“Once again they silenced a journalist. The bullets took away the voice of Mardonio Mejía Mendoza, 65, the director of the community radio station Sonora Estéreo, in San Pedro (Sucre). An active member of the livestock association of that department in the Colombian Caribbean, at 7:23 p.m. on Wednesday [Jan. 24] two men approached him at the entrance of his house, in the Calle Real neighborhood, and shot him twice in the head. The community immediately alerted the authorities, who transferred Mejía to the nearest health clinic. It was too late: he arrived without vital signs.
Jonathan Bock, director of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP, for its acronym in Spanish), explains that the main hypotheses used by local and departmental authorities 'suggest that it would be related to his work, somewhat due to the visibility he had.' However, he clarifies that Mejía 'had not filed any complaint with the authorities' and that in his last broadcasts 'he had talked about feminicide and other topics, always in an indignant tone.'”
