Colombia

Luis Carlos Cervantes was murdered on 12 August 2014 in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia. Cervantes had been receiving death threats since 2010, and had filed at least five reports with the national prosecutor general.

Diego Gomez, 26, a Master’s student who researches biodiversity shared a research paper that he had used in his own work, online for others in his field to access. The author of the paper then filed a lawsuit over the “violation of [his] economic and related rights.”

On Thursday 22 May 2014 journalist Gonzalo Guillén was warned by agents of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (Dirección Central de Policía Judicial e Inteligencia, DIJIN) and the District Attorney’s Office of “an elaborate plan to have him killed”.

Reporters Without Borders asks Colombian presidential candidates to make it a point of honour to ensure that the safety of journalists is respected during the elections.

The Inter American Press Association urges Colombia’s authorities to identify the perpetrators in the murder of Colombian journalist Nelson Carvajal on the 16th anniversary of his assassination – a call the organization has been making since it began investigating the case in 2001.

The criminal proceedings against investigative journalist Claudia Julieta Duque’s alleged kidnappers are finally progressing for the first time in more than a decade. But, at the same time, the repeated attempts to intimidate Duque have intensified as the proceedings have progressed and she recently reported renewed intimidation of her parents.

Last February, the Colombian media revealed that the country’s intelligence service carried out widespread surveillance of key NGOs, journalists, and leftist politicians, including their own governmental team responsible for negotiating a peace agreement with the Colombian guerilla.

Reporters Without Borders calls for full respect for the work of journalists by President Juan Manuel Santos’ government and members of the armed forces, both acting and retired, following the latest allegations of the Colombian government spying on the media.

On Wednesday 19 February 2014, camera operator Yonni Steven Caicedo was killed in the Caldas neighbourhood of Buenaventura. He had been working as a camera operator for two local TV stations before he had left the city seven months earlier because of death threats.

Borja Lázaro, a Spanish freelance photographer, has disappeared in La Guajira, Colombia. La Guajira’s now jailed former governor Juan Francisco ‘Kiko’ Gómez was known for having close links with criminal gangs and for using them against troublesome journalists.

Journalist Eva Durán, who is also an animal rights campaigner, has had to go into hiding after receiving threats on 18 January 2014. She received a call from a man who threatened to silence her by cutting out her tongue.

The Colombian journalist Deisy Rodriguez Lagos and the Italian documentary maker Bruno Federico had a narrow escape when a gunman opened fire as they were covering an operation to expel peasants in the Chimichagua district.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for a thorough investigation into the 19 November 2013 attempted murder of TV journalist Diego Gómez Valverde in the eastern city of Cali. RSF says the police should “avoid their usual tendency to rule out any connection with the victim’s work as a journalist.”

Violence, intimidation and censorship are being used against a campaign of peaceful demonstrations, called a Minga, that indigenous groups are currently waging in many parts of Colombia to defend their rights.

On 16 October 2013, journalist Gonzalo Guillén decided to leave Colombia because of death threats he received. Guillén was one of four people who were the targets of a plan to kill a group of journalists and researchers over investigations they had done.

In Colombia, where the statute of limitations for crimes against journalists often results in journalists’ murders expiring, unsolved, the recent murder of newspaper vendor José Darío Arenas in broad daylight has inspired outrage and calls for action from IFEX members.