Journalist Felipe Guevara Dies in Cali After Receiving Bullet Shots

*FLIP learned that on the afternoon of December 23, journalist Felipe Guevara died of medical complications caused by the gunshot wounds. This news saddens us infinitely. We accompany Felipe's family and friends.

Attack to the life of journalist Felipe Guevara in Cali 

December 22, 2020

FLIP rejects the attack on which Felipe Guevara, a journalist with Q’Hubo in the city of Cali, was the victim*. The Foundation is Concerned that the Police Will Early Rule Out the Relationship of these Events to his Journalistic Activity. FLIP calls on the authorities to conduct a serious, impartial, and diligent investigation into these events, and to consider the relationship with his trade as the first line of inquiry.

According to FLIP, on the night of December 21, Guevara was shot four times, affecting his chest, stomach, and leg. The event occurred in Mariano Ramos neighborhood, belonging to Commune 16 in the east of Cali, where the communicator lives. The journalist was rushed to a clinic in the city where he is currently under reserved prognosis.

Guevara has worked for the last three years for Q’hubo newspaper of El País publishing house, and currently covers judicial issues. Sources consulted by FLIP, including fellow journalists from Guevara, have said that for a couple of years he had received threats that would be related to his journalistic work.

Precisely, and according to the information gathered by FLIP, following these threats Guevara had to leave Mariano Ramos neighborhood in 2017, after he made some notes about a criminal gang operating in that sector. As people close to the communicator know, he had lodged a complaint with the authorities about these events. In addition, in 2018 and August of this year, Guevara again reported threats and harassment, and stated that he no longer wanted to leave his home because he did not feel secure.

The Foundation expresses its concern about the journalist's background to his safety, and demands that the authorities investigate this case promptly, and to consider the relationship with his journalistic work as a first hypothesis. It is worrying that the National Police has ruled out from the outset that the attack on Guevara could be related to his work as a journalist. General Manuel Antonio Vásquez Prada, commander of Cali Metropolitan Police, said that “they preliminarily rule out that this event was related to their profession.”

The Foundation is in solidarity with the communicator's relatives and wishes a speedy recovery. In addition, FLIP joins in the appeal for awareness made by journalists from the south-west of the country to this terrible attack.