003, www.cpj.org.

[17] Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), January 28, 2003, www.ipys.org and FLIP, January 28, www.flip.org.co , 2003; Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) www.cpj.org , January 29, 2003.

[18] Centro de Análisis de Información de ASDEH, March 13, 2003, www.asdeh.org/cadi.htm; Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), March 18, 2003, www.cpj.org.

[19] Inter-Amercian Press Association (IAPA), October reports, 2003; www.sipiapa.com.

[20] Inter-Amercian Press Association (IAPA), October reports 2003, www.sipiapa.com; Reporters Without Borders, March 31, 2003, www.rsf.fr ; “Amenazan de muerte a periodistas en Arauca,” Nuevo Herald (United States), <www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/news/world/americas/5514392.htm>, March 30.

[21] Centro de Análisis de Información (CADI), March 29, 2003, www.adeh.org/cadi.

[22] El Tiempo (Colombia), March 20, 2003, www.eltiempo.com/hoy.

[23] Centro de Análisis de Información (CADI), May 6, 2003; Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), May 12, 2003; El Tiempo (Colombia), “Nuevos ataques a periodistas en Neiva y Villavicencio,” May 7, 2003, <www.eltiempo.terra.com.bo>; El Espectador (Colombia), “Periodista sale ileso de atentado en Villavicencio,” May 7, 2003; Reporters Without Borders, May 9, 2003, www.rsf.fr.

[24] El Tiempo (Colombia), “Nuevos ataques a periodistas en Neiva y Villavicencio”, http://www.eltiempo. terra.com.co, 7 de mayo de 2003.

[25] Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), May 12, 2003, www.cpj.org.

[26] International Freedom of Expression Exchange, May 21, 2003, www.ifex.org.

[27] El Tiempo (Colombia), “Suroccidente sin TV pública,” September 25, 2003, en: http://tiempo.terra.com.co; Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), September 25, 2003, www.ipys.org.

[28] Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), October 30, 2003, www.ipys.org.

[29] Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), October 28, 2003, www.flip.org.co, and International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), October 29, 2003; www.ifex.org.

[30] Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), October 30, 2003, www.flip.org.co ; El Heraldo (Colombia), “Debate en Congreso por amenazas a periodistas”, October 30, 2003 and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS), October 30, 2003, www.ipys.org.

[31] Radio Caracol (Colombia), “Periodista amenazada abandona Barrancabermeja”,December 4, 2003,  www.radiocaracol.com,