Media Release 21 March 2000 Colombia Press War: 4 Journalists Killed In First Quarter of 2000 A fourth journalist has been killed in Colombia this year. A country where journalists routinely face the treat of assassinations, violence on missions, forced exile, and continual threats to their safety. Humberto Good Garcés was murdered by unknown men […]
Media Release 21 March 2000
Colombia Press War: 4 Journalists Killed
In First Quarter of 2000
A fourth journalist has been killed in Colombia this year. A country where journalists routinely face the treat of assassinations, violence on missions, forced exile, and continual threats to their safety.
Humberto Good Garcés was murdered by unknown men last Saturday in a discotheque. He was shot at five times. The gunmen took his car and later abandoned it. The police found his car and discovered a membership card of Réporters sans Frontiers, that had been ripped in two.
Earlier this year, 3 other Colombian journalists were killed.
On 7 February, John Restrepo Abello, cameraman for a local television channel, was assassinated by unknown individuals. This case appears to be under investigation by the local authorities.
On 9 February, journalist Antonio Gomez Gomez was murdered by unknown assailants. Gomez was shot to death in his home, just moments after watching television with his wife and daughter. The killers wore hoods and forced his wife and daughter to lie on the ground while they shot the journalist.
On 5 March, journalist Maria Elena Salinas Gallego was found dead in a correctional center. The journalist’s body was found next to two guerrilla fighters from the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were killed during a confrontation with army troops.
The IFJ President Christopher Warren described the latest killing as intolerable. “The scale of attacks on journalists and democracy in Colombia must provoke both outrage and intervention by the international community.” The IFJ plans to raise the crisis in Colombia with the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva in the coming weeks at its annual session, and is also planning a solidarity action in Latin America around World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd.
