Ignacio Gómez (born c. 1962; also known as "Nacho") is a Colombian journalist known for his high-risk reporting on organized crime, corruption, and paramilitary groups. In 2000, he received the "Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat"
Amnesty Media Award. In 2002, he was awarded the
International Press Freedom Award of the
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
.
Background
Gómez began working at ''
El Espectador
''El Espectador'' () is a nationally circulated Colombian newspaper founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez in 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It was initially published twice a week, 500 issues each, but some years later became ...
'', a daily newspaper in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
, at the age of 24. The paper's editor-in-chief at the time was
Guillermo Cano, who was a hero of Gómez.
On 17 December 1986, only a few weeks after Gómez's hiring, Cano was assassinated outside the ''El Espectadors office by a man with a submachine gun, apparently in retaliation for his reporting on
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthie ...
and other drug lords.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Colombia had the highest rate of murders of reporters in the world, and over the next fourteen years, ten more ''El Espectador'' reporters would be murdered.
Gómez later described the mood at ''El Espectador'' as "like having your gravestone tied around your neck".
Reporting
In the late 1980s, Gómez continued Cano's mission of aggressively investigating Pablo Escobar's connections with the
Colombian government
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citiz ...
, at one point publishing a list of properties in
Medellín
Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...
that the drug lord secretly owned.
He also expanded his reporting into coverage of the conflict with far-right
paramilitary groups
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
, such as
Carlos Castaño's
Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá (ACCU). In September 1988, he was forced to flee the country after a firebombing of '' El Espectadors offices believed to be a retaliation for his reporting, but he returned nine months later.
In 1989 alone, he reported on 36 separate massacres.
In 1996, Gómez co-founded ''
La Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa'' (English: "The Foundation for Press Freedom"; abbreviated "FLIP"), a non-profit organization to protect threatened journalists.
He also served as the group's executive director until 2001.
Gómez is best known for his coverage of the
Mapiripán massacre, a "five-day killing spree" in July 1997 in which
Colombian Army
The National Army of Colombia () is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, and is the second largest army in the ...
officers colluded with the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to kill at least 49 people in the village of
Mapiripán suspected of being guerrilla sympathizers. The killers used machetes and chainsaws, dismembering the corpses and throwing the pieces into the river. When Gómez broke the story of the Army's involvement in February 2000, he received 56 threats in the next two months. On 24 May, a group of men attempted to abduct Gómez as he was entering a taxi in Bogota, but he escaped. The next day, Gómez's colleague
Jineth Bedoya was kidnapped, tortured, and raped; her kidnappers told her that they "planned to cut Gómez into tiny pieces".
[ ]Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
also issued a statement of concern for his safety, describing his case as "a clear example of the campaign of terror Colombian journalists are increasingly subjected to".
On 1 June 2000, Gómez left the country, moving to Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, US, where he served for a year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He returned to Colombia in late 2001, becoming the Director of Investigations for the television news show ''Noticias Uno
''Noticias Uno'' (known from 1992 to 2002 as NTC Noticias) is a nightly Colombian newscast produced by NTC Televisión and Broadcasting, aired weekends and holidays on pay TV channel Cable Noticias, CableNoticias. The program was formerly on sta ...
''. After a report on links between presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe Vélez Álvaro or Álvar (, , ) is a Spanish language, Spanish, Galician language, Galician and Portuguese language, Portuguese male given name and surname of Germanic Visigothic origin.
The patronymic surname derived from this name is Álvarez (surname), ...
(who became President of Colombia
The president of Colombia (President of the Republic) is the head of state and head of government of Colombia. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mil ...
later in the year) and the Medellín Cartel, Gómez was once again the target of death threats, along with news director Daniel Coronell and Coronell's three-year-old daughter,[ prompting ]Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
to issue of a statement of protest on their behalf.
On 24 May 2011, burglars tried to force their way into Gómez's home for the seventh time in ten years; noting the "sophisticated equipment" of the burglars, he attributed the attempted break-in to agents of Colombia's Administrative Department of Security
The Administrative Department of Security (, DAS) was the security service agency of Colombia, which was also responsible for border and immigration services. It was dissolved on 31 October 2011 as part of a wider Executive Reform, and was replac ...
.
Awards and recognition
In 2000 Gómez was the recipient of the "Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat" at the Amnesty International UK Media Awards.
In addition to his 2001 Nieman Fellowship, Gómez was awarded the 2002 International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists,[ "an annual recognition of courageous journalism". In the award citation, the CPJ praised Gómez's "exceptional commitment to truth and freedom".][ In 2010, Gómez's organization FLIP won the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, awarded by the ]Missouri School of Journalism
The Missouri School of Journalism, housed under the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, Columbia, is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in of journalis ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Ignacio
Colombian journalists
Colombian male journalists
Living people
Nieman Fellows
Date of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)