Journalist Alvaro Alonso Escobar, owner of Región newspaper, which is distributed in the town of Fundación in the State Magdalena, was murdered on December 23 in his house after suffering three gunshot wounds to the head. The assailant arrived at his house at 7 oclock in the afternoon when an argument ensued, three shots were fired to Escobars head, and then the assailant fled on motorcycle.
Escobar covered news in the towns of Fundación, Aracataca, El Retén, San Angel, and Pivijai, which are considered by officials to be high-risk areas because of the strong presence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups.
IAPA President Robert Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, asked Colombian authorities to conduct, "an extensive investigation so that those responsible are punished to the fullest extent of the law and so that the true motives of the crime are found."
According to information obtained from the IAPAs Rapid Response Unit in Colombia, the chief of the Magdalena Police Department, Luis Mesa, had disclosed that Escobars murder "was for personal reasons" and that he did not know if the journalist had received threats in the past.
Rafael Molina, Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and director of Ahora magazine, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, indicated that, "we are not interested in premature motives for this murder, but rather that there is a serious and thorough investigation especially since this crime affects journalists who have already suffered violence in an area where many others have been killed while practicing their profession."
In Escobars Región newspaper, editorial
writer, Hernando Rangel Moreno, was killed on April 11, 1999. The last murder
of a journalist in the State of Magdalena was Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo on November
15, 2000.
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