Newspaper publisher shot dead in Colombia http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/315019,newspaper-publisher-shot-dead-in-colombia.html

Bogota - A newspaper publisher known for his attacks on corruption and nepotism in Colombia has been shot dead, news reports said Saturday.Clodomiro Castilla, 49, publisher of El Pulso del Tiempo newspaper was shot dead as he sat reading on his balcony in the city of Monteria, local newspaper Meridiano de Cordoba reported.Castilla was known in the north-western region of the country for exposing the corruption scandals of local politicians, and had been arrested numerous times on drug and theft charges.

In the past year seven journalists have been murdered in Colombia, frequently in cases involving corrupt politicians, right-wing militias or left-wing rebels. Only rarely have murder cases been solved.Castilla had received death threats in recent months, after having testified in court that officials from the conservative party of President Alvaro Uribe had contacts to right-wing death-squads.The journalist had been given police protection, but it was withdrawn shortly before the shooting.

comment-Clodomiro Castilla  was known for exposing the links between politicians and paramilitaries in the department of Cordoba (north).He was also a giant critic of uribe and himself testified in parapolitics scandal.http://noticias-usa.com/htm/ASESINAN+A+PERIODISTA+COLOMBIANO+TESTIGO+EN+CASO+DE+PARAPOLITICA.htm

The Colombian journalist Clodomiro Castilla Ospino, witness in the Supreme Court in several cases  investigating the nexus between politicians and paramilitaries, was killed in the Caribbean city of Monteria...

also see...Human rights defender killed in central Colombian department of Meta http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8762-human-rights-defender-killed-in-central-colombian-department-of-meta.html also,see...Army mass grave in La Macarena http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303 La Macarena, the site of the grave, has been a very important site of U.S.-aided military operations since the mid-2000s. In this area, the U.S. government supported and advised the Colombian Army’s 2004-2006 “Plan Patriota” military offensive, and since 2007 has supported the “Plan for the Integral Consolidation of La Macarena” or PCIM, part of the new “Integrated Action” framework that is now guiding much U.S. assistance.

The committee Hurtado belonged to,is one of 300 in the group of Torres, founded in 2005 protesting these crimes against humanity as a matter of uribes security policies and false positives...the uribe government is trying to silence those spearheading justice procedures against crimes of the state....