Colombian Journalist Killed By Gunman While Reading on His Terrace

March 22, 2010 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — A gunman killed Clodomiro Castilla, the editor of the Colombian magazine El Pulso, as he sat on his terrace Friday in the city of Montería.

Castilla, 49, had previously received threats and was known for his reporting on politicians with links to paramilitary death squads. His family said that he declined an offer from the government for protection.

“When the journalist was sitting reading a book on his terrace, he was approached by a gunman, who shot him several times and fled on a motorcycle,” said state police commander Colonel Pedro Angelo Franco.

Castilla was killed in Colombia’s Cordoba State where in the 1980s landowners and drug traffickers helped form paramilitary groups to guard against left-wing guerrillas operating in the region. The state has also seen politicians jailed for cutting deals with the now-outlawed paramilitary groups to guarantee their election.

Under the presidency of Álvaro Uribe the paramilitary groups began to demobilize, however it is reported that successor groups have formed in the wake of the demobilization. Also in late February a Colombian senator and cousin of President Uribe, Mario Uribe, was arrested on charges that he had links to the paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

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Image: William Hook @ Flickr.

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