Two people riding a motorcycle murdered a journalist who was “working on several investigations for criminal and disciplinary prosecutions” in a municipal building in northern Colombia. Journalist working in northern Colombia, Rafael Moreno, whose police guard was decided to withdraw despite receiving threats, was murdered overnight Sunday into Monday, a local non-profit organization said.
“At night they murdered the leader, journalist and researcher Rafael Emiro Moreno Garavito in the city of Montelibano,” the Fundación Social Cordoberxia reported yesterday Monday.
Rafael Moreno was the director of a digital newspaper. He was in a municipal building when he was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle, explained John Freddy Suarez, a police officer.
“We know that he was working on several investigations for criminal and disciplinary prosecutions,” the social foundation Cordoberxia said, referring to the head of the website Voces de Córdoba, which specializes in news about the eponymous county.
In September, Rafael Moreno alleged that the Colombian state withdrew the police guard it had offered him because of threats he received.
In particular, the journalist conducted an investigation into the installation of a “quarry” on the property of a senator from where, according to him, materials for public works were extracted.
The special rapporteur on freedom of expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Pedro Vaca, condemned the killing of the journalist via Twitter.
“It is reported that his police protection has been withdrawn and this underlines the duty to investigate the case and punish those responsible,” he commented.
The prosecutor’s office announced that it had formed a special unit to investigate the murder.
Two journalists were killed by gunmen in late August, also in northern Colombia, bringing to 10 – according to the NGO Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) – the number of journalists killed by gunmen since the peace agreement was signed between the government and the former FARC rebel organization in 2016.
Mexico, where at least 10 journalists have been murdered in 2022, according to RSF’s count, remains the most dangerous country in Latin America for those practicing the profession.
