A young Colombian journalist who had recently worked on a femicide case has been murdered in northern Colombia, sources have agreed on Thursday.
Luis Gabriel Pereira, journalist and director of digital media Notiorense, was killed by two men on a motorcycle on Tuesday in the town of Cienaga de Oro, Cordoba department, according to the Colombian Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP). . The attackers fled.
Mr. Pereira, 25, has only been a journalist for a few months. According to FLIP, earlier in the year he started a Facebook page where he posted information on public order, safety and legal matters.
“He wrote frequently on his platform about the arrests, murders and increasing violence in Cienaga de Oro. In addition to his work as a journalist and broadcaster, he also worked as a motorcycle taxi driver,” according to the organization.
Mr. Pereira recently published a series of articles on a community femicide in which he named the alleged attacker.
If this attack is confirmed to be related to his work, it would be the third journalist killed in Colombia in the past seven months, including two in the same department. In these last two cases, the investigations have so far led to no result.
“We condemn and deplore in the strongest possible terms the murder of the journalist Luis Gabriel Pereira (…), who recently denounced the murders of women committed in this municipality,” Interior Minister Luis Velasco commented on his Twitter account in a request to the courts ” investigate these facts and find those responsible”.