A journalist slain in northern Colombia was investigating the murder of an attorney who had reported an alleged extortion attempt involving a phone number that matched one used by a local politician, Caracol Noticias reported.
Journalist Cristian Herrera had been looking into the death of attorney Fabio Álex Ortega, who was fatally shot in December 2024, a month after he asked prosecutors to investigate an alleged extortion attempt against his client.
Ortega said his client had been summoned to a meeting where two men demanded that she hand over property worth more than 3 billion pesos ($950,000) to settle debts they claimed her late partner owed them. According to Caracol Noticias, the phone number used to summon her matched one used by Ariel Rodríguez, who was then a local lawmaker and on July 20 was sworn in as a member of Colombia's House of Representatives.
The case was among those Herrera was investigating before he was killed this June. He was also investigating alleged ties between politicians in Cúcuta and a local cartel boss known as “El Faraón.”
Two suspected perpetrators of Herrera's killing are relatives of Rodríguez, according to previous reporting by Caracol Noticias.
