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]
Police have detained a man allegedly involved in the murder of Mexican journalist Anabel Flores Salazar whose murder authorities said was motivated by her work as a journalist.
Honduran journalist Félix Molina who was attacked twice in one day on May 2 has said he is considering leaving the country.
On April 22, 2016, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights received a complaint against the Brazilian State for the 1975 death of journalist Vladimir Herzog during the country’s military dictatorship. According to the newspaper O Globo, "the Federal Attorney General has already been notified" and the Court must now hear from those involved to decide whether to accept the complaint.
Journalist Francisco Pacheco Beltrán, correspondent of El Sol de Acapulco and radio station Capital Maxima 97.1FM, was killed on April 25 in front of his house in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero state, in Mexico. He is the fifth journalist murdered this year in the country.
After the killing of a blogger in Maranhão, freedom of expression nonprofit organization Article 19 Brazil has called on federal and state authorities to respond to violence against journalists in that state.
Depicting a funeral march, dozens of Honduran journalists marched with at least 60 symbolic coffins to the public prosecutor’s office in Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the deaths of journalists that have occurred in the country in recent years, reported newspaper El Heraldo.
Journaist Ivan Pereira Costa was shot outside his home in Cujubim, Rondônia, in northwestern Brazil. His wife, journalist Ediléia Santos Silva, told G1 that the attempted murder may be related to her husband's work.
Mexican authorities announced the arrest of former director of the Municipal Police of Silao (in Guanajuato state), Nicasio Aguirre Guerreros, who is accused of ordering the 2014 attack against journalist journalist Karla Janeth Silva Guerrero, according to El Universal.