Miami (October 15, 2009)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today lamented that Colombian journalist Herbin Hoyos left his country for the sixth time since 1998 because of threats on his life and called on authorities to safeguard freedom of expression amid acts of violence.
According to information from military intelligence a plot by the leftwing guerrilla movement Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to murder Hoyos, director of the program “Las voces del secuestro” (The Voices of Abduction), broadcast by Caracol radio station was uncovered. For the last 15 years Caracol has given air space to the families of Colombian guerrilla kidnap victims to send messages to their loved ones in captivity.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, expressed his solidarity with Hoyos, declaring that “Just as military authorities were able to uncover this terrible plot, it is important that we journalists and news media maintain a common front, without censorship, to confront those who resort to violence with our weapons – words.”
In a conversation with the IAPA’s Rapid Response Unit in Colombia, Hoyos, 39, stated that for two months. and again on October 8, Army Intelligence informed him that the death threat likely came down from one of the FARC heads known as Fabián Ramírez and that the plan would be carried out that day by hired killers during a public ceremony Hoyos was to conduct promoting a demonstration in Europe calling for the release of kidnap victims in Colombia.
Upon being alerted that day, Hoyos managed to escape on a motorcycle just as the armored van transporting his bodyguards was hit by another vehicle that blocked its path. According to authorities, the apparent accident was probably part of the plan to kill Hoyo, who insisted that he would continue broadcasting his radio program from abroad.
