A Colombian journalist has been threatened by one of the most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia after reporting on the war over drug distribution in the neighborhoods of Ibagué, said the newspaper El Espectador.
Juan Manuel Escobar, judicial editor of the station Ondas de Ibagué and correspondent for Canal El Tiempo, said that one of his sources assured him that ‘Leo Maleo’ “is furious with you, he says he’s going to cut your head off, that he’s going to play soccer” with it, among other threats, said the newspaper.
In his notes, the reporter said that ‘Leo Maleo’ rents an armored car for business and that he could be the man behind the murder of a man who had his eyes pulled out, was doused in gasoline and burned alive, said the Colombian Federation of Journalists.
That organization and the Professional Circle of Journalists of Tolima called for the National Protection Unit to protect Escobar and his family.
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.
