The suspect in the March 2014 killing of pregnant journalist Adriana Urquiola is back in Venezuela after having fled to Colombia.
Colombian authorities delivered Yonny Bolívar to Venezuela on June 18 after he was captured by Interpol Colombia and police in Barranquilla, Colombia on June 11.
According to AFP, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said the following about Bolívar during a national radio and television address: “we sought him, we captured him, and he will be securely imprisoned here.”
Authorities said he has been hiding in Colombia for months using false identities.
In May, Venezuelan Ombudsman Tarek William Saab urged Interpol to continue the search for Bolívar, according to Venevision.
Bolívar was previously sentenced to 22 years in prison for kidnapping and theft of a military title, but a judge granted him freedom in 2005.
Urquiola was 28-years-old and seven months pregnant when she was shot in the head after getting off of the public bus she was on, according to Noticiero Venevision. A gunman had fired on a crowd of protesters at a roadblock.
She was a sign language interpreter for a television news program on Venevision.
“For her, sign language involved constant learning, which made her an excellent interpter recognized by the community which she reported each day,” Noticiero Venevision reported upon her death.
She was one of 43 people who died during anti-government protests that took place from February to June 2014, according to EFE.
Government supporters and critics clashed during the demonstrations that gripped the country for months.
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.
