The security situation for the Colombian press seems to be getting worse in the midst of peace negotiations between the government and rebel groups in the country.
The Spanish journalist Salud Hernández-Mora disappeared on Saturday May 21 at noon in the municipality of El Tarra, while investigating the eradication of illegal crops in the region of Catatumbo in the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, according to Reuters.
Jineth Bedoya Lima, the Colombian journalist who was kidnapped, tortured and subjected to sexual violence on May 25, 2000 by a paramilitary group in retaliation for her work as a journalist, formally returned the administrative reparations that the Colombian State awarded her as a victim of the armed conflict, according to newspaper El Espectador.
Four former officials of the now defunct Department of Administrative Security (DAS) in Colombia were called for questioning by the Attorney General’s Office as part of its investigation of the threats and psychological torture of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, according to newspaper El Espectador. [Read a brief explanation of the scandal below]
Peruvian, Mexican and Colombian journalists received the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards from Spanish newspaper El País in Madrid on May 5.
Matías Avelino Castro of the Dominican Republic, alleged mastermind behind the murder of Dominican journalist José Agustín Silvestre in 2011, was arrested on April 3 in Bogotá, Colombia, reported Colonel Juan Carlos Gómez, chief of Interpol Colombia, according to AFP.
Once more, Colombian authorities are investigating threats against journalists and social leaders distributed via pamphlets and signed with the name of a criminal group.
UPDATE (3/21/16): A former Colombian paramilitary fighter accused in the May 2000 kidnap, torture and rape of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima has been sentenced to 28 years in prison. Mario Jaimes Mejía, known as 'El Panadero,' accepted charges against him on Feb. 2. He was sentenced on March 18.
Almost 17 years after the murder of Colombian journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón, one of the country’s head prosecutors finally identified the killing as a crime of the state due to the participation of members of the Army and the defunct department of intelligence (known as DAS) along with a criminal organization.
For El Espectador’s 129th anniversary and in anticipation of the signing of a long-anticipated peace accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian newspaper is asking readers whom they will forgive.
The first group of fellows for the Adelante initiative from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) have been selected and are preparing for trips to Colombia and the Mexico-U.S. border.
The Colombian media may have never talked so much about peace as they did in 2015, when the government and the FARC guerrilla advanced in negotitions to end the armed conflict of more than 50 years. However, this has not translated into decreased attakcs on the press in the country.