Journalist and analyst Claudia López fled Colombia due to alleged death threats by a criminal organization, she reported on Twitter.
“Yesterday (Monday) I left the country as a precautionary measure,” said López who added that she hopes to return when the Police and the State Prosecutors “do their job and look into [the crime].”
López, in a conversation with the radio station Caracol Radio, said that everything suggests that the threats came from the criminal organization, or Bacrim, known as ‘Marquitos Figueroa’ which has control over the northern department of Guajira. She added that the threats could involve political allies of this organization, which include, allegedly, the current governor of this department, Francisco ‘Kiko’ Gómez.
López reserved her harshest criticism for the National Police and the State Prosecutor due to the fact that these same organizations had information and tips regarding these threats for months. “And yet, in these last four months, the National Police has not been capable of simply verifying the most basic evidence. It is their duty to confirm or reject the information.”
In fact it was four months ago that the National Protection Unit reported on a plan to kill Gonzalo Guillén, one of Lopez’s colleagues, and peace process analysts León Valencia and Ariel Ávila. A week before López's departure from the country, the government had provided her with an armored car and other security measures.
As a result of these new threats, the four analysts sent a letter to the General National Prosecutor, the General Commanding Officer of the National Police, and to the Ministry of the Interior where they asked authorities to move on these investigations and verify or discard the evidence they hold, reported the website La Silla Vacía.
"We firmly believe in the authorities and we have followed their recommendations. But our security and our lives do not depend on an armored car and security detail, but rather on the effectiveness of the justice system,” the letter said.
The Bacrim have turned into a serious threat for the Colombian press. In a May report, the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, pointed out the danger that these organizations represent to journalists, especially in remote areas where their power permeates political groups and law enforcement.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
