The worst violators of press freedom in the Americas
by Reporters Without Borders
Carlos Castaño (Colombia)
Initially the head of a paramilitary group in the department
of Cordoba (in the northeast of the country), in 1997 Carlos Castaño
created the United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) to give his fight against
the guerrillas a national dimension. His "military objectives" are the armed
guerrillas, and also the "civilian guerrillas," among whom are included the
journalists. For having defended the negotiations that the authorities have
conducted with the guerrillas, or for the simple act of reporting the number
of paramilitaries killed in combat, eight journalists accused of being "paraguerrillas"
have been assassinated by the AUC since 1997. At the moment Carlos Castaño
is wanted for ordering the murder, in August of 1999, of the famous humorist
and political pundit Jaime Garzón.
Since 1999 the AUC, which won't resign itself to being left
at the margin of the peace process initiated by President Andrés Pastrana,
has stepped up its kidnappings, threats and attacks against journalists. This
harassment has led at least 20 media professionals to flee into exile.
Manuel Marulanda and Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista
(Colombia)
In January of 2000 Manuel Marulanda, head of the Marxist guerrilla
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), accused Colombian press groups
of being "in the service of the big monopolies" and promised that he was going
to "collect debts" that they had pending with his organization. Attributed
to FARC, which has about 12,000 members, are the attempted murders, in 1999
and 2000, of two journalists: Francisco "Pacho" Santos, of the daily El Tiempo,
and Claudia Gurisatti, of RCN Television.
On repeated occasions since 1998, the groups led by Manuel
Marulanda (who is nicknamed Tirofijo, or Sureshot), and by Nicolás
Rodríguez Bautista, who heads the Guevarist guerrilla National Liberation
Army (ELN), have said that they consider those journalists who make "apologies
for the army's activities" as "military objectives." These declarations have
translated into the murders of two journalists over the past five years. Since
1998, the Colombian guerrillas have kidnapped a total of 47 journalists, for
the petty purposes of obliging the information media to publish press releases
or denounce abuses committed by the army or the paramilitaries.
Fidel Castro (Cuba)
The Cuban Constitution provides that the news media can "in
no case" be private property, and that freedom of the press must "conform
with the ends of socialist society." In this context, some 100 journalists,
from about 20 independent agencies, try to exercise their right to inform.
By characterizing them as "counterrevolutionaries," President Fidel Castro,
who has been in power since January of 1959, achieves at all costs their isolation
from the population and preserves his control over information. In practice,
the discourses of the maximum leader translate into a true "strategy of harassment:"
seizures of material, pressures against family members, summonses to report
to police, arrests and severe prison sentences. As of March 1, 2001 there
was still one journalist imprisoned in Cuba.
The foreign press is strictly watched by the Comandante himself,
who says that he personally reads some 340 press agency reports every day.
At the age of 74, he doesn't appear disposed to lower his guard: in a January
17, 2001 speech, the head of the revolution threatened to withdraw press credentials
from "some agencies" which he accused of "not being objective."
