Those of us who went into exile once are getting that terrible feeling that it is happening all over again,'' said Maria Jimena Duzan, a columnist for Bogota's El Espectador newspaper. Threats by cartels forced Duzan from Colombia in 1990 for three years, but she says this time she will not leave her homeland again. This country has turned absolutely intolerant. It is very sad to see what is happening in Colombia,'' he told The Herald in an interview. Colombia last year was the most lethal place to be a journalist.
Some deaths are unrelated to the profession.
I never knew that he had been threatened,'' he said, noting that Quintero had worked for his presidential campaign last year as a spokesman. Valledupar, a city of 300,000 people, is a relative oasis in a sea of violence. We are surrounded by seven guerrilla fronts. And the paramilitaries are active, too,'' said National Police Col. Ciro Hernando Chitiva, who oversees security in Cesar, one of 33 states in Colombia. While the countryside is perilous for virtually all travelers, the city itself is distinctly unsafe for journalists.