(IPYS/IFEX) – On 27 November 2006, journalist José Ponce Obispo, producer of the news programme of Radio Galeón, accused a paramilitary group of planning to murder him. Ponce was alerted to the plan by a trustworthy source who warned him that a meeting to plan the crime had already taken place on 25 November in […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 27 November 2006, journalist José Ponce Obispo, producer of the news programme of Radio Galeón, accused a paramilitary group of planning to murder him.
Ponce was alerted to the plan by a trustworthy source who warned him that a meeting to plan the crime had already taken place on 25 November in a district of Santa Marta, in northern Colombia. The journalist has informed the authorities and has not returned to the radio station as a precaution. Local police are protecting him and his home.
On 14 November, unidentified individuals threatened to kill Ponce. The threat was made by telephone after he commented, during the programme’s editorial segment, on a communiqué issued by a group of community leaders of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to denounce the threats by demobilized paramilitary groups operating in the region.
There are two paramilitary groups fighting for power in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The conflict has generated tension in the area.
