Jaime Garzón
Encyclopedia
Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero (October 24, 1960 – August 13, 1999 in Bogotá) was a Colombia
n journalist
, a comedian
, lawyer
, peace activist
and political satirist
. He was very popular on Colombian television during the 1990s, especially for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered by suspected right-wing paramilitary forces
in 1999, although the case remains opened and unsolved.
on October 24, 1960. He studied law
and political science
at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, but his active involvement in politics and television did not allow him to finish.
for the Mayor of Bogotá. After winning the elections, Pastrana nominated him as mayor of Sumapaz in 1988. Sumapaz is an underdeveloped rural locality of the District of Bogotá. Garzón tried to improve the standard of life of its population. In a year, he created a health center, the school was improved and the only street of town was paved.
But his originality was not well seen by the central administration of Pastrana. Asked in a telegram to notify the number of legal brothels in Sumapaz, he answered: "Después de una inspección visual, informo que aquí las únicas putas, son las putas FARC", a sarcastic answer typical of his sense of black humor, roughly translated as "After a visual inspection, I report that the only whores around here are the fucking FARC", a wordplay, as in colombian spanish the word 'putas' can signify both 'whores' as noun, and 'fucking' as an intensifier
adjective. That answer and other eccentricities, brought to the conclusion by the central administration that he had founded a brothel
in Sumapaz. The municipal government secretary, Volmar Pérez Ortiz, signed his destitution. For this reason, Garzón sued Pastrana's administration, complaint which ruled in his favor only in 1997.
Between 1990 and 1994 he worked at the Nariño House
during the presidency of César Gaviria
. He helped in the translations of the new Colombian Constitution of 1991
in the indigenous languages and as a communications presidential adviser.
He worked on various television parodies, becoming famous with the TV Show "Zoociedad" (Zoociety) in the 1990s which contained humor about materialistic society and politics. Garzón then started working on a TV Show called "¡Quac! El Noticero" in which he participated with the Colombian Actor Diego León Hoyos until 1997.
Garzón created many different and instantly recognizable fictional characters, the last of which was his debut as "Heriberto de la Calle", a shoe polisher who interviewed different personalities, including politicians.
- Bogotá
road. Among the hostages were four US citizens and an Italian.
On March 27 a commission, with the authorization of the anti-kidnapping czar, José Alfredo Escobar and led by Jaime Garzón, allowed the release of nine of the hostages.
On May 6, 1998, General Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel, commander of the Colombian Army
, asked publicly to the anti-kidnapping czar, to investigate Jaime Garzón for his participation in the release of the hostages. On June 4, the anti-kidnapping czar, José Alfredo Escobar, defended the role of Garzón in the release of the hostages as a humanitarian mission. Garzón tried to have an appointment with General Mora Rangel, but he is not accepted. The journalist sent a telegram to the military where he said: "General, do not look for enemies among the Colombians that risk their life everyday to build a proud nation as I want and as you are fighting for."
In May 1999 Garzón said in a cocktail before some personalities, among them the US Ambassador, that General Mora was accusing him to be a collaborator of the FARC.
On May 25, 1999, Senator Piedad Córdoba
was kidnapped by the Paramilitary group of Carlos Castaño
and she was accused by him of being a collaborator of the guerrilla. According with Senator Córdoba, Castaño mentioned also Jaime Garzón. Once she was released, she met the journalist and warned him of the danger.
The participation in the process of the FARC's hostages releases and the intention to promote a dialogue of peace, brought him many threats, but the most noticeable was that of the Paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño.
.
On Wednesday August 11 Garzón said to his wife and a makeup artist that he was going to be killed the next day.
On Friday August 13, at 5:45, local time
, journalist Jaime Garzón was approaching the Radionet's station in his gray Jeep Cherokee
. When he was turning toward the south coming from the 26th Street in the Barrio Quinta Paredes sector (streets 22F with 42B), in front of Corferias
, two men riding a high velocity white motorcycle with hidden plates approached to the car and calling his name, shot him five times. He was 38 years old.
The crime took a quick dissemination in the country when his own fellows of Radionet were the first to give the news to Colombia. Hundreds of persons went out the streets. The vehicular traffic worsen when a pedestrian bridge fall in the North Highway, by 122nd Street, because a group of people thought wrongly that the funeral would pass for the site. Three people died and 30 were injured.
In the night of that Friday, sport presenter César Augusto Londoño in CM&
News, had to introduce a memorial note to Heriberto de la Calle, one of the characters of his just assassinated companion. He introduced the note saying: "and sports here ... country of shit!".
An investigation of the TV program Contravía directed by Holman Morris shows evidence of the participation of agents of the DAS (state intelligence agency) by using false witnesses and therefore the investigation turned away from the real events http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKGPeLn2EK4. Likewise, the paramilitar Freddy Rendón Herrera aka "El Alemán" accused members of the military forces of being intellectual authors of the murder.
Although it was too early at the moment of the crime and María Amparo Arroyave was at the 4th floor of the building, 100 meters far from the place of the assassination and the two criminals wore helmets, she did an amazing description of one of the assassins like details of his face and clothing.
On August 19, 1999, the Minister of Defense, Luis Fernando Ramírez and some commanders of the National Army, did a public declaration as an answer to the suggestion of a journalist, who said that the responsibility for the crime of Garzón fall on the military superiors. They said that such suggestion is defamatory and that they reject and condemn the crime of one of the best journalist of the end of the century, the best humorist and the sharper critic of the Colombian society of the last decades.
On January 6, 2000, the Police of Medellín arrested Juan Pablo Ortiz Agudelo, alias Bochas. According to the Administrative Department of Security, he was the assassin that shot to Garzón and was recognized by María Amparo Arroyave.
On April 24 Carlos Castaño Gil, top leader of AUC, was formally accused of being the mastermind of the crime. On June 6 he was declared absent defendant.
On September 24, 2001, the Police arrested Edilberto Antonio Sierra Ayala in Belén de Umbría
under the accusation of being the other criminal that drove the motorbike.
On January 3, 2002, the tribunal made official the closure of the process. The request of the civil part to review the hypothesis was ignored by the tribunal.
was the first entity to put in doubt the veracity of the testimony of María Teresa Arroya Montoya. The Attorney ordered a careful inspection of the place she argued that she saw the crime. According to lawyer Alirio Uribe Muñoz, the Attorney concluded that from the place she said that she saw the crime, it is impossible to observe the details of the assassins. The Attorney found several contradictions in her description and little coincidences with other witnesses, who were more near to the place of the crime: none of them could remember the face of the assassins, because they were very fast, but none of these inconsistencies were reviewed in the record. But Arroyave Montoya disappeared and the Attorney General Office did not allow the investigation of the DAS' official Juan Ángel Ramírez García, who contacted Ms Arroyave Montoya.
In October 2002, Reporters Without Borders
and Red Damocles questioned the veracity of other witness that was considered a key witness during the first investigation: Wilson Llano Caballero, alias El Profe, who was presented as an Informant of DAS. He provided with pictures and information about the allegedly murders, alias “Bochas” and “Toño”. He convinced his girlfriend, Maribel Pérez Jiménez, and his neighbor, Wilson Raúl Ramírez, to declare against the two suspects.
. In April of that very year, the Paramilitary leader was killed probably by disputed among the same Paramilitary members.
On May 9, 2008, the former Paramilitary leader Diego Fernando Murillo alias Don Berna, said that members of the criminal gang La Terraza of Medellín that served Carlos Castaño, were the assassins of Garzón.
In June 2008 Paramilitary leader Jorge Iván Laverde, alias El Iguano, declared before Law of Justice and Peace that the former sub-director of the Administrative Department of Security, DAS
, José Miguel Narváez, instigated Carlos Castaño to kill Jaime Garzón. A month later, in July, another Paramilitary former member, Ever Veloza García alias HH, gave to the Attorney General a USB that belonged to Carlos Castaño. He said that in the USB there was the prove that he ordered to La Terraza gang to assassinate Jaime Garzón. Veloza said also that Castaño said in different moments that the crime of Garzón was a mistake and that "it was done to make a favor to some friends of the National Army".
In October 2009 the former Paramilitary leader, Freddy Rendón Herrera alias "El Alemán", said to Justice and Peace process that Carlos Castaño ordered the killing of the journalist under "specific request of senior military leaders of the time".
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, a comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, peace activist
Peace activist
This list of peace activists includes people who proactively advocate diplomatic, non-military resolution of political disputes, usually through nonviolent means.A peace activist is an activist of the peace movement.*Jane Addams*Martti Ahtisaari...
and political satirist
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
. He was very popular on Colombian television during the 1990s, especially for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered by suspected right-wing paramilitary forces
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia was created as an umbrella organization of regional far-right...
in 1999, although the case remains opened and unsolved.
Life
Jaime Garzón was born in BogotáBogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
on October 24, 1960. He studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, but his active involvement in politics and television did not allow him to finish.
Mayor of Sumapaz
Garzón joined the political campaign of Andrés Pastrana ArangoAndrés Pastrana Arango
Andrés Pastrana Arango was the President of Colombia from 1998 to 2002, following in the footsteps of his father, Misael Pastrana, who was president from 1970 to 1974.-Early years:...
for the Mayor of Bogotá. After winning the elections, Pastrana nominated him as mayor of Sumapaz in 1988. Sumapaz is an underdeveloped rural locality of the District of Bogotá. Garzón tried to improve the standard of life of its population. In a year, he created a health center, the school was improved and the only street of town was paved.
But his originality was not well seen by the central administration of Pastrana. Asked in a telegram to notify the number of legal brothels in Sumapaz, he answered: "Después de una inspección visual, informo que aquí las únicas putas, son las putas FARC", a sarcastic answer typical of his sense of black humor, roughly translated as "After a visual inspection, I report that the only whores around here are the fucking FARC", a wordplay, as in colombian spanish the word 'putas' can signify both 'whores' as noun, and 'fucking' as an intensifier
Intensifier
Intensifier is a linguistic term for a modifier that amplifies the meaning of the word it modifies. Examples are "very," "quite," "extremely," "highly," and "greatly." An intensifier is the opposite of a qualifier, a modifier that weakens the word modified: "fairly," "somewhat," "rather," "a...
adjective. That answer and other eccentricities, brought to the conclusion by the central administration that he had founded a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
in Sumapaz. The municipal government secretary, Volmar Pérez Ortiz, signed his destitution. For this reason, Garzón sued Pastrana's administration, complaint which ruled in his favor only in 1997.
Between 1990 and 1994 he worked at the Nariño House
Casa de Nariño
The Casa de Nariño or Palacio de Nariño is the official home and principal workplace of the President of Colombia. It houses the main office of the executive branch and is located in the capital city of Bogotá...
during the presidency of César Gaviria
César Gaviria
César Gaviria Trujillo is a Colombian politician and a Latin American statesman. He served as President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, and Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 1994 until 2004.-Early life:...
. He helped in the translations of the new Colombian Constitution of 1991
Colombian Constitution of 1991
The Political Constitution of Colombia, better known as the Constitution of 1991, is the current governing document of the Republic of Colombia. Promulgated on July 4 of 1991 , it replaced the Constitution of 1886...
in the indigenous languages and as a communications presidential adviser.
Career
In 1987 the director of Noticiero de las 7, Antonio Morales Riveira, knew of the fame of the major of Sumapaz in imitating politicians. He brought Garzón to the news and it was the first time he would appear in television.He worked on various television parodies, becoming famous with the TV Show "Zoociedad" (Zoociety) in the 1990s which contained humor about materialistic society and politics. Garzón then started working on a TV Show called "¡Quac! El Noticero" in which he participated with the Colombian Actor Diego León Hoyos until 1997.
Garzón created many different and instantly recognizable fictional characters, the last of which was his debut as "Heriberto de la Calle", a shoe polisher who interviewed different personalities, including politicians.
| Year | Program | Character | Chanel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990–1993 | Zoociedad | Émerson de Francisco con Elvia Lucía Dávila | Canal Uno, Canal Dos |
| 1995–1997 | ¡Quac! El noticero | With Diego León Hoyos as María Leona Santodomingo: Nestor Elí, Inti de la Hoz, 'companion' Jhon Lenin, 'reporter' Wiliam Garra, Godofredo Cínico Caspa | RTI |
| 1997 | La Lechuza | Heriberto de la Calle | Caracol Radio Caracol Radio Caracol Radio is one of the main radio networks in Colombia. Founded in Medellín in 1948 when La Voz de Antioquia station acquired the 50% of Emisoras Nuevo Mundo, based in Bogotá.... |
Peace activist
On March 23, 1998, 200 FARC guerrillas kidnapped 32 persons in the VillavicencioVillavicencio
Villavicencio is a city and municipality in Colombia, capital of the Department of Meta, with 361,058 inhabitants. The city is located at 4°08S, 73°40W, 75 km southeast of the Colombian capital city of Bogotá by the Guatiquía river...
- Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
road. Among the hostages were four US citizens and an Italian.
On March 27 a commission, with the authorization of the anti-kidnapping czar, José Alfredo Escobar and led by Jaime Garzón, allowed the release of nine of the hostages.
On May 6, 1998, General Jorge Enrique Mora Rangel, commander of the Colombian Army
Colombian Army
The National Army of Colombia is the land military force of the government of Colombia and the largest service of the Colombian Armed Forces...
, asked publicly to the anti-kidnapping czar, to investigate Jaime Garzón for his participation in the release of the hostages. On June 4, the anti-kidnapping czar, José Alfredo Escobar, defended the role of Garzón in the release of the hostages as a humanitarian mission. Garzón tried to have an appointment with General Mora Rangel, but he is not accepted. The journalist sent a telegram to the military where he said: "General, do not look for enemies among the Colombians that risk their life everyday to build a proud nation as I want and as you are fighting for."
In May 1999 Garzón said in a cocktail before some personalities, among them the US Ambassador, that General Mora was accusing him to be a collaborator of the FARC.
On May 25, 1999, Senator Piedad Córdoba
Piedad Córdoba
Piedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz , better known by her nom de guerre Teodora de Bolívar or Gaitán is a former Liberal Senator of Colombia who served for four terms from 1994 to 2010, and a former Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia...
was kidnapped by the Paramilitary group of Carlos Castaño
Carlos Castaño
Carlos Castaño Gil was the founder of the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá , an extreme right paramilitary organization in Colombia...
and she was accused by him of being a collaborator of the guerrilla. According with Senator Córdoba, Castaño mentioned also Jaime Garzón. Once she was released, she met the journalist and warned him of the danger.
The participation in the process of the FARC's hostages releases and the intention to promote a dialogue of peace, brought him many threats, but the most noticeable was that of the Paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño.
Murder
On Tuesday, August 10, 1999, Garzón visited the Paramilitary leader Ángel Gaitán Mahecha, who was in the Modelo Prison in Bogotá with the intention to arrange a meeting with Carlos Castaño. The meeting should be done for August 14 in the Córdoba DepartmentCórdoba Department
Córdoba is a Department of the Republic of Colombia located to the north of this country in the Colombian Caribbean Region. Córdoba faces to the north with the Caribbean sea, to the northeast with the Sucre Department, east with the Bolívar Department and south with the Antioquia Department...
.
On Wednesday August 11 Garzón said to his wife and a makeup artist that he was going to be killed the next day.
On Friday August 13, at 5:45, local time
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, journalist Jaime Garzón was approaching the Radionet's station in his gray Jeep Cherokee
Jeep Cherokee (XJ)
The Jeep Cherokee is a unibody compact SUV. It shared the name of the original full-size SJ model, but without a body-on-frame chassis, it set the stage for the modern SUV. Its innovative appearance and sales popularity spawned important imitators as other automakers began to notice that this...
. When he was turning toward the south coming from the 26th Street in the Barrio Quinta Paredes sector (streets 22F with 42B), in front of Corferias
Corferias
Corferias is a convention center located in the city of Bogotá Colombia in the barrio Quintaparedes. It's a venue of local, national and international events...
, two men riding a high velocity white motorcycle with hidden plates approached to the car and calling his name, shot him five times. He was 38 years old.
The crime took a quick dissemination in the country when his own fellows of Radionet were the first to give the news to Colombia. Hundreds of persons went out the streets. The vehicular traffic worsen when a pedestrian bridge fall in the North Highway, by 122nd Street, because a group of people thought wrongly that the funeral would pass for the site. Three people died and 30 were injured.
In the night of that Friday, sport presenter César Augusto Londoño in CM&
CM&
CM& is a 1992 colombian News program created by Yamid Amat and Juan Gossaín and aired on RTVC´s Canal Uno.- The & :CM& are the acronyms of Compañía de Medios de Información, the & was adopted in 1993- External links :* News List* News List*...
News, had to introduce a memorial note to Heriberto de la Calle, one of the characters of his just assassinated companion. He introduced the note saying: "and sports here ... country of shit!".
Investigation
According to Judge Julio Roberto Ballén Silva, the AUC reacted against his involvement in negotiations for the release of guerrilla-held hostages on behalf of their family members. There are several versions of what happened in the days preceding his murder, in one of them Jaime Garzón was informed of an order to assassinate him, he then contacted Castaño, who scheduled a meeting with him to take place just the day after his murder, and sent a counter order to abort the assassination. The order apparently either never reached the actual killers, or came after it was too late. This led some to speculate that the meeting was a trap.An investigation of the TV program Contravía directed by Holman Morris shows evidence of the participation of agents of the DAS (state intelligence agency) by using false witnesses and therefore the investigation turned away from the real events http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKGPeLn2EK4. Likewise, the paramilitar Freddy Rendón Herrera aka "El Alemán" accused members of the military forces of being intellectual authors of the murder.
Castaño is accused of being the mastermind of the crime
On September 13, 1999, the authorities reacted with promptitude to guarantee the arrest of the assassins of the journalist. Four persons participated in the first investigations as key witnesses of the crime: María Amparo Arroyave Mantilla, Wilson Llano Caballero alias El Profe, Maribel Pérez Jiménez and Wilson Raúl Ramirez Muñoz.Although it was too early at the moment of the crime and María Amparo Arroyave was at the 4th floor of the building, 100 meters far from the place of the assassination and the two criminals wore helmets, she did an amazing description of one of the assassins like details of his face and clothing.
On August 19, 1999, the Minister of Defense, Luis Fernando Ramírez and some commanders of the National Army, did a public declaration as an answer to the suggestion of a journalist, who said that the responsibility for the crime of Garzón fall on the military superiors. They said that such suggestion is defamatory and that they reject and condemn the crime of one of the best journalist of the end of the century, the best humorist and the sharper critic of the Colombian society of the last decades.
On January 6, 2000, the Police of Medellín arrested Juan Pablo Ortiz Agudelo, alias Bochas. According to the Administrative Department of Security, he was the assassin that shot to Garzón and was recognized by María Amparo Arroyave.
On April 24 Carlos Castaño Gil, top leader of AUC, was formally accused of being the mastermind of the crime. On June 6 he was declared absent defendant.
On September 24, 2001, the Police arrested Edilberto Antonio Sierra Ayala in Belén de Umbría
Belén de Umbría
Belén de Umbría is a town and municipality in the Department of Risaralda, Colombia. Located at approx. 1.5 hours drive from the city of Pereira. Its population is about 32,000 inhabitants.- References :...
under the accusation of being the other criminal that drove the motorbike.
On January 3, 2002, the tribunal made official the closure of the process. The request of the civil part to review the hypothesis was ignored by the tribunal.
Complain of manipulation of the investigation
On January 21, 2000, the Attorney GeneralAttorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
was the first entity to put in doubt the veracity of the testimony of María Teresa Arroya Montoya. The Attorney ordered a careful inspection of the place she argued that she saw the crime. According to lawyer Alirio Uribe Muñoz, the Attorney concluded that from the place she said that she saw the crime, it is impossible to observe the details of the assassins. The Attorney found several contradictions in her description and little coincidences with other witnesses, who were more near to the place of the crime: none of them could remember the face of the assassins, because they were very fast, but none of these inconsistencies were reviewed in the record. But Arroyave Montoya disappeared and the Attorney General Office did not allow the investigation of the DAS' official Juan Ángel Ramírez García, who contacted Ms Arroyave Montoya.
In October 2002, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
and Red Damocles questioned the veracity of other witness that was considered a key witness during the first investigation: Wilson Llano Caballero, alias El Profe, who was presented as an Informant of DAS. He provided with pictures and information about the allegedly murders, alias “Bochas” and “Toño”. He convinced his girlfriend, Maribel Pérez Jiménez, and his neighbor, Wilson Raúl Ramírez, to declare against the two suspects.
Confessions of Paramilitary leaders
On March 11, 2004, Judge Julio Roberto Ballén Silva, acquitted of the crime the two allegedly assassins of the journalist. The sentence allowed the opening of the investigation to agents, officials and false witnesses of the first process. The tribunal concluded once more that Carlos Castaño Gil was the mastermind of the crime and sentenced him to 38 years in prison and a fine of 790 million pesosColombian peso
The peso is the currency of Colombia. Its ISO 4217 code is COP and it is also informally abbreviated as COL$. However, the official peso symbol is $. As 20 July 2011, the exchange rate of the Colombian peso is 1750 Colombian pesos to 1 U.S. dollar.-History:The peso has been the currency of Colombia...
. In April of that very year, the Paramilitary leader was killed probably by disputed among the same Paramilitary members.
On May 9, 2008, the former Paramilitary leader Diego Fernando Murillo alias Don Berna, said that members of the criminal gang La Terraza of Medellín that served Carlos Castaño, were the assassins of Garzón.
In June 2008 Paramilitary leader Jorge Iván Laverde, alias El Iguano, declared before Law of Justice and Peace that the former sub-director of the Administrative Department of Security, DAS
Das
Das or DAS may refer to:* Das , a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon* Das , an Emirati island in the Persian Gulf* Das , a common surname or title in the Indian Subcontinent...
, José Miguel Narváez, instigated Carlos Castaño to kill Jaime Garzón. A month later, in July, another Paramilitary former member, Ever Veloza García alias HH, gave to the Attorney General a USB that belonged to Carlos Castaño. He said that in the USB there was the prove that he ordered to La Terraza gang to assassinate Jaime Garzón. Veloza said also that Castaño said in different moments that the crime of Garzón was a mistake and that "it was done to make a favor to some friends of the National Army".
In October 2009 the former Paramilitary leader, Freddy Rendón Herrera alias "El Alemán", said to Justice and Peace process that Carlos Castaño ordered the killing of the journalist under "specific request of senior military leaders of the time".
External links
- Carlos Castaño Gil convicted for murder of journalist Jaime Garzón - IFEXInternational Freedom of Expression ExchangeThe International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....
- http://www.revistanumero.com/38garzon.htm
- Edificio Colombia. Blog with Garzón's Tv appearances.
- "La sonrisa inteligente": song about Jaime's thoughts, life and death.
- Interview with Jaime Garzon - English Captions
- Memorial for Garzon on Bogotá's Plaza Bolivar