“You homo, stop talking so much on the radio or you’ll have to leave Valledupar,” began a text message Enrique Camargo received last December. Camargo is the director of Radio Guatapurí, based in the northeastern region of Cesar, and the message came after he raised questions on the air about why a mayoral election’s results in southern Cesar were suddenly declared invalid.
Camargo is not the only journalist to receive anonymous threats while covering elections. According to the Bogotá-based Freedom of the Press Foundation (FLIP), journalists have faced growing threats in the run-up to Colombia’s May 28 presidential elections.
In October 2005, at least three journalists were threatened while covering the mayoral elections in Cartagena. One of the three journalists, Jacqueline Rhenals, political editor at a regional daily, received a blunt text message: “For your personal safety, watch very carefully what you say about the elections. It could cost you. We’re watching you.”
“The intimidation facing journalists when reporting about the elections and the difficulty in accessing information is a real concern,” says Carlos Cortés, FLIP director. “The same happened during the presidential elections in 2002.” During the last elections, journalists reported to FLIP that the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the right-wing paramilitary confederation, carefully monitored what was being published about AUC-supported candidates in Urabá, a region in northwest Colombia. Former AUC chief commander Salvatore Mancuso once boasted that his organization controlled 35% of Colombia’s congressional representatives.
“It’s well known that the AUC is involved in politics, especially along the Caribbean coast,” says Cortés. “There is no reason to believe that they aren’t supporting candidates during this election period.” [See “Politics as Organized Crime ” p. 4] He adds that such relationships between the AUC and certain political candidates make it difficult for journalists to work freely and without fear.
Last year, 64 journalists received threats, two were killed and six were forced into exile, according to FLIP. But these are only the documented cases, and in the first three months of this year alone, 15 journalists have received threats, mostly from the paramilitaries. “We believe there’s a direct link between the threats made against journalists this year and the forthcoming presidential elections,” says Cortés. “During elections all sides in the armed conflict and the candidates are particularly vigilant and sensitive about any press reports that may harm their campaign and/or undermine their authority in a particular area.”
In this climate of intimidation, few journalists dare to delve into the murky past of some election candidates, investigate illegal sources of campaign funds and reveal corruption scandals for fear of reprisals from those they implicate. Such a climate of fear is even more apparent among reporters working for the regional press and in areas where Colombia’s internal armed conflict is more intense. Here, journalists come into daily contact with the armed groups and are more likely to face intimidation.
“Journalists working outside major cities are far more isolated and don’t have the protection of big media outlets,” says Juanita León, a journalist at the weekly current affairs magazine La Semana, based in Bogotá. “They work in close proximity with whichever illegal group happens to dominate the region and that often means relying on just one source of information.”
Another problem facing journalists is ensuring they do not appear to be sympathizing with one particular side of the conflict. Cicerón Flores, deputy director of La Opinion, a newspaper based in Cúcuta, believes that maintaining this neutrality becomes even more important during elections.
“The limitations we face come from working in the context of an armed conflict,” says Flores. “We’re always careful that what we publish about one armed group does not cause us problems with another side. This becomes even more acute during election time when the sides want to influence voters.” But he adamantly adds, “If I had concrete proof about illegal funds being used for a political campaign, I would publish it despite the negative consequences such action may bring.”
Journalists across Colombia also face pressure from some media bosses who have been tacitly goaded by government officials about what can be published. Some reporters receive clear instructions about towing the party line, which in practice means supporting President Álvaro Uribe’s “Democratic Security” policy. At RCN, a privately owned news network, this particularly applies to the controversial government-sponsored “demobilization” of the paramilitaries. According to one RCN reporter, who wished to remain anonymous, journalists are explicitly instructed not to criticize the demobilization process.
“The official consensus at RCN is that demobilizing the paramilitaries is a positive step for future peace in Colombia and is something that should be supported,” said the reporter. “I was told only to report the facts and figures and not to interview any [paramilitary] soldiers on camera.” The source feels that while President Uribe aims for an unprecedented second term in office, such parameters are even more closely monitored.
About the Author
Anastasia Moloney is a freelance journalist based in Bogotá.
Four days after El Salvador’s municipal and legislative elections, the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) finally announced on March 16 that it won the race for mayor of San Salvador. Despite being outspent by its main opponent by nearly 20 to one, the political party of the former guerrilla movement was able to capture one of El Salvador’s most important political offices—as well as the head post of other cities—while also increasing its presence in the National Assembly.
The death of longtime FMLN leader Jorge Schafik Handal on January 24 and the massive outpouring of support that followed—an estimated 100,000 people overwhelmed the streets of El Salvador for his funeral—led to a bump in the polls for the FMLN and helped galvanize the left ahead of the elections. When the votes were counted in San Salvador’s mayoral race, the FMLN candidate, former guerrilla leader Violeta Menjivar, proclaimed victory as the first-ever female mayor of San Salvador. But with an official margin of only 44 votes, the opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) immediately set out to use its position within the electoral tribunal to contest the victory. After three days of rallying in the Central Plaza, the FMLN and its supporters in the social movements marched to the hotel where the votes were being inspected. Riot police attacked the crowd with rubber bullets and tear gas, but the popular pressure proved decisive and Menjivar was finally announced as the winner in the early morning hours.
Despite some internal divisions, the FMLN has managed to maintain its popularity through its steadfast support of progressive social movements, such as the large demonstrations against the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in the days following Schafik’s funeral. Indeed, the battle against neoliberal economic policies remains strong in El Salvador. In 2003, for instance, the FMLN supported a nine-month strike by healthcare workers that ultimately succeeded in blocking the privatization of the country’s public hospitals.
However, such a seamless alliance does not exist between the FMLN and all other groups interested in social change. In one case, the Popular Social Bloc, one of El Salvador’s largest progressive coalitions, signed a pact with the FMLN weeks before the recent election in support of the party’s platform. While the Popular Social Bloc pledged to help the FMLN win more deputies and mayors, other movement activists have taken a different position, seeking to maintain a greater level of autonomy and distancing themselves from the FMLN—even though most of their members are party militants or supporters. A smaller portion of the movements disavows party politics altogether, attacking the FMLN from the left and insisting on a more confrontational approach.
With the death of its longtime leader, a challenge for the FMLN will be its continuing efforts to expand its grassroots ties with social activists in the streets, be they union militants, students, women or campesinos. That Schafik might be remembered for helping convert the FMLN into a political party capable of competing with the most entrenched right-wing elite—not to mention its U.S. backers—is ironic given that Schafik firmly maintained that elections were only one tool for change, and that the organized struggle of mass movements was the key to the success of a revolutionary party like the FMLN.
About the Author
Burke Stansbury is the executive director for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).
Agents of the u.s. federal bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Puerto Rican nationalist Antonio Camacho Negrón on March 28 on a street in Río Piedras, near San Juan, after he had addressed the opening of the First National Congress for Decolonization at the University of Puerto Rico. Camacho is a former leader of the rebel Popular Boricua Army–Macheteros (cane cutters); he served 15 years in a U.S. prison for transporting money stolen in 1983 when the group robbed $7.2 million from a Wells Fargo depot in Connecticut. U.S. authorities released Camacho on parole on August 17, 2004, but he refused to accept the terms of his parole. The U.S. government issued a warrant for his arrest three days later, after he missed his first appointment with a parole officer.
Federal authorities couldn’t explain why they had waited nearly two years to arrest Camacho, despite his participation in picket lines outside the FBI’s offices in the San Juan Federal Building. (FBI agents had indicated they might arrest Camacho in October 2005, after he spoke out forcefully against the FBI’s killing of Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos last September.) Camacho, who is 65, is being held in solitary confinement in the federal prison in Guaynabo. His lawyers say he is in a cold, wet cell and isn’t receiving medicine for a gastrointestinal condition.
In other news, protests in the Dominican Republic have been building since U.S. troops arrived in the country in February to launch operation “New Horizons,” a Dominican–U.S. joint military operation in the southwestern Dominican city of Barahona. The operation’s stated goal is to build four rural health clinics and three wells in the area. According to U.S. military spokesperson Robert Appin, a total of about 3,500 U.S. troops will take part in “New Horizons,” but no more than 450 will be in the Dominican Republic at any one time. The soldiers began to arrive in February and will leave at the end of May, Appin said.
The organizers of the protests charge that the U.S. military is building a base to be used for interventions in neighboring countries. U.S. troops are also scheduled to participate in “New Horizons” operations in Honduras, Peru and El Salvador this year.
About the Author
Weekly News Update on the Americas is published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. For subscription information, visit:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html.
