(FLIP/IFEX) – A package recently delivered to the RCN radio station’s offices contained a threatening letter directed at journalists Olga Lucia Cotamo, Ángela Echeverri and Fernando Fonseca. An individual on a motorcycle reportedly dropped off the package on the night of 9 June 2004 and it was found by the station’s employees the next day. […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – A package recently delivered to the RCN radio station’s offices contained a threatening letter directed at journalists Olga Lucia Cotamo, Ángela Echeverri and Fernando Fonseca. An individual on a motorcycle reportedly dropped off the package on the night of 9 June 2004 and it was found by the station’s employees the next day. The station in based in the city of Cúcuta, northeastern Colombia, near the border with Venezuela.
According to information gathered by FLIP, the three journalists were warned that they have been declared “military targets” because they support President Alvaro Uribe. The journalists are warned to “take the threat seriously as it cannot be reversed.”
Cotamo, Echeverri and Fonseca filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the meantime, Cúcuta police are trying to establish the authenticity of the message, which was reportedly signed by members of the Carlos Germán Velasco division of the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) guerrillas.
Fonseca, RCN manager in Cúcuta, said the station has received numerous threats in 2004 but this is the first time individuals have been named in the threats. RCN’s offices in Cúcuta came under attack in October 1997 and again in November 2002. Nevertheless, FLIP cannot establish any connection between those incidents and the threatening letter.
In response to the threats, the station’s management has adopted certain security measures and the Cúcuta police chief, Colonel Marco Antonio Pedreros, announced that police were also setting up a security system for the station.
FLIP will continue investigating the incident. The organisation calls on authorities to ensure that the motives behind the threat are established and that those responsible are punished.
