(FLIP/IFEX) – After weeks of intense anxiety due to repeated death threats, Diro César González, director and owner of the Barrancabermeja weekly “La Tarde”, suspended its publication and fled the city, located in Santander, a northeastern department. On 17 January 2006, two men on a motorcycle arrived at González’s home asking for him. Tatiana Sánchez, […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – After weeks of intense anxiety due to repeated death threats, Diro César González, director and owner of the Barrancabermeja weekly “La Tarde”, suspended its publication and fled the city, located in Santander, a northeastern department.
On 17 January 2006, two men on a motorcycle arrived at González’s home asking for him. Tatiana Sánchez, his wife and newspaper colleague, answered the door and told them her husband was not home. She noticed that one of the men was carrying a revolver. After a discussion between the two, which she could not hear, the two left.
Sánchez says one of the men was the same person accused of involvement in the murder of a woman on 23 December 2005 in a city discotheque. The “La Tarde” edition that week referred to the details of the crime and published a photo of the suspect, who was captured by the authorities.
This was not the first threat González had received. At the end of 2005, according to the Bucaramanga biweekly “Portada” and several human rights organisations, a hit list with the names of various journalists to be murdered by paramilitary groups operating in the area was circulating around Santander department.
Although González and Sánchez were initially not too concerned by these stories, shortly thereafter they received a more concrete warning. The couple’s neighbours informed them that two men on a motorcycle were seen prowling around the neighbourhood where the newspaper’s offices are located for several days. On one of the days they approached the couple’s home and warned Sánchez that an order to kill him had been issued. The couple’s only option was to leave the city before the threats were carried out. However, it appears that those two men had nothing to do with the January threat.
Major Óscar Mora, commander of the National Police in Barrancabermeja, stated that although he was aware of the most recent threat, he knew nothing about a hit list, and expressed doubts that it existed. Magdalena Medio regional ombudsman Jorge Gómez confirmed that there were rumours of the existence of such a hit list, but said that he had no way of knowing if they were true. He emphasised he was concerned about the threats made recently against various journalists in the region.
FLIP condemns the threats made against “La Tarde” director González. With the silencing of this journalist and his departure from the region, the survival of this media outlet is doubtful.
