The IACHR grants precautionary measures in favor of journalist Ricardo Calderón

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that the former editor of Semana magazine is in a situation of “seriousness and urgency of risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Colombia.” The investigative journalist revealed serious irregularities within the Army between 2019 and 2020.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary protection measures in favor of journalist Ricardo Calderón, former editor of Semana magazine and known for being one of the most prestigious investigative journalists in Colombia and the continent. The international body of the Organization of American States (OAS) pointed out that the journalist “is in a serious and urgent situation of risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Colombia.”

See: The “secret folders” of military intelligence: to whom were they directed and for what?

Between 2019 and 2020, Calderón published a series of articles that revealed the corruption that took hold in the Army and that has involved the diversion of public money or the misuse of State resources to obtain information from journalists, opposition politicians, among other sectors. He was also the one who denounced in 2007 illegal interceptions from the Police Directorate, which led to a shaking of 11 generals. He was the one who denounced in 2009 that the DAS was dedicated to illegally following and intercepting journalists, magistrates and opposition politicians.

You might be interested: “Anyone who says they are not afraid has an egg”: Semana journalists

“According to the request, Calderón is in a situation of risk due to threats, surveillance and monitoring by those who identified as State agents and other third parties, as a result of his journalistic investigations. The IACHR took into consideration the special seriousness represented by the events that Calderón has faced when publishing investigations in which alleged irregularities committed by members of the Army were denounced on issues such as “false positives”, “profiling” or complaints of corruption within of said institution, which have had a high impact on Colombian society, ”said the IACHR.

The IACHR pointed out that despite open investigations, there had been no “substantive progress in punishing those responsible for the follow-ups against Calderón. The Commission observed that the parties agree on the need and importance of implementing protection measures (…) the Commission asked Colombia to adopt the necessary measures to protect the rights to life and personal integrity, allowing it to continue carrying out its journalistic activities in safe conditions, ”warns the IACHR.

While he was investigating the Army’s profiling, he received calls and messages with death threats. They also sent him votes inviting to his funeral services and funeral wreaths. Throughout his journalistic career, Ricardo Calderón has won two King of Spain awards, the highest Simón Bolívar award: Life and Work; he has won seven other diplomas from that foundation; seven from the Circle of Journalists of Bogotá, CPB; three awards from the Latin American Prize for Investigative Journalism, and three more from the Inter-American Press Association.