(FLIP/IFEX) – On 16 October 2004, the daily “El Tiempo” reported on the assassination of Jaime Alberto Madero Muñoz, a newspaper vendor in the city of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s northern coast. Madero’s murder was mentioned in a special report on the state of journalism on the Caribbean coast. Madero was reportedly murdered by a […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – On 16 October 2004, the daily “El Tiempo” reported on the assassination of Jaime Alberto Madero Muñoz, a newspaper vendor in the city of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s northern coast. Madero’s murder was mentioned in a special report on the state of journalism on the Caribbean coast.
Madero was reportedly murdered by a hired killer on 20 September, at approximately 12:30 p.m. (local time). The incident occurred near Santa Marta’s main market square, where he sold local and national newspapers every day.
According to information gathered by FLIP, the assassination is linked to the publication of an article in the local newspaper “El Informador” on the capture of individuals presumed to be paramilitaries.
Copies of the newspaper were sold out a few hours after it went on sale. Madero decided to copy the “El Informador” article and the accompanying photograph and to continue selling the photocopies. According to “El Tiempo”, an unknown individual approached him and told him to “stop selling that thing.” Madero ignored the warning and continued selling the copies. A few minutes later, he was murdered.
Madero had been selling newspapers in Santa Marta for 20 years but did not have a formal arrangement with any of the papers. “El Informador”‘s director told FLIP that Madero was one of the paper’s vendors but he was not under contract.
This is not the first time that a newspaper vendor has been assassinated in Colombia. On 13 July 2002, Elizabeth Obando, a distributor of the regional daily “El Nuevo Día” in Roncesvalles municipality, Tolima, was assassinated by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC). The guerrillas had warned Obando to stop selling the paper or “suffer the consequences” (see IFEX alerts of 15 August 2003 and 25 July 2002).
FLIP condemns Madero’s assassination. The organisation notes that there is a strong paramilitary presence in Santa Marta and protests any attempt to prevent the city’s citizens from accessing information which is of great relevance to them.
