The street after the explosion in front of the courts of Tuluá (Valle del Cauca) on September 12, in an image circulated on social networks.
The majority of journalists prefer not to respond, due to instructions from the companies where they work or due to personal choice. This Thursday, local stations Mundo 89 FM and La Voz de los Robles 1490 AM, with a radio tradition in the center and north of Valle del Cauca, in western Colombia, announced that they would stop broadcasting their news programs. “Not only speakers, journalists and technicians are left standing, but also the community is affected because of the violation of the Constitution in Article 20,” which deals with freedom of the press. “We feel alone,” says a text that they published via various digital media.
Threats are nothing new in Tuluá. “In the last three months, at least ten journalists have been pressured and threatened by criminal gangs operating in this community,” said a joint statement by the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) and Reporters Without Borders, released Thursday. The day before, a criminal group called “Los cancerberos” declared five media companies military targets, which were not mentioned for security reasons. The same group had already threatened and pressured seven journalists on July 23 with another pamphlet asking them to publish their statements and become their spokespeople.
In the same pamphlet, Los cancerberos – a name they took from Greek mythology and which refers to the three-headed monster that guards the underworld – claimed responsibility for an attack carried out in court on Tuesday evening. As Colombians gathered around televisions to watch the World Cup qualifier against Chile, an explosion rocked the center of Tuluá. There were no injuries and only material losses were reported, but the message was clear and reiterated the threats already made to some lawyers and judges. Banana traders and growers have also said they face threats and extortion from criminal groups.
There is a poster for almost every meal, denounces the exiled journalist Robert Posada. In 2022, on the recommendation of journalists’ associations, he was forced to leave Colombia because it was believed his life was in imminent danger. Among other things, in several articles that he published on his social networks and in the media Al Instanto – which he created together with several friends – he had denounced various cases of corruption, especially related to the issuance of building permits outside the POT and the like an alleged alliance between local government institutions and organized crime. He had also touched on the subject of blackmail: One day a potato seller was found dead; the next, another dealer. Posada insisted on connecting the crimes, which seemed to be isolated events, until he concluded that “everything that people consume in Tuluá today is managed by the mafia.”
“I’m starting to look very closely at the issue of extortion,” Posada said in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS. First he talked about the coriander cartel, then the potato cartel, the onion cartel and the banana cartel. “Then comes a very difficult moment, namely the beginning of 2022, when we start talking about the egg cartel. An egg costs 700 pesos in Tuluá. In less than a year, a 200 peso egg cost 700 pesos. (…) There are mafias who say who can sell how they can sell. And the last thing that was added is the distribution of chicken.” To distribute their products, traders would have to pay a commission, “and those who do not comply will be killed.”
Posada dares to assert that the Cancerberos do not exist in reality, that they are an invention, a myth, as their name suggests. “I do not believe that. I don’t think that exists. “They are taking advantage to continue to sow fear and terror for purely political purposes, to torpedo the electoral question in Tuluá so that people don’t vote.” If the prosecutors are afraid, if the judges are afraid, “then the electoral process was marred.” Today the elections in Tuluá are in jeopardy.”
Newsletter
Current events analysis and the best stories from Colombia, delivered to your inbox every week
GET THIS
It is not just a political problem, but “mainly an economic problem. “There are some groups in politics that are allied with organized crime to gain control of the entire economy of Tuluá, whether legal or illegal.” And this is where journalism comes into play: “On June 7th there was a Another criminal group, La Oficina de Tuluá, threatened anyone who spread news and information related to mayoral candidate Gustavo Vélez,” said the statement from FLIP and Reporters Without Borders. Vélez, who was mayor of the city from 2016 to 2019, has assured that he will fight against crime and corruption. The Conservative Party candidate has also reported receiving threats for 11 months. In June last year, two men opened fire at the entrance to the business complex where he has his office, and on August 27 they threw explosives at the house where his parents live.
Three days later, citizens found a severed head in a black bag that had been left on a street in the center of the community; The victim was identified as a 22-year-old man. Amid the concerns, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez chaired a security council from Tuluá that decided to bolster the region’s security with an additional 600 troops.
Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco was also on the council and emphasized that 17 members of La inmaculada – as La Oficina de Tuluá is also known – had recently been captured. “What is happening in Tuluá is unacceptable. “Some men from a prison are terrorizing an entire city and trying to influence the election debate,” he said. “We discovered them, we know who they are,” although he clarified that it was an evil that was introduced many years ago and grew over time.
Since 2020, Robert Posada and Marcos Efraín Montalvo have felt an exquisite atmosphere in the city. They felt that dark dealings were invading all spheres, while the majority of journalists reported the facts without relating them to each other. The two worked independently of each other, writing wherever they found space or in their personal networks, reporting on irregularities in public procurement. “We were like two lonely Quixotes denouncing things, because at that time it seemed like there was self-censorship among many journalists,” says Posada.
In 2021, they began to intimidate. However, Marcos continued to investigate alleged inconsistencies in the creation of companies to address school transportation and public transportation issues and to control the taxi business. “He had become an extremely unpleasant person, and well, the result of that complaint, I think, cost Marcos his life.” On September 19, 2021, at the age of 68, he was shot dead in a store. His departure was considered a great loss for Tuluá journalism. He was shot by a 15-year-old boy who was captured. Since he was a minor, the perpetrator has already paid his fine and to this day it is not known who the masterminds were. In three days it will be two years since the crime and there will be two years of impunity.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS newsletter about Colombia here and receive all the important information about current events in the country.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits