Journalist threatened after reporting on gangs in Colombia
Journalist threatened after reporting on gangs in Colombia
Bogotá, March 16, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a threat made against Colombian newspaper columnist Ana Cristina Restrepo Jiménez and calls on authorities to hold the perpetrator to account.
Restrepo, a widely read columnist for the dailies El Colombiano of Medellín and El Espectador newspaper of Bogotá, told CPJ she received a telephone call on Saturday after she conducted interviews in a neighborhood in Medellín that is dominated by drug gangs. She said the caller, who did not identify himself, warned her not to return to Medellín's Lovaina barrio and threatened one of her contacts in Lovaina.
"Don't come back here or else we will kill him and then you," the caller said, according to Restrepo. The caller added that he knew where Restrepo's children attended school.
For several months, Restrepo has conducted interviews with residents in Lovaina for a chapter in a book about Medellín neighborhoods. Restrepo spoke to sources about local drug sales and was told the narcotics trade was controlled by the Oficina de Envigado, Medellín's most powerful crime syndicate, she told CPJ.
More:
https://cpj.org/2015/03/journalist-threatened-after-reporting-on-gangs-in-.php
