(FLIP/IFEX) – Early in the morning of 29 April 2003, journalist Jaime Rengifo Revero was assassinated. The incident occurred in the city of Maicao, Rioacha, northern Colombia, near the Venezuelan border. For the last three years, the 48-year-old journalist had been living at Maicao’s Venecia hotel. The man who killed him checked in to the […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Early in the morning of 29 April 2003, journalist Jaime Rengifo Revero was assassinated. The incident occurred in the city of Maicao, Rioacha, northern Colombia, near the Venezuelan border.
For the last three years, the 48-year-old journalist had been living at Maicao’s Venecia hotel. The man who killed him checked in to the hotel on 28 April, under the name Luis Alfredo Gómez, and identified himself as a businessman. According to the local police, the assassin shot Rengifo five times and then fled with another individual on a motorcycle.
Rengifo was owner of the El Guajiro publishing company and the director and host of the programme “Periodistas en Acción” (“Journalists in Action”), broadcast from 6:40 a.m. to 7:10 a.m. (local time) on the Olímpica radio station. He also managed the newspaper “Guajiro Quincenario” on behalf of the same publishing company.
His radio programme focused on civic issues. According to Orlando Páez, one of the journalist’s colleagues, Rengifo denounced criminals operating in Maicao. This was corroborated by Nini Johana Coterio, the administrative assistant at Olímpica, who said that on recent broadcasts the journalist had named some of the criminals and urged the authorities to investigate them.
Orlando Páez added that during the week of 14 April, graffiti appeared on the town hall’s walls, warning the journalist that he would be killed.
Rengifo was the son of the Radio Uno station manager in Buga, Valle. He had worked as a journalist for more than 20 years. He had been a correspondent for the Televisa station and director of the Reporteros Caracol de la Guajira programme. According to local police, the murder is likely related to his profession as a journalist. An investigation has been launched.
