Journalism - the fatal
Lara, another journalist, was arrested held for four days and then expelled from the US as a "subversive." Her explanation of this strange incident was that a Colombian state service had provided a list of "suspect" journalists to the US government. case of a journalist who also suffered MacKenzie, Paris correspondent of a Colombian magazine, was fired after his embassy accused him of partici-
OVER THE LAST 16 years, 358 journalists have been murdered or
"disappeared" in Latin America. This figure has been given by the
Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP) in Mexico. The country hardest hit by this wave of murders was Argentina under the last military dictatorship, where 90 journalists lost their lives.
Today, there is a new rise in murders of journalists in Colombia.
The situation of journalists in this country has become one of the most dangerous in all of Latin America.
On
December 17,
Guillermo
Cano, editor and publisher of the
El Espectador, daily of the one oldest papers in Latin America and one of the most important in Colombia, was assassinated as he left his office.
Although murders of journalists have been not uncommon in Colombia, this event aroused a wave of indignation that rocked the country.
Three months later, another journalist, Raul Echavarria, was shot down in
Cali. Along with Cano, he was the most respected figure in the Col ombian press and a man of democratic convictions. He was the fifth journalist to be murdered in 1986 alone.
The journalists of Bogota called a demonstration that brought out
20,000 people. All the country's
TV and radio networks and newspapers went on strike for 24 hours.
In the December 29 issue of the
Paris
Liberation,
Christian
Martin devoted an article to the subject. It was entitled, "Journalism in Colombia, a fatal profession."
Martin described the context in which Guillermo Cano was murdered. Over the past ten years,
26 journalists have been assassinated in Colombia,
"for most of them daring to write two burning on issues in national life - the truce between the guerrillas and the army and the drug business, with the corruption that is spreading at all levels."
Almost all of them were shot down after coming into conflict with the local authorities, mayors, chiefs of police and so on. Only a minority were victims of commonlaw criminals. It should be noted that out of the 26 journalists assassinated, 17 lost their lives during the
Parallel to these murders, many journalists have been death threats to leave the country. Colombia's best
Daniel Samper, has taken refuge in Spain for that reason.
But even exile has not always meant safety from persecution. Olga Behar, TV journalist and author of a book on the Colombian guerrillas, had to flee to escape by the military. Exiled in Mexico, she was arrested on October 26
Immigration Service at few days before, Patricia pating in a demonstration the massacre in Bogota's Palace of
In a climate of economic crisis prevailing self-censorship, renowned journalists such as G Rios and Heriberto Fiorillo have been fired and then blacklisted for refusing to submit to the censorship demanded by the govern-
On two occasions, bombs have gone off in the headquarters of the Communist weekly Voz. In April and October last year the journalists Heriberto Cardenas in Cesar Perez in Medellin were shot.
Three Le Monde journalists were also expelled from the country last year for doing a feature two American journalists, Timothy were working in a "zone of violence."
Those are the signs of the times in a country where journalism has become a "fatal profession." [From the March issue of Murmure, bulletin of the journalists of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, 9, rue de Tunis, Paris 75011.]
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COLOMBIA profession