(IPYS/IFEX) – On 29 November 2000, in a public hearing, the Neiva Special Court began to hear the case of journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal’s assassination. The journalist was killed on 16 April 1998 in Pitalito, department of Huila, in Colombia’s southwestern region. According to information collected by IPYS, those alleged to have committed the crime, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 29 November 2000, in a public hearing, the Neiva Special Court began to hear the case of journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal’s assassination. The journalist was killed on 16 April 1998 in Pitalito, department of Huila, in Colombia’s southwestern region.
According to information collected by IPYS, those alleged to have committed the crime, contractor Fernando Bermúdez, his bodyguard Víctor Félix Trujillo Calderon and Alfaro Quintero Alvarado, are expected to appear before the court. The three accused are currently being held as a security measure and are not eligible to be released on bail.
Carvajal, 35 years old and married at the time of his death, was shot ten times as he was leaving the Los Pinos school, where he worked as a teacher. He was also the director of a news programme broadcast on Radio Sur de Pitalito, owned by the radio network RCN, and a town councillor for the Conservative Party.
In regards to the motive for the journalist’s assassination, two hypotheses have emerged: first, the journalist repeatedly reported on allegations of corruption via the radio programme and second, the radio station where he worked was a military target of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Revolucionarias Armadas de Colombia, FARC) at the end of 1997.
Carvajal was known as someone who fought against unethical acts, government corruption and guerilla actions.
In January, the National Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office set the investigation on a different track when it found sufficient proof to accuse Bermúdez of having committed the crime and bring him to trial.
Bermúdez had been captured some weeks after the crime, together with Trujillo Calderon, known as “Half Life”, and Quintero Alvarado, known as “Harold” or “The Fatman”.
