How a Colombian reporter predicted his homicide – and why a world crew is ending his work | Colombia

“If you’re going to kill me, then kill me. However I’ll let you know up entrance: you gained’t silence me.” In a 37-minute Fb Stay broadcast on 21 July 2022, the impartial Colombian journalist Rafael Moreno defied his detractors – and predicted his personal dying.

Within the recording, Moreno denounces alleged corruption within the surrounding area of Córdoba, one of many poorest and most violent elements of the nation, and a strategic hall for drug smuggling.

He recites a litany of accusations: inflated contracts, unfinished public works, embezzlement. “They’re stealing,” he claims. “Anyone has to level out the corruption on this area.”

In his reporting – which he printed on two Fb pages – Moreno spared nobody, from highly effective native politicians and mining firms to paramilitary teams and different journalists.

And his accusations seemingly didn’t go unnoticed.

Within the video, Moreno reads out a observe he had lately discovered on his motorcycle – alongside a bullet. “We all know all of your actions: the place you go, once you get up, once you fall asleep … We all know all the pieces about you and we’re not going to forgive you.”

Like many native reporters in Latin America, Moreno was unable to make a dwelling from his journalism, and had lately opened a grill and automotive wash within the city of Montelíbano.

Three months after posting the video, on 16 October, he was closing the bar when a person carrying a baseball cap entered the restaurant, pulled out a revolver and shot him thrice.

Moreno died instantly. However due to the paperwork he left behind, he was not silenced.

Days earlier than his assassination, Moreno had contacted Forbidden Tales, the French nonprofit whose mission is to pursue the work of assassinated, threatened or jailed reporters. He joined the SafeBox Community, which permits threatened journalists to add delicate info for safekeeping, and he began sharing his findings.

After his dying, a consortium of reporters from world wide got here collectively to proceed Moreno’s work. They analysed a whole lot of paperwork, emails and public contracts obtained by freedom of knowledge requests.

Along with on-the-ground reporting and interviews with dozens of sources, they explored his claims of a system of clientelism within the province of Córdoba through which a number of million {dollars} had been allegedly embezzled.

The crew additionally examined three mines within the area, confirming lots of the allegations Moreno had made, together with environmental injury, failures to seek the advice of with Indigenous communities and non-licensed operations.

As we speak the Guardian joins 31 media companions world wide to publish the consortium’s work – and spotlight the investigations which will have price Rafael Moreno his life.

‘Anyone might have killed him’

Between 1992 and 2022, 95 journalists have been killed in Colombia, a lot of them caught within the crossfire of a brutal civil battle between leftwing guerrillas, rightwing paramilitaries and state forces.

A collection of peace offers eliminated lots of the battle’s factions from the battlefield, however new legal teams have sprung up, and the nation’s reporters are sometimes most in danger when investigating drug trafficking, native politics and corruption.

In keeping with his family and friends, Moreno was relentless in his pursuit of alleged corruption. “He was always throwing banana skins,” mentioned Rafael Martínez, cupboard secretary of the close by city of Puerto Libertador, and a longtime good friend. “Anyone might have killed him.”

His final investigation targeted on accusations of environmental crimes within the basin of the Uré River. Moreno had found that somebody was utilizing a backhoe and heavy vans to systematically strip sand from a river seaside to be used in public building works.

The seaside sits subsequent to a nationwide park and inside a protected space, and Moreno alleged that the challenge didn’t have an environmental licence. He additionally claimed the scheme was linked to probably the most highly effective political dynasties within the area: the Calle household.

Gabriel Calle, the household patriarch, is a former regional deputy and mayor of Montelíbano at present beneath investigation for a number of offences, together with irregularities in drawing up contracts and illicit enrichment. He denies the costs.

Within the 10 days earlier than his homicide, Moreno had submitted 4 freedom of knowledge requests, together with one requesting paperwork concerning the Uré River. The response got here two days after his dying.

In an interview with the consortium, Calle denied all accountability for the sand extraction, and mentioned the vans had been on a public street, though the land registry doesn’t point out any public street on this location.

He denied having any involvement in or information of Moreno’s dying. “I had a very good friendship with Rafael – we by no means even had an argument. I wasn’t apprehensive about what he mentioned as a result of it wasn’t true,” he instructed the consortium.

Moreno’s new profession: investigative journalist

Moreno was born within the village of Puerto Libertador, and after leaving faculty at 15 labored in a gold mine, picked coca leaves and accomplished his army service.

When he returned to the area aged 20, he met Espedito Duque, a charismatic upcoming politician, and went to work for his mayoral election marketing campaign in Puerto Libertador.

“Rafael was his right-hand man, he was virtually his head of communications,” mentioned Moreno’s sister, Maira.

After two failed makes an attempt, Duque was elected in 2015, and Moreno went to work for the brand new mayor. However individuals near Moreno say that he was changing into disillusioned along with his political mentor.

Moreno felt that the adjustments Duque had promised had been sluggish to reach, and he believed the mayor relied on the identical allegedly corrupt functionaries who had served previous administrations.

After the peace deal between the Colombian authorities and leftwing Farc rebels, public cash had develop into extra simply accessible in areas like Puerto Libertador which had been had been significantly laborious hit by the decades-long battle.

Since 2016, greater than $100m has been invested within the 5 municipalities that make up the area. The assets had been earmarked for greater than 130 public works tasks, together with street repairs, schooling and healthcare, in addition to housing and vitality infrastructure.

However activists say many tasks had been by no means accomplished. “Many of those works had been unfinished or not even began,” mentioned Enyer Nieves Pinto, president of a civil oversight group within the area.

So in December 2018, Moreno launched a brand new profession as an investigative journalist.

His technique was easy: he would go browsing to a authorities web site itemizing public contracts, obtain the paperwork, pore over the budgets and proposals, after which go to the placement to see if the work had been carried out. He printed the outcomes on his two Fb pages: “Rafael Moreno Investigator” and “Voices of Córdoba”.

One case concerned the renovation of the municipal stadium in Puerto Libertador, which – regardless of a finances of greater than $1m – was deserted unfinished.

In a poor area nonetheless haunted by many years of violence, many locals had been revolted by allegations that cash had gone astray.

However Moreno’s reporting additionally led to threats from native crime factions which routinely take a lower from public budgets. In 2019, he was named as a “army goal” by one gang; in 2021, he was briefly kidnapped by the nation’s strongest crime group, the Gulf Clan.

Moreno recurrently shared these threats with the Nationwide Safety Unit, which offers countermeasures together with panic buttons, armoured autos and bodyguards to threatened activists and reporters. However the safety he obtained was irregular, and he had none on the day of his homicide.

Nonetheless, Moreno continued to publish articles and submit authorized complaints and freedom of knowledge requests.

The consortium companions had been in a position to seek the advice of Moreno’s electronic mail, the place among the many hundreds of emails and attachments, they found a proper grievance Moreno filed on 5 January 2021 in opposition to Duque and his associates, alleging “acts of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, affect trafficking and clientelism”.

The 21-page doc alleges that Duque’s shut family and friends arrange dozens of NGOs which then gained contracts to “facilitate the appropriation of public assets”.

The doc by no means obtained an official response. However an evaluation by the Colombian investigative outlet Cuestión Pública and the Latin American Investigative Journalism Centre (Clip) exhibits that between 2016 and 2022, the Duque administration and its successor seem to have signed 99 contracts with 13 individuals near the mayor’s household – contracts price a mixed $3m.

Lots of the contracts had been awarded by mutual settlement, that means they had been by no means provided for public tender.

In an announcement to the consortium, Duque denied all accusations of wrongdoing, saying that the allegations of corruption had been “completely false” and including: “It’s unfaithful that I supported the creation of entities to profit from contracts with the municipality.”

Duque mentioned: “[Moreno’s] accusations had been because of resentment, however all my actions [in office] passed off in public, and any complaints had been examined by management our bodies.”

He strongly denied any involvement in or information of Moreno’s dying, saying: “I swear by God and my household that I had nothing to do with the assassination of Rafael Moreno, and I want you to maintain investigating that merciless homicide till you get to the reality. As a result of on the day of his homicide the politicians who had been supposedly his mates didn’t cry, they celebrated and toasted on the street, and put the blame on me and my household.”

He added: “Could he relaxation in peace. His passing triggered me nice ache.”

Threats, homicide and journalists going quiet

Up till his dying, Moreno saved posting updates on his Fb pages, build up his allegations of corruption and clientelism. He was additionally investigating an alleged rape case implicating the son of a robust native determine.

However the threats had been additionally gathering tempo, and on the night time of 16 October 2022, he was shot useless.

Since then, different reporters within the area have stepped again from investigations. Yamir Pico, Moreno’s cousin and fellow journalist, quickly closed down his media outlet in November after receiving threats. He later restarted it however mentioned he wouldn’t pursue any extra investigations. One other native journalist has determined to deal with sports activities and cultural protection. A 3rd has left the area and is at present in hiding.

Greater than six months after Moreno’s dying, no one has been arrested within the homicide case. Duque is planning to run for mayor once more this October.

Reporting by Paloma Dupont de Dinechin (Forbidden Tales), Andrea Rincón (Cuestión Pública), Edier Buitrago (Cuestión Pública), Claudia Duque (freelance), Juan Diego Quesada (El País), Felipe Morales (El Espectador) and Ivonne Rodríguez (Clip)