(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Humberto de la Calle Londana, RSF protested the attack against Eduardo Pilonieta, lawyer and contributor to the daily “Vanguardia Liberal”, published in Bucaramanga, department of Santander. The organisation asked the minister to ensure that “a thorough investigation is held in order to establish the motives […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Humberto de la Calle Londana, RSF protested the attack against Eduardo Pilonieta, lawyer and contributor to the daily “Vanguardia Liberal”, published in Bucaramanga, department of Santander. The organisation asked the minister to ensure that “a thorough investigation is held in order to establish the motives of the attack and punish its perpetrators”. “In Colombia, repeated attacks against journalists have endangered press freedom,” stated Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, adding that “seven journalists were killed in the country in 1999.”
According to information obtained by RSF, Pilonieta was shot three times on 14 June 2000 by two unknown individuals who were riding on motorcycles. The journalist, who was hit by 7.65 caliber bullets, was operated on in one of the town’s clinics. His condition has been deemed “stable”. Pilonieta is also a lawyer specialising in labour issues. “We do not know whether he was attacked because of his work as a journalist or as a lawyer,” a director of “Vanguardia Liberal” stated to Agence France-Presse (AFP). An inquiry has been launched by the police.
RSF recalls that on 25 May, Jineth Bedoya, from the daily “El Espectador”, was kidnapped in Bogota by presumed members of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodéfenses unies de Colombie, AUC) (see IFEX alerts of 1 June and 31 May 2000). She was released twelve hours later, after being mistreated. On 23 May, other “El Espectador” journalists received death threats. Among them was Ignacio Gomez, director of the Foundation for Press Freedom and an RSF correspondent, who was forced into exile on 1 June (see IFEX alert of 16 June 2000). The daily had accused AUC combatants who were incarcerated in a Bogota prison of assassinating twenty-five other detainees at the end of April.
