Former intelligence chief charged in connection Garzón murder 11 years ago

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the recent progress in the investigation into the 1999 murder of journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón. On 30 June, the prosecutor general charged former intelligence chief José Miguel Narváez with involvement in his death. Narváez use to run the Administrative Department of Security, better known by the initials DAS (see the chuzaDAS report). He has been detained since August 2009 for alleged illegal spying on many leading Colombians including judges, journalists, members of the political opposition and human rights activists. Carlos Castaño, the onetime head of the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), was sentenced in absentia in March 2004 to 38 years in prison for Garzón’s murder. Castaño disappeared around the same time and was never arrested. Two men suspected of carrying out the murder were acquitted for lack of evidence. Garzón, who worked for Caracol Televisión and Radionet, was gunned down in Bogotá on 13 August 1999. The investigating judge in charge of the case ended his investigation in January 2002, concluding that Castaño commissioned the murder. Judge Julio Roberto Ballén Silva ordered a new investigation in 2004 to determine the possible involvement of ten DAS officials and to identify the real masterminds. Reporters Without Borders, which was registered as a civil party in the case, welcomes the fact that one of the intelligence officials allegedly involved has finally been charged, even if it has taken more than ten years. This is an encouraging development for the fight against impunity although Colombia continues to be one of the countries where the murders of journalists are least likely to be solved.