(CPJ/IFEX) – In a letter to President Pastrana, CPJ has condemned the 16 September 1999 murder of Guzmán Quintero Torres, editor-in-chief of the daily “El Pilon” in Valledupar, capital of the northern Cesar Department. The president was urged to ensure that those responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice. At about 10 p.m. […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a letter to President Pastrana, CPJ has condemned the 16
September 1999 murder of Guzmán Quintero Torres, editor-in-chief of the
daily “El Pilon” in Valledupar, capital of the northern Cesar Department.
The president was urged to ensure that those responsible for this heinous
crime are brought to justice.
At about 10 p.m. (local time) on 16 September, Quintero was seated in Los
Cardones Hotel and Restaurant, where he often stopped on his way home from
work. A gunman walked up to him and shot him repeatedly in the head and
chest. The killer escaped on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. Two
colleagues, a photographer and a reporter from “El Pilon” who had joined
Quintero that evening, were witnesses. The police have been provided with a
description of the assassin.
Well respected in his field, Quintero was the co-founder of the Journalists
Club of Valledupar (CPV). He was also the local correspondent for Televista,
a news program on the regional channel Telecaribe, and a professor at the
National Correspondence University (UNAD). His previous positions include
director of Radio Caracol in Valledupar, Atlantic coastal region
correspondent for NTC television news, and reporter for the
Barranquillla-based daily “El Heraldo”.
The motivation behind the murder of 35-year-old Quintero, who is survived by
his wife and two small children, remains unclear. According to his
colleagues, Quintero’s life had not been threatened recently. He did receive
death threats a few years ago after publishing a news item in “El Heraldo”
about the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an ultra-right
paramilitary group that is fighting against left-wing guerrillas.
Quintero laid low for a few months following the threats. When he took up
journalism again it was almost exclusively in the field of financial
reporting. He apparently did not cover sensitive political topics.
However, Quintero had been looking into the 11 August 1998 murder of
Valledupar television journalist Amparo Leonor Jiménez Pallares. According
to the attorney general’s office, Jiménez was targeted in retaliation for a
story she broadcast in 1996 about paramilitary killings of peasants living
on a large estate owned by a government official. Jiménez, like Quintero,
was killed by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
While the gunman has been caught,
there has been little progress in bringing whomever ordered the murder to
justice.
Quintero’s murder comes only five weeks after the 13 August murder of
popular satirist Jaime Garzon in Bogotá. Local sources have informed CPJ
that four other Valledupar journalists are currently receiving threats and,
increasingly worried about their safety, are trying to leave the country.
CPJ is deeply disturbed by the unremitting violence against Colombian
journalists.With the civil war escalating, it is imperative that Colombians
be able to turn to the press for objective news. CPJ believes that a free
press could play an essential role in bringing peace to Colombia.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
their professional duties without fear of violent reprisal
the murders of Quintero and his colleagues who have suffered the same fate
arises during the investigations
Appeals To
His Excellency Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic of Colombia
Casa de Nariño
Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +571 286 7434 / 286 7937 / 284 2186
E-mail: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.