Death Threats Force Writer to Flee Colombia

A prominent Colombian journalist and peace activist, Francisco Santos of the newspaper El Tiempo, has fled the country because of death threats, it was reported Saturday.

Santos, 38, left Friday for the U.S., said Juan Manuel Santos, the journalist’s cousin and a former foreign trade minister. He declined to comment further about the origin of the threats, but a source at El Tiempo, the country’s leading daily, said they came from leftist rebels.

“He had been under threat for some time, and lately [the threats] increased,” the cousin said.

Francisco Santos’ family owns El Tiempo and is also one of the most politically powerful in Colombia.

He is also the founder of Pais Libre, a private anti-kidnapping foundation, and was himself abducted and held by drug traffickers for eight months in 1990.

Santos has also been a leading organizer of anti-war protests in this country, which has been plagued by nearly four decades of civil conflict.

Dozens of Colombian journalists, peace activists and other public figures have been forced to leave the country recently because of death threats either from leftist rebels or their right-wing paramilitary foes.

In his columns, Santos had stridently condemned the intolerance and murderous acts of extremists from the left and the right, most recently criticizing rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for the kidnapping of 74-year-old television journalist Guillermo Cortes, who was seized Jan. 22 at his country home outside Bogota, the capital.

A close colleague at El Tiempo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was threats from FARC that forced Santos to leave Colombia.