(FLIP/IFEX) – In the early morning of 13 March 2005, broadcast facilities belonging to the Cristalina Estéreo and Espléndida Estéreo radio stations came under attack. The two stations are based in Florencia, capital of Caquetá department, southern Colombia. The incident took place in the village of Santo Domingo, located eight kilometres from Florencia. Several armed […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – In the early morning of 13 March 2005, broadcast facilities belonging to the Cristalina Estéreo and Espléndida Estéreo radio stations came under attack. The two stations are based in Florencia, capital of Caquetá department, southern Colombia.
The incident took place in the village of Santo Domingo, located eight kilometres from Florencia. Several armed men placed nearly 20 kilograms of explosives in a building that houses the stations’ broadcast equipment and electrical plant. The explosion knocked down the stations’ antenna and, as a result, the stations’ listeners have been without information since the attack.
Cristalina Estéreo’s director, Jairo Mosquera, said the explosion destroyed a significant portion of the stations’ operating systems and that they are continuing to evaluate the damages.
Caquetá’s police chief, Colonel Gabriel Rodríguez Castro, told FLIP that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) 49th Front claimed responsibility for the attack. He added that three other explosives were found nearby and were detonated by police.
According to Florencia’s mayor, Arnoldo Barrera Cadena, a special council, involving the Administrative Department of Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS), police and the army, decided to implement a security plan for all of the city’s media outlets.
This is the fourth attack against broadcast facilities documented by FLIP in 2005. The authorities believe that the FARC guerrillas were also responsible for the previous attacks, which took place in the departments of Putumayo and Valle del Cauca (see IFEX alerts of 4 and 3 March, 24 and 22 February 2005).
FLIP considers these attacks against media outlets’ infrastructure to be serious violations of freedom of expression and the right of citizens to receive information. The organisation calls on the armed groups involved to respect the work of journalists.
