New York, July 11, 2001—In
a tragic week for the Colombian press, three local broadcast journalists
have been murdered in the violence-plagued country since July 4. CPJ is
investigating all three deaths to determine whether the journalists were
killed because of their work.
"In the interests of press freedom and simple justice, CPJ will investigate
possible motives behind all murders of journalists in Colombia," said
executive director Ann Cooper. "We urge all sides in the civil war to
refrain from these senseless attacks on the press."
Since the beginning of 2001, a total of seven journalists
have been killed in Colombia for reasons possibly related to their work.
In one of these cases, CPJ has confirmed that the murder was motivated
by the victim's journalism. On April 27, Flavio Bedoya, regional correspondent
for the Communist Party newspaper Voz, was killed in the southwestern
port city of Tumaco. Colleagues linked the murder to a series of highly
critical reports that Bedoya had published about collusion between security
forces and right-wing paramilitary gangs.
CPJ continues to investigate six other murders. The three most recent
cases are detailed below:
Music radio director killed
On the evening of July 4, a gunman shot and killed Arquímedes
Arias Henao, a radio journalist in Fresno Municipality, Tolima Department.
Arias was the director of the local radio station Fresno Estéreo.
At around 6:30 p.m., an armed individual entered the station's offices
and shot the journalist three times. The gunman then fled with a man who
was waiting for him on a motorcycle.
Arias had moved from the Tolima municipality of Palocabildo months before
to run the newly launched Fresno Estéreo. Given that Fresno Estéreo
mainly aired music programs, the motive for his murder remains unclear.
News radio director killed six months after predecessor's murder
On the morning of July 6, two unidentified men on a motorcycle killed
radio journalist José Vásquez with two shots as he was driving
home from work in the southern Colombian city of Florencia.
Vásquez, news director of Voz de la Selva ("Voice of the Jungle"),
a local affiliate of the national Caracol radio network, was rushed to
a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His colleague Omar
Orlando García, who was with him at the time of the killing, was
not hurt.
Florencia, in Caquetá Department, is a former stronghold of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla organization.
More recently, the town has become a power base for an anti-communist
paramilitary group linked to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC).
CPJ sources in Colombia said Vásquez's last radio report dealt
with changes in the local paramilitary leadership. The journalist was
not known to have received any threats.
Vásquez had replaced Voz de la Selva news director Alfredo Abad
López, who was killed on December 13, 2000. Abad's murder, in turn,
came two weeks after a colleague, Guillermo León Agudelo, was stabbed
to death by two men who had forced their way into his home. Police initially
believed that Agudelo was killed during a robbery attempt but later concluded
that he was stabbed to death after refusing an extortion demand.
Reliable local sources concurred that paramilitary gunmen had murdered
Abad because of his work as a journalist, although the suggested motives
differed. One source told CPJ that Abad was probably killed for investigating
the murder of his colleague Agudelo. But other sources pointed to Abad's
last broadcast, in which he had discussed the government's decision to
cede a Switzerland-sized chunk of territory to the FARC.
Radio and television journalist killed
On July 8, unidentified gunmen killed radio and
television journalist Jorge Enrique Urbano Sánchez in the
center of the Pacific port of Buenaventura. One of the journalist's friends
was hurt in the attack.
Urbano apparently devoted his final television broadcasts to denouncing
the local criminal gang "Tumba Puertas" ("Knock Down Doors").
In addition to his journalistic work, Urbano also managed the municipal
park system in Buenaventura. The journalist was threatened two months
ago, according to the Bogotá daily El Tiempo. Urbano attributed
the threats to his public statements about crime in Buenaventura's central
park, where he had coordinated operations to relocate street vendors and
remove drug addicts.
Death toll mounts
The four-decade Colombian civil war has escalated in recent years,
as both leftist guerrillas and their right-wing paramilitary opponents
have begun using drug money to finance their operations. Today, vast areas
of the country function outside government control. According to the government's
own statistics, as many as 98 percent of all crimes remain unsolved.
All parties in the conflict care a great deal about how they are covered
in the media, and are willing to use violence to ensure that they are
portrayed favorably. Even so, Colombia maintains an active press, with
two national dailies and a network of radio stations crisscrossing the
country. While there have been reports of self-censorship, the Colombian
press in general has worked valiantly despite facing appalling risks.
Three Colombian journalists were killed for their work in 2000, according
to CPJ research, bringing the 10-year death toll to 34.
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