Colombia: Prominent Journalist Shot Dead in Tuluá Municipality | It is not known if Marcos Efraín Montalvo received death threats for his investigations

Prominent Colombian journalist shot dead in Tuluá municipality, Valle del Cauca department, according to official sources. Marcos Efraín Montalvo Escobar was in a local store when He was attacked by a hitman who shot him without a word seconds after getting off a motorcycle. The injuries were so severe that the 68-year-old journalist died instantly without being able to be transferred to a health center. The attack was recorded by security cameras. We do not know until now if “The commander”, as Montalvo was known in Tuluá, received death threats for his investigations. The offense was registered in the same municipality where hours before, three bodies wounded by gunshot were found.

The mayor of Tuluá, John Jairo Gómez Aguirre, to complain “the despicable murder of famous journalist Marcos Efraín Montalvo Escobar, a fact which, like others which occurred in the municipality, disturbs the tranquility. “In addition, Gómez Aguirre sent a message of” solidarity to the entire union of journalists in the municipality and in particular to his family. “

The mayor also explained that authorities strive to arrest those responsible for the human crime who have collaborated, among others, with local media such as The tabloid de Tuluá and the newspaper The country, the main newspaper in the region. Several journalists joined the condemnations for his murder and called for the crime not to go unpunished.

“I had the opportunity to work with him, a few days ago we met and talked for ten minutes, in the conversation we brought up the subject of the complaints he made on his Facebook page, topics that a lot of people don’t like. I recommended you to be careful, that we journalists are exposed, and he jokingly told me, we have to die of something someday, we shook hands and said goodbye, “he told Caracol Radio Alexandre dominguez, a journalist from Valle del Cauca.

For its part the Office of the Colombian Ombudsman said on his Twitter account: “We reject the murder of journalist Marcos Efraín Montalvo in Tuluá. We accompany his family in this painful loss and we stand in solidarity with journalism, which is suffering this new and unacceptable attack on press freedom“.

In addition, the agency called for “rapid results in the investigations carried out by the authorities, to clarify the events that occurred and to find those responsible for those who committed this heinous crime”. Faced with this situation, the governor of Valle del Cauca, Clara Luz Roldán, proposed a reward of 100 million pesos (approximately 26 thousand dollars) for information on the attackers.

They murder three other people

In addition to the journalist’s crime local authorities reported the murder of three people, including a child under the age of 17, in a rural area of ​​Tuluá on weekends. The three victims were killed on Saturday in the Mateguadua region but the bodies, which showed gunshot wounds, were not found by residents until Sunday afternoon.

In October last year, the ombudsman’s office issued an early warning for the incursion into the area of ​​a FARC dissident dedicated to drug trafficking. During the months of May and June 2021, the department of Valle del Cauca was the target of a strong wave of violence which left several dead. The Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) reported on Monday that This is the 71st massacre this year in Colombia.