COLOMBIA: Released Telesur Reporter Fears for His Life

By Constanza Vieira Reprint | | Print |

Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Jan 9 2007 (IPS) - Telesur correspondent Fredy Muñoz was released from prison Tuesday, 52 days after his arrest. But the 36-year-old journalist faces the risk of new legal maneuvers, or an attempt on his life, to judge by similar cases in the past, said his lawyer.

Telesur correspondent Fredy Muñoz was released from prison Tuesday, 52 days after his arrest. But the 36-year-old journalist faces the risk of new legal maneuvers, or an attempt on his life, to judge by similar cases in the past.

After Muñoz’s defence attorneys appealed, the prosecutors concluded that the evidence against him was “flimsy,” Tito Gaitán, one of the reporter’s lawyers, told IPS.

Muñoz, the Colombia correspondent for the Caracas-based TV network Telesur, was accused of planting bombs and heading a local militia of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the northern Colombian city of Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast.

But although Muñoz was freed, the case against him is still open, said Gaitán.

The decision was announced by prosecutors in Cartagena at 8:30 a.m. local time (13:30 GMT) Tuesday, and he was released at 10:30 a.m.

“They pressured the prison directors to give them the addresses of the places where I might be found, visibly angry that I had been released,” Muñoz told IPS by telephone. “That certainly sets off red flags.”

Gaitán said “We don’t know what is the motivating factor behind this kind of behaviour and these inquiries. But as soon as Fredy was freed, they showed up asking questions about him.”

It was the DAS, as well as naval intelligence, who provided a photo of Muñoz to prosecutors, alleging that he was the local FARC leader known as “Jorge Eliécer” who had reportedly placed bombs in Cartagena and Barranquilla. Several witnesses, purportedly former guerrillas, then identified Muñoz and Eliécer as the same person.

“They could continue to add trumped-up evidence to the case file, and to judge by what has happened so far, we believe that this is what will occur,” said Gaitán.

The lawyer said that the fact that an intelligence service is looking for the journalist “makes us fear that security agencies like the DAS and naval intelligence will continue their secret movements and pressure, and that they will try to revert this decision, which favoured Fredy.”

“They could set up another ruse, bring a new case against him, or they could, within the same case, begin to pile up other kinds of testimony from the intelligence agents that pose as witnesses in prosecutions. There is a list of names for that purpose, to serve those interests,” he said.

He clarified, however, that his fears are merely “expectations, speculation, conjecture.”

Muñoz is now free to go where he will in Colombia “without any restrictions. But to leave the country, he would need special permission from the prosecutor’s office,” said Gaitán, who wants the reporter to leave the region immediately.

He pointed to certain similarities with an earlier case, in which Professor Alfredo Correa de Andreis was murdered in September 2004 in Barranquilla, just a few weeks after he was released from prison, where he was held for a month.

Gaitán said both cases were the work of the DAS, and were handled by judicial officials in the country’s Caribbean coastal region “with close ties to military intelligence and the security agencies.” He noted that the charges were also similar.

The lawyer said that “not only Professor Correa de Andreis, but many other people as well who have been released from prison – either conditionally or definitively – have been murdered.”

“That risk underlies this case as well, and measures will have to be taken to neutralise it,” he added.

Muñoz, for his part, pointed out that one of the witnesses who testified against Correa de Andreis has also given testimony against him.

Nevertheless, Muñoz’s wife Alcira Arnedo said “We are happy. At least things are being cleared up.” She was speaking to IPS by cell phone from the Cartagena-Barranquilla highway, as she headed to pick up husband.

Arnedo said she and her husband had been talking over the last few days about going into exile. The idea is depressing for Muñoz, although he said he would continue working, because “all of this, far from intimidating us, has strengthened us.”

Muñoz, who has a 12-year career as a reporter, was described to IPS by Telesur director Aram Aharonian as “a good journalist, zealous and brave,” who reached the TV station “out of stubbornness, because he wanted to work in Telesur. He brought his work to Caracas and it was good, so he became correspondent in Cartagena and later we offered him the position of correspondent in Bogotá.”

When asked what would be most painful for him in leaving Colombia, Muñoz said “It would hurt me to leave the Bogotá office as it is now. Because I know we were making progress in getting news heard through Telesur that was not being heard otherwise.”

“It would hurt to leave rural movements that would not have my solidarity any longer, or Telesur as a channel of communication,” he said.

“It would hurt to leave movements like those of indigenous people in southern Colombia, black communities in western Colombia, or workers organisations around the country, in the middle of a government like the one we have today and in the midst of this situation here,” he added, before saying it was important to cut off the interview, before his cell-phone signal was tracked down by the intelligence services.