(IPYS/IFEX) – On the evening of Friday 16 March 2001, Guillermo Angulo Peláez, sixty-nine year old commentator and international analyst for Radionet, was kidnapped. The abduction occurred at 6:45 p.m. (local time) in La Union municipality, Choachí jurisdiction, Cundinamarca department, in the country’s central region. According to information provided by the authorities to IPYS’ correspondent […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the evening of Friday 16 March 2001, Guillermo Angulo Peláez, sixty-nine year old commentator and international analyst for Radionet, was kidnapped. The abduction occurred at 6:45 p.m. (local time) in La Union municipality, Choachí jurisdiction, Cundinamarca department, in the country’s central region.
According to information provided by the authorities to IPYS’ correspondent in Colombia, “professor” Angulo, as he is more commonly known, was travelling with his sister Mariela in a van when they were intercepted as they were about to enter into Angulo’s farm.
The chief of police in Cundinamarca, Colonel Álvaro Sandoval, told IPYS that armed men accosted the analyst as he was stepping down from the vehicle and was about to enter his country home.
The kidnapping occurred soon after Angulo left the radio station for which he works. The men who held him up were members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC), according to the authorities.
Angulo was consul for Colombia in New York. He is a cinematographer and a close friend of writer and Nobel prize for literature winner Gabriel García Márquez. The analyst is married to an Italian citizen and they have two children. He grows orchids at his farm, which he visits on the weekends.
IPYS tried to obtain more information on the possible motives for the kidnapping, but the analyst’s relatives preferred to keep silent. The chief of the anti-kidnapping squad, known as Gaula, General Leonardo Gallego, said that they are not aware of any concrete motives, nor if the kidnapping was carried out in connection with the analyst’s profession or for extortion.
The most likely motive is extortion. According to the authorities, the kidnapping was carried out by the same FARC division which in 2000 kidnapped the director of the Noticiero Hora Cero programme, Guillermo “La Chiva” Cortés (see IFEX alerts of 16 February and 31 January 2000).
In the first two months of 2001, 427 kidnappings were recorded in Colombia. According to the authorities, this figure has dropped by thirty one percent in comparison with the same time period last year. The Gaula estimates that the figure has dropped by 193 cases.
The press has been one of the groups most affected by the numerous kidnappings carried out by paramilitary groups and guerrillas. Although the armed groups kidnap some journalists for ransom, they mostly kidnap them to settle an account with them over the information they report on, or to use them as messengers to distribute their bulletins and press releases.
High Commissioner for Peace Camilo Gomez expressed his dismay over this attack on press freedom and announced that the government would do everything possible to obtain Angulo’s release.
The director of the magazine “Cambio”, Mauricio Vargas, condemned the kidnapping, calling it a contemptible act. “Angulo is a free spirit who rubs many of the armed actors the wrong way,” the journalist remarked.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– protesting the kidnapping
– urging them to ensure that appropriate actions are taken so that Angulo is promptly released and the necessary investigations are carried out
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic
Carrera 8 No. 7-26, Bogotá
Fax: +571 336 21 09 / 286 79 37 / 286 74 34
E-mail: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
Alfonso Gomez Méndez
Attorney General
Diagonal 22B No. 52-01
Fax: +571 570 20 00, ext. 1587
E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
Senador Gabriel Zapata
President of the Senate’s Human Rights Commission
Carrera 7 No. 8-68, Oficina 707, edificio nuevo del Congreso
Fax: +571 350 1031
E-mail: zapatagei@senado.gov.co
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
