Colombian reporter Mary Luz Avendaño has been forced to leave Colombia due to threats against her life, according toThe Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP), which reported this week that she had fled the country for an indefinite period of time.
Avendaño worked as the correspondent of El Espectador newspaper in Medellín, in the northwestern department of Antioquia. On 22 June, one of her sources received a phone call in which a voice gave instructions to tell the journalist to “stop publishing nonsense” if she “did not want to win the grand prize.” She had been reporting on violence between drug cartels and the possible alleged complicity of the security forces.
A few days after the first threat, another telephone call was received at El Espectador’s office in Medellín, asking for personal information about Avendaño, including where she lived, FLIP reported. Since then, the journalist has received police protection, but she decided to leave Colombia due to information from both intelligence sources and the drug traffickers themselves, indicating that her safety continued to be at risk.
The Circle of Journalists of Bogotá expressed concern, saying that the move into exile meant “the return of the violent ones, targeting freedom of expression.” The union urged the authorities to investigate who was behind the intimidation, the local press reported.
“During the last days I have thought for the first time about leaving journalism, but now I say that will be impossible,” the journalist said, according to El Espectador. “I don’t regret even for one minute having continued with my work. I am what I always have wanted to be: a journalist.”
Avendaño has worked for Teleantioquia, Hora 13 Noticias and El Espectador, always covering topics related to human rights, armed conflict and drugs. In 1998 she was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia while covering the presidential elections. She is a member of Reporters of Colombia, a journalists protection network.
According to FLIP, since January 2011, in the department of Antioquia – one of the country’s most violent regions – one journalist has been assassinated, five have been threatened and one has been shot.FLIP has also documented that at the beginning of the year another journalist had to leave Colombia temporarily, and there have been around five cases of internal displacement in 2011.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the Latin American Observatory for Freedom of Expression reported that on 20 August two individuals blocked the circulation of 2500 copies of the newspaperAl Día de Sincelejo by buying up all the copies before they were distributed.
María Victoria Bustamante, coordinator of the newspaper, explained that these persons were in a lorry with political propaganda associated with a local politician. In the edition that could not be read, there was an article noting that he was the subject of alleged corruption charges. The information, she announced, will be published again.
