Colombian judge sentences ex-mayor to 28 years in rare conviction for ordering reporter killed

[Judi Lynn]

Updated: 29 minutes ago

Colombian judge sentences ex-mayor to 28 years in rare conviction for ordering reporter killed
By LIBARDO CARDONA | Associated Press Writer
2:38 PM EST, January 22, 2009

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian judge has sentenced a former mayor to 28 years in prison for ordering the April 2003 killing of a journalist who had repeatedly denounced the politician as corrupt.

Julio Cesar Ardila was among three men convicted in the murder of Jose Emeterio Rivas of the local radio station "Calor Estereo," who was shot to death in the steamy refinery city of Barrancabermeja on Colombia's main river, the Magdalena.

The sentence, handed down by judge Nelly Vallejo in the regional capital of Bucaramanga on Jan. 13, only came to light Thursday after the InterAmerican Press Association's president, Enrique Santos, publicized it.

Santos, co-publisher of Bogota's El Tiempo newspaper, noted that it is rare in Colombia for the mastermind of a journalist's killing to be brought to justice.

In the past 15 years, 57 journalists have been killed in Colombia while exercising their profession, according to the IAPA, with more than 70 percent of those killings going unpunished.

More:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-journalist-slaying,0,3020917.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. COLOMBIA: Two politicians arrested for 2003 journalist murder

COLOMBIA: Two politicians arrested for 2003 journalist murder
September 13, 2007
Posted September 21, 2007

José Emeterio Rivas, Calor Estéreo
KILLED

Two local politicians have been arrested by Colombian authorities in the northern city of Barrancabermeja in connection with the April 2003 Rivas murder, according to press reports.

Juan Pablo Ariza, a candidate for the local city council, and Abelardo Rueda Tobón, who is running for state assembly, were detained after the Human Rights Unit of the attorney general’s office issued arrests warrants for their arrest, reported the Colombian press. The politicians, who are accused of aggravated murder and conspiring to commit a crime, were taken to a maximum security prison in the nearby city of Bucaramanga, reported the national daily El Tiempo.

Ariza and Rueda had been arrested in July 2003 and released a few months later. At the time of their initial arrest, they worked for the administration of then Barrancabermeja mayor Julio César Ardila Torres. According to El Tiempo,an arrest warrant was also issued for Ardila, who had been arrested in 2003 alongside Ariza and Rueda.

An apparent break in the case came on June 7 when Pablo Emilio Quintero Dodino, known as Bedoya, a demobilized member of the far-right paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) confessed to murdering Rivas as part of a peace process between paramilitaries and the Colombian government.

Rivas, a 44-year-old journalist for Radio Calor Estéreo, was killed by unidentified gunmen. Police found his bullet-ridden body alongside four other bodies on April 7 on a dirt road outside Barrancabermeja. Rivas hosted a controversial morning program on Radio Calor Estéreo called “Fuerzas Vivas” (Live Forces). In the weeks before his death, he had publicly accused mayor Ardila of corruption and collaboration with members of the AUC.

http://cpj.org/2007/09/colombia-two-politicians-arrested-for-2003-journal.php

[Judi Lynn]

2. More people killed with the reporter in the contract murder by paramilitaries. Great article.

Barrancabermeja: Paramilitary Terror
and the Struggle for Colombia’s Oil
by Bill Weinberg, World War 3 Report

~snip~
“Uribe follows the mandates of the International Monetary Fund, and is paving the way for the FTAA… his agenda is to deliver national resources to foreign capital.”

~snip~
Barrancabermeja’s former mayor, Julio Cesar Ardila, has been in hiding since June when he was charged with the murder of radio journalist Juan Emeterio Rivas, who accused him of corruption and links to paramilitary violence. Invited to a party on April 6, Rivas was ambushed; seven youths who accompanied Rivas were also killed as “collateral damage.”

More:
http://www.greens.org/s-r/33/33-15.html