Journalist’s murder gets state apology
Many manifestants meeting in the Bolivar plaza in the Velaton for the freedom of more than a thousand prisoners and prisoners who continue in prisons in Bogotá, Colombia 17 October, 2017. (Photo by Daniel Garzon Herazo/NurPhoto)
Nelson Carvajal was a teacher and school director in the town of Pitalito, department of Huila, in Colombia. Carvajal was also a radio journalist, one of those who wore out the soles of their shoes denouncing corruption and the problems that overwhelmed their community.
On April 16, 1998, three assassins murdered him when he left work. The crime was never solved, and on the contrary, his widow and daughters had to leave Colombia because of the constant threats received.
Like many other Latin American journalists, Carvajal demanded accountability for unfinished governmental works, while at the same time giving a voice to vulnerable and oppressed citizens for all kinds of interests and powers. In 2018, for the first time in its history, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned a State for the murder of a journalist in the exercise of his profession. The IHR Court ordered the holding of a public ceremony “in order to repair the damage caused to the victim and to prevent acts such as those in this case from recurring”.
