(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Ramon Vásquez was released on 28 May 2002, late in the day, by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who had held him captive for three days. He arrived in the city of Santa Marta, Magdalena Department, early in the morning on 29 May. The journalist’s family told IPYS […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Ramon Vásquez was released on 28 May 2002, late in the day, by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who had held him captive for three days. He arrived in the city of Santa Marta, Magdalena Department, early in the morning on 29 May.
The journalist’s family told IPYS that they feared for Vásquez’s safety because there was active fighting between the military and the FARC in the area where he was being held.
In the last phone call Vásquez was able to make, he called one of his children crying: “get me out of here, get me out of here. There are bullets flying by me. There is active fighting taking place ⦠every time we see a helicopter we have to run. I can’t take it anymore.” The call was interrupted and there was no word from Vásquez until the morning of 29 May, when he was released unharmed.
Vásquez , aged 52 and the father of three children, is the crime reporter for the Magdalena newspaper “Hoy Diario”. He was kidnapped on 16 May at an illegal roadblock, along with a student who was allegedly released on 17 May and a driver, who was released on 24 May. Three others who had been kidnapped at the same time as Vásquez were freed days earlier.
Initially, Vásquez told his son not to worry because the FARC would release him once he agreed to write a report about them. Vásquez told an IPYS correspondent that at some point publishing a FARC statement in his newspaper became a condition of his release. The newspaper would not accept this condition, but instead offered to publish an interview with the FARC commander known as SolÃs Almeida. The commander never reached the group led by one Guillermo, which was holding Vásquez. Vásquez stated that he was finally released without these conditions being met.
The guerrillas told Vásquez that they would continue to “invite” journalists to go where they are so that they can see the reality of the situation for themselves.
