Miami, April 23, 2025 – In the presence of family members of journalist Julio Daniel Chaparro Hurtado and photographer Jorge Enrique Torres Navas, today in Bogotá, a Friendly Settlement Agreement will be signed to compensate the victims of the murders of both reporters, which occurred in 1991.
The event will be attended by representatives from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP, for its Spanish acronym), the National Agency for the Legal Defense of the State of Colombia, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Chaparro Hurtado and Torres Navas, journalists from the newspaper El Espectador, traveled on April 24, 1991, to the municipality of Segovia in the department of Antioquia to investigate a paramilitary massacre that occurred there on November 11, 1988, resulting in the deaths of more than 40 people. That same day, upon returning to their hotel, they were intercepted and murdered.
Thirty-four years after the crime, and thanks to the mediation of the IACHR, as well as multiple negotiations between the Colombian state, the IAPA, and FLIP, the parties will sign a Friendly Settlement Agreement. This agreement includes commitments for material and moral reparations for the victims, guarantees of non-repetition, and judicial follow-up of the case.
The IAPA presented the case of Chaparro Hurtado and Torres Navas to the IACHR on December 2, 2011. FLIP joined as a co-representing organization in 2020. In 2021, the IACHR admitted the issue for study.
The signing ceremony will be attended by Piedad del Carmen Díaz Vargas (wife), Daniel Chaparro Díaz, and Iván Eduardo Chaparro Díaz (sons) on behalf of Chaparro Hurtado's family. For Torres Navas' family, Ruby Mora Muete (wife), Janet Alexandra Torres Mora, Diana Torres Mora (daughters), and Jorge Rafael Torres Mora (son) will be present.
The State will be represented by Yebrail Haddad Linero, Director of International Legal Defense at the National Agency for the Legal Defense of the State (ANDJE), and Carolina Gómez López, Coordinator of Friendly Settlements and Compliance with Recommendations at ANDJE. Also attending will be Tania Reneaum Panszi, Executive Secretary of the IACHR, and Dayana Alvira, Advisor in the Friendly Settlements Section.
Representing the victims' representatives, on behalf of FLIP, will be Jonathan Bock, Director; Sofía Jaramillo Otoya, Senior Lawyer of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and upcoming Director of FLIP from May onwards; Natalia López López, Legal and Protection Deputy Director; and Camilo Vallejo, President of the Board of Directors. The IAPA will be represented by Andrés Mompotes, Regional Vice President in Colombia and Director General of the newspaper El Tiempo.
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.