(FLIP/IFEX) – Hernán Echeverri Arboleda, a photojournalist and contributor to the regional newspaper “Urabá Hoy”, was released on 17 April 2005 along the highway that links Dabeiba to Medellín, the capital of Antioquia department. Echeverri was kidnapped on 22 January by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC). […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Hernán Echeverri Arboleda, a photojournalist and contributor to the regional newspaper “Urabá Hoy”, was released on 17 April 2005 along the highway that links Dabeiba to Medellín, the capital of Antioquia department. Echeverri was kidnapped on 22 January by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC).
Echeverri told FLIP that he was not kidnapped because he was a journalist, but because he happened to be on the road where the FARC had set up an ambush. On discovering the journalist’s profession, they decided to increase the ransom they had originally demanded. When they realised that Echeverri’s family could not pay the sum, the rebels agreed to release the journalist in exchange for publishing a communiqué.
At the time of his kidnapping, Echeverri was carrying his camera and some copies of the newspaper, which the guerrillas kept.
Although FLIP does not consider Echeverri’s kidnapping to be related to his journalistic work, the organisation nevertheless condemns the action and believes that kidnapping civilians, whatever the motive, constitutes a violation of International Humanitarian Law.
