How a Colombian reporter predicted his murder - and why a global team is finishing his work
After posting a video denouncing alleged corruption, Rafael Moreno was fatally shot – but thanks to documents he left behind, he wasn’t silenced
by Paloma Dupont de Dinechin in Montelíbano
Tue 18 Apr 2023 12.00 EDT
“If you’re going to kill me, then kill me. But I’ll tell you up front: you won’t silence me.” In a 37-minute Facebook Live broadcast on 21 July 2022, the independent Colombian journalist Rafael Moreno defied his detractors – and predicted his own death.
In the recording, Moreno denounces alleged corruption in the surrounding region of Córdoba, one of the poorest and most violent parts of the country, and a strategic corridor for drug smuggling.
He recites a litany of accusations: inflated contracts, unfinished public works, embezzlement. “They’re stealing,” he claims. “Somebody has to point out the corruption in this region.”
In his reporting – which he published on two Facebook pages – Moreno spared no one, from powerful local politicians and mining companies to paramilitary groups and other journalists.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/18/rafael-moreno-colombia-journalist-murder
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Colombia: The murder of journalist Rafael Moreno and the corruption he exposed
The investigative consortium Forbidden Stories has continued the work of a reporter who was killed in 2022 while investigating suspected clientelism in public contracts.
By Paloma Dupont de Dinechin(Forbidden Stories)
Published yesterday at 6:05 pm (Paris), updated yesterday at 6:11 pm
Time to13 min.
"If you want to kill me, kill me. But I'll tell you straight up: you won't silence me." In a 37-minute video that was broadcast live on Facebook on July 21, 2022, journalist Rafael Moreno vigorously condemned the embezzlement of public money he was investigating in the province of Cordoba, in northern Colombia. With supporting evidence, he cited contracts that he believed were artificially inflated, mentioned work that was never completed, named companies and showed his determination. "They are stealing from the municipality," he said, adding that someone has to highlight the wrongdoing. He wore a cap and a white polo shirt bearing the name of his media outlet, Voces de Cordoba ("The Voice of Cordoba" ) .
This province, where he lived, is a strategic corridor of the drug trafficking route. The 2016 peace agreements with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) have not put an end to civil unrest or corruption scandals, which the journalist made his specialty, almost to the point of obsession. On the Facebook page for his media company, which he launched in 2018, Moreno didn't spare anyone. His 56,000 subscribers didn't miss a single detail of the scandals he exposed almost daily, which concerned local politicians as well as mining companies and paramilitary groups. His tone, which was particularly scathing, had earned him a local notoriety that left him vulnerable.
Rafael Moreno shows the bullet he found on his motorcycle, accompanied by an anonymous note threatening him, on July 21, 2022. FACEBOOK DE « VOCES DE CÓRDOBA »
In his video dated July 21, the 37-year-old journalist talked about the last threat he received, found on July 2 in the trunk of his motorcycle: Facing the camera, he held a bullet from a revolver, accompanied by an anonymous note. "You now know that we know every move you make (...) We know everything about you. We are not going to forgive you for what you do. So you know, my friend, that the rest of the magazine of this 9mm is ready for you?"
The murderer is still at large
Less than three months after the video was broadcast, on October 16, 2022, at shortly after 7 pm, Moreno was closing the cash register of Rafo Parilla, the fast-food restaurant that he ran in addition to his work as a journalist. A man entered the restaurant, his head covered with a cap. The man drew a revolver and shot the journalist three times. Moreno died on the spot. Today, his murderer is still at large.
More:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/18/colombia-the-murder-of-journalist-rafael-moreno-and-the-corruption-he-exposed_6023351_4.html
Or:
https://archive.ph/XMtgc#selection-1837.0-1841.413
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Rafael Emiro Moreno, Colombian journalist under government protection, killed in Córdoba
October 19, 2022 10:15 AM EDT
Bogotá, October 19, 2022—Colombian authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Rafael Emiro Moreno, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
About 7:10 p.m. on Sunday, October 16, in the northern town of Montelíbano, two men aboard a motorcycle fatally shot Moreno while he was at the fast-food restaurant that he owned, according to news reports and Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
Moreno was the director of independent online news outlet Voces De Córdoba, which published local news reports on Facebook, and a well-known community leader who received years of threats for his reporting on political corruption and drug-trafficking groups, FLIP Executive Director Jonathan Bock told CPJ via WhatsApp. The Colombian newsmagazine Cambio said Moreno recently investigated illegal gold mining by a powerful drug-trafficking group known as the Gulf Clan.
The Colombian government’s National Protection Unit (UNP) had assigned a bodyguard to protect Moreno and gave him a protective vest and an early-warning panic button, Jhon Murillo, a UNP spokesman, told CPJ via WhatsApp. However, at about noon on the day he was killed, Moreno, who didn’t believe protection was necessary while working at his restaurant, told his bodyguard that he could take the rest of the day off, which he did, Murillo said.
. . .
On Friday, October 21, Moreno was scheduled to take part in a panel discussion in Bogotá, the capital, on the dangers facing regional journalists in Colombia, Jaime Abello, director of the Gabo Foundation, the nonprofit journalism foundation that organized the event, said.
https://cpj.org/2022/10/rafael-emiro-moreno-colombian-journalist-under-government-protection-killed-in-cordoba/
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Rest in peace, at last.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Director of online media programme had been under state protection following threats
IPI Contributor Anna Valentinyi
Oct 24, 2022
The IPI global network condemns the murder of Colombian journalist Rafael Emiro Moreno, who was fatally shot on October 16 in Montelíbano. Moreno is the third journalist to be murdered in Colombia in the past two months. We call upon the authorities to investigate this killing and bring those responsible to justice, and end the continued cycle of violence against journalists.
On October 16, journalist Rafael Emiro Moreno was gunned down by two unknown assailants on a motorcycle while he was at a restaurant that he owned. According to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), Moreno was the director of an online media platform, Voces de Cordóba, and a well-regarded community leader. He had been receiving death threats since 2019 due to his extensive work documenting political corruption and the activities of illegal arms groups.
In a statement given to IPI, Raissa Carrillo Villamizar, the coordinator of protection and legal defense for fournalists at FLIP, said that as a result of these threats, Moreno began receiving protection from the National Protection Unit (UNP) in 2019. However, she said that in 2020, the UNP decreased Moreno’s protection for unknown reasons.
In July 2022, Moreno received two further death threats, and asked the UNP to increase his protection. According to Villamizar, he had requested a second bodyguard, as one escort was not enough to provide him with constant protection. However, the UNP had not responded to Moreno’s request at the time of his killing.
Moreno is the third reporter to be killed in Colombia in the past two months, after the murder of journalists Leiner Montero and Dilia Contreras on August 28, 2022. Villamizar told IPI that violence against reporters has been increasing in Colombia, a trend which is compounded by the lack of government action in protecting media workers. She added that the UNP is often ineffective in countering threats against journalists. Indeed, a report by FLIP found that the UNP requires their clients to be able to identify the source of the threats made against them in order to receive protection, despite the fact that many of these threats are made anonymously. Villamizar also said that the UNP is understaffed and does not have the resources or the manpower to provide the protection that they promise to their clients.
More:
https://ipi.media/colombia-journalist-rafael-emiro-moreno-shot-dead-in-colombia/
