By Maria Hendrischke
The Spanish freelance photographer Borja Lázaro is still missing after disappearing on Jan. 8 in the Colombian northeastern department of La Guajira, infamous for drug trafficking and a growing presence of “Bacrim” - criminal paramilitary gangs – Reporters Without Borders informed.
Lázaro, a 34-year-old photojournalist from Vitoria, Spain, went to Colombia to shoot a photo series on indigenous cultures. According to a friend's reconstruction of the events, who was the last to see Lázaro, the photographer disappeared from his hostel in Cabo de la Vela in the early morning of January 8.
While the disappearance might be related to an accident, it is also speculated that the “Bacrim” may have abducted Lázaro. The Bacrim are known for frequently threatening journalists in Colombia, as a report of the Committee to Protect Journalists warned in 2013. The department of La Guajira, where Lázaro went missing, is one of the regions that has been dangerously infiltrated by the Bacrim.
Last year, four investigative journalists left the country as a precautionary measure after receiving death threats from La Guajira-based Bacrim. According to RSF, the Bacrim also kidnapped a Spanish couple in the same region and kept them in hold for a month in 2013.
The Colombian and Spanish authorities took up the case on Jan. 23, which Lazaro's family criticized as overly late and demanded a “more rigorous” investigation given the department’s record on gang crime.
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.
