(FLIP/IFEX) – José Emeterio Rivas, aged 44, of the Calor Estéreo radio station, was killed on the night of 6 April 2003, on the road between Barrancabermeja, Norte de Santander, and Bucaramanga, Santander, in northeastern Colombia. Rivas’ case had been taken up by the Interior and Justice Ministry’s protection programme for journalists since January 2001, […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – José Emeterio Rivas, aged 44, of the Calor Estéreo radio station, was killed on the night of 6 April 2003, on the road between Barrancabermeja, Norte de Santander, and Bucaramanga, Santander, in northeastern Colombia. Rivas’ case had been taken up by the Interior and Justice Ministry’s protection programme for journalists since January 2001, after he received death threats. The journalist had been assigned a police officer as a bodyguard.
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Luis Alfonso Novoa, coordinator of the National Police’s human rights section and representative of the institution before the journalists’ protection programme, the police officer accompanied the journalist to his home at midnight (local time) on Friday 4 April. He told Rivas that he could call him in an emergency over the weekend, to which the journalist replied that he was planning to stay at home during that time. Two days later, the bodies of Rivas and Paulo César Montesinos Reyes, a student in environmental engineering at the Universidad de la Paz, were found in a location known as “Dagota”, 30 kilometres from Barrancabermeja.
Since Rivas was not receiving protection on weekends, on 6 March, he had asked the protection programme to ensure that someone was assigned to accompany him at all times. The journalist had also requested a bullet-proof vest and an armour-plated vehicle. The Risk Evaluation Committee (Comité de Reglamentacion y Evaluacion de Riesgos), the institution responsible for evaluating cases of journalists under the protection programme, and of which FLIP is a member, met on 27 March. On that day, the committee discussed Rivas’ case and decided to re-evaluate the level of risk he was facing, in order to determine if he had been provided with adequate protection.
According to Rivas, since 1999 anonymous callers had telephoned him at the radio station to warn him that he was going to be killed. The journalist had also reported that in 2001 he received a message, presumably from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) guerrillas, warning him to be careful because “assassins” had been hired to kill him. In late 2001, while on the air, Rivas condemned local paramilitary groups, led by two individuals known as “Setenta” and “Harold”, who, according to the journalist, had ordered his assassination. On 28 February 2003, Rivas sent a letter to Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio advising him of the threat.
In January 2003, the journalist informed the Interior Ministry that his car had been set on fire in retaliation for his criticisms.
Rivas was a theologian by profession and for the last four years had been director of “Las Fuerzas Vivas”, an editorial and call-in programme on Calor Estéreo. The journalist denounced irregularities in government offices, invited listeners to comment on security matters (such as murders in the city), and questioned the actions of groups acting outside the law. The journalist believed that the threats were issued by “those who felt I was referring to them when I criticised various actors in society.”
According to a number of local journalists, the programme “Las Fuerzas Vivas” had a large following, especially among the working class, but also generated controversy with organisations, the political class and other media outlets, because of the language used by Rivas and opinions he expressed.
FLIP asked the attorney general to ensure that light is shed on the journalist’s assassination and those responsible are punished. Judicial authorities have demonstrated that they are ineffective when it comes to investigating threats against journalists. As a result, no physical measures appear to be sufficient to protect journalists from illegal armed groups’ apparent strategy to silence the press in certain regions of the country. Two journalists have been killed in less than one month. Both were under the Interior Ministry’s protection programme (see IFEX alerts of 25 and 19 March 2003). These latest deaths point to the government’s inability to guarantee journalists’ safety in regions like Arauca and Magdalena medio.
