President Juan Manuel Santos revealed that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had been ordered to kill journalist Olga Cecilia Vega, who according to the group had infiltrated the FARC and worked for intelligence agencies from the United States, EFE and RCN Radio reported.
A man identifying himself as the brother of the former state prosecutor of Chihuahua, Patricia González, declared in a video that he and his sister are part of the criminal organization “La Línea,” also known as the Juárez cartel, Milenio reports.
The legislature of the northern border state of Chihuahua unanimously passed several legal reforms that will punish those who kill on-duty police officers and journalists with life in prison, El Diario de Juárez and Milenio report.
Police have arrested a man in Rio Grande do Norte state who has confessed to killing radio journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros on Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports. Gomes was a local radio news director and blogger who had reported on corruption and crime, including drug trafficking.
Esneider Mayorga Corrales. the former mayor of Curillo, in southern Colombia, received 40 years in prison for ordering the killing of journalist and community leader Hernando Salas Rojas last year, reported the news agency EFE. The hit-man who committed the murder, Elber Parra Cuéllar, was sentenced to 42 years.
Katherine Izaguirre, a journalist for the Honduran station Globo TV, said several armed individuals kidnapped her for two hours, threatened her, and then stole her camera, El Tiempo reports.
On Oct. 18, journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros was killed in front of his home in the city of Caicó in Rio Grande do Norte state, O Globo’s Repórter de Crime blog reports. F. Gomes, as he was known, worked in radio in the city, was an active blogger, and collaborated with various media outlets in the state. He is the second Brazilian journalist killed in three days.
Renowned Dominican journalist Luis Eduardo Lora has reported receiving warnings from the lawyers of two convicted drug traffickers, telling him to retract his writings about them, Diario Libre reports.
Journalist Wanderlei dos Reis was shot by three men Saturday night, Oct. 16, inside his home in Ibitinga, São Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reports. He underwent surgery for a serious leg wound and died Sunday morning.
During President Felipe Calderón’s trip to the violent border city across from El Paso, Texas, a group of journalists from Ciudad Juárez called on the president to solve the killings of their colleagues, EFE and the International Press Institute report.
Through its You Tube channel, the Inter American Press Association has launched a series of videos highlighting its international campaign to counter violence against the press in countries such as Mexico, Honduras, and Colombia.
One month after the killing of journalist and social activist Adams Ledesma, director of a TV channel in a Buenos Aires shantytown, the crime remains unpunished, and neighbors and relatives have called a march to insist that the case is solved, Perfil newspaper reports.