The Killing Continues In Colombia p. 29

By: Stephen Jackson

After a lull in the terrorism against journalists
following the death of Pablo Escobar in December 1993,
two more journalists were murdered recently sp.

JOURNALISTS ARE STILL getting their brains blown out in Colombia.
In the last two decades, an estimated 50 journalists have been killed in this northwest South American country, including the respected Guillermo Cano of El Espectador. Four journalists were killed in 1993 for work-related reasons.
After a lull in the terrorism against journalists following the death of Pablo Escobar in December 1993, two more periodistas ? or journalists ? were murdered in or near Cali in the department (Columbia's term for state) of Valle recently.
Abelardo Marin Pizon, 26, a television journalist, was killed May 21 in Cali. Marin was editor of a popular television program Terranova Film de Telepacifico.
Marin was gunned down at 8:30 a.m. as he left his apartment, Camino Real in South Cali.
Marin's murder was perpetrated by "sicarios" (young thugs), using a favorite technique of "as esino de la moto" ? which means one drives the motorcycle and one rides on the back as the triggerman.
The paid hitmen usually receive about $5,000 each.
Marin was the son of Abelardo Marin, a well-known journalist in Cali.
Also murdered near Cali was Horacio Antonio Yepes Lozano, a commentator and free-lance journalist. Yepes was killed in a manner similar to Marin, May 25 in Tulua.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said from its New York City headquarters that its Latin American representative is in Colombia and will investigate the murders.
The Inter American Press Association based in Miami, requested rapid and extensive investigations into the two murders.
Cali is on the western edge of the lush, green Andes in south central Colombia.
Noted for its year-round, balmy springlike temperature and beautiful women, Cali, as of late, is receiving notoriety as the home of the Cali Drug Cartel, the successors to the erstwhile Medellin cocaine empire led by the late Escobar.
The Cali Cartel ? a loose-knit, ever-changing group which invests in the cocaine and "basuco" (crack cocaine) business ? is the genesis of the murder of Manuel de Dios, a New York City journalist who was chronicling and exposing the financial network of the Cali distribution system in Queens and other boroughs in New York City. New York prosecutors linked the March 1992 killing of de Dios to the Cali Drug Cartel.
Wilson Alejandro Mejia Velez, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Colombia, was sentenced to life in prison without parole following his conviction in a New York City court in March 1994 for murdering de Dios.
De Dios' common law wife, publishing aide and mother of their four-year-old daughter is Vicki Sanchez of Queens, N.Y., originally from Bogota.
Testimony in Mejia's trial revealed that de Dios' murder was plotted by one of the leaders of the Cali Cartel, Jose Santacruz Londono, who was infuriated by the hard-hitting articles by de Dios about the financing, business fronts, and distribution networks of the cartel in New York City.
Santacruz has avoided all charges so far, and is reportedly at large in Colombia.
Charges have also been lodged against accused conspirator Guillermo Leon Restrepo Gaviria, an aide for Santacruz.
The guilty verdict against Mejia was the sixth conviction in the de Dios case. Only Restrepo remains a fugitive.
Restrepo allegedly was the conduit between Santa Cruz and "sicarios" in New York City hired to assassinate de Dios.
Law enforcement officials in the U.S. are counting on luck and vigilance to help nab Restrepo.