(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA calls for investigation into threats to slain journalist’s family in Colombia It urges witness protection in Nelson Carvajal murder case MIAMI, Florida (August 14, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on the Human Rights Unit of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA calls for investigation into threats to slain journalist’s family in Colombia
It urges witness protection in Nelson Carvajal murder case
MIAMI, Florida (August 14, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on the Human Rights Unit of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to conduct an immediate investigation into threats made to family members of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, who was murdered in Pitalito in the Colombian province of Huila on April 16, 1998. A sister, his widow and two daughters fled the country, fearing they lacked guarantees for their personal safety.
Gloria Carvajal, who left Colombia on the weekend with Carvajal’s widow, Estela Bolaños, and her two daughters, was working as health secretary at Pitalito city hall. She began receiving telephoned threats after complaining of unlawful activities in local health centers.
Miriam Carvajal, another of the dead journalist’s sisters, told the IAPA’s Rapid Response Unit in Colombia that the latest threat said, “Very legalistic, just like your brother. You know how you’re going to end up. We need you to resign your post.”
She added, “Although I cannot say that the threats are directly linked to the new investigation under way into the murder of my brother, we do believe it is important that the matter should at least be cleared up so as to avoid speculation and bring some calm to my family.”
She said that Carvajal’s widow and her two daughters had left the country along with Gloria Carvajal because they felt it was not safe to remain in their hometown, mainly because they had noticed that strangers had been tailing the children over the past year.
“We condemn these threats which have led to four members of the Carvajal family having to leave the country,” declared Enrique Santos Calderón, chairman of the IAPA’s Anti-Impunity Committee. “The Attorney General’s Office must look into the matter urgently.”
The IAPA also called on the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to provide due protection to any key witness who might shed light on who murdered Carvajal, so that there be no repetition of the situations in the past that prevented the real culprits being brought to justice.
Carvajal, a journalist and teacher, was killed in Pitalito, Huila province, on April 16, 1998. He was the host of the news programs “Noticiero Momento Regional,” “Mirador de la Semana,” “Amanecer en el Campo” and “Tribuna Médica” broadcast by Radio Sur radio station, in which he denounced political corruption in the local government.
His murder case was submitted by the IAPA to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on June 21, 2002, and on November 11, 2004 the IACHR proposed it be resolved through an amicable solution with the Colombian government so that the homicide not continue to go unpunished.
In seeking to reach that amicable agreement, the IAPA and officials held meetings on December 14, 2005 and April 5, 2006; meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Office has been conducting a new investigation in a bid to identify those responsible for the murder.
