Human rights defender Mr Clodomiro Castilla Ospina was shot dead in Montería in Northern Colombia on 19 March 2010. Clodomiro Castilla Ospina was the editor and publisher of the local magazine El Pulso del Tiempo and a reporter with the Bloque Informativo at the Voz de Montería radio station.

Further Information

Prior to his death Clodomiro Castilla Ospina reported on supposed links between paramilitaries and local government officials, the alleged involvement of a local entrepreneur in the attempted assassination of a Montería-based lawyer and corruption in local government agencies.

On 19 March 2010, at approximately 8:40pm, Clodomiro Castilla Ospina was reading a book outside his home in Montería, when an unidentified gunman approached him and shot him at least eight times. The attacker reportedly fled the scene on a motorcycle driven by a second man.

Prior to his death, Clodomiro Castilla Ospina had received numerous threats against him. On 20 February 2010, he filed a formal complaint with the Fifth Local Attorney at the Attorney General’s Office against William Enrique Salleg Taboada, director of the newspaper El Meridiano de Córdoba, in relation to these threats.

Clodomiro Castilla Ospina believed that the threats were directly related to articles that he had published accusing William Enrique Salleg Taboada, Governor Martha Sáenz and businessman Pedro Guisay Chadid of having links with paramilitary groups.

Following the publication of these articles, Clodomiro Castilla Ospina began to receive anonymous threatening telephone calls on his mobile phone. On one occasion, Pedro Guisay Chadid reportedly sent Clodomiro Castilla Ospina a text message warning him that if he did not drop the complaint against him, he would have him killed.

Clodomiro Castilla Ospina was murdered just five days before he was supposed to appear before the First Specialised Prosecutor of Montería in relation to a previous complaint that he had filed accusing William Enrique Salleg Taboada of having links with the paramilitary group known as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).

While Clodomiro Castilla Ospina received police protection from 2006 to 2009, he subsequently decided to refuse this protection as he believed that the deputy commander of the local police, who were responsible for protecting him, had been involved in a plot to assassinate him. Fearing for his life, he recently requested that the police protection be reinstated but, on 3 March 2010, he informed the commander of the Police in Córdoba that the head of the Comando de Atención Inmediata - CAI (Immediate Attention Command) had refused his request.

Front Line believes that the murder of Clodomiro Castilla Ospina is directly related to his peaceful and legitimate human rights activities, in particular his media coverage of human rights issues.