Leonidas González Pérez, Colombia – Under Investigation

Sports journalist Leonidas González Pérez was found dead on Feb. 27, 2017 in a street in the municipality of Bello, a suburb of Medellin, with trauma from apparent blows to the head. A local human rights activist said that González received a death threat within two months before the killing. The activist advanced four potential theories for the killing: González’s journalistic work, his denunciation 10 years earlier of paramilitaries in Urabá, the possibility that paramilitaries believed he had been paid to denounce them, or an altercation with his landlord over unpaid rent. González’s wife has indicated that she believed the killing to be related to an attempted robbery.

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