(FLIP/IFEX) – Otoniel Sánchez, a journalist with local television station CNC in Cartago, a city in Valle del Cauca department, was obliged to leave the region after unidentified assailants fired upon his residence on 19 October 2006. Sánchez told FLIP he began receiving telephoned death threats after doing a report on misuse of the municipality’s […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Otoniel Sánchez, a journalist with local television station CNC in Cartago, a city in Valle del Cauca department, was obliged to leave the region after unidentified assailants fired upon his residence on 19 October 2006.
Sánchez told FLIP he began receiving telephoned death threats after doing a report on misuse of the municipality’s roller-skating rink. In the first call he was told, “We’ve had it with your comments.”
On 18 October the journalist received another anonymous call, this time asking him if he had received a package left for him at his office. Sánchez called the television station and was informed that a package had arrived for him, but that his colleagues had refused to receive it because they were suspicious.
Sánchez then collected the package directly from the courier company. However, he decided not to open it, given that a few weeks earlier a journalist from a local radio station had been the target of a similar attack.
At 2:00 a.m. (local time) on 19 October – the following day – unidentified assailants fired several bullets at Sánchez’s home.
Sánchez contacted the authorities, who went to his residence to investigate; they determined that the shots had been fired from a 9 millimeter gun. Anti-explosives agents examined the package, which was found to contain three bullets, also 9 millimeter, and a computer-printed message saying, “this note is a warning about what’s going to happen to you, you S.O.B. [. . .] You journalists think the bullets won’t hit you, but you’re very mistaken. Or have you forgotten what happened to that dog, Polanco, from the same station?”
The threat referred to CNC’s former news programme director, Óscar Polanco, murdered in Cartago on 4 February 2004 (see IFEX alerts of 6 and 5 October 2004).
Another Cartago journalist was recently the target of a similar attack. On 3 October, a journalist working for the Cartago-based radio station Candela Estéreo received a parcel-bomb. Two people were seriously injured when it exploded. The recipient of the parcel-bomb had received a telephone call a few days earlier, saying, “Why are you talking on the radio about things you know nothing about?”
FLIP condemns the attack and threats against Sánchez and calls upon the Prosecutor General’s Office and the police authorities to conduct an investigation to find out who is responsible for this act of aggression.
