The Legacy of Killed Colombian Indigenous Reporter Lives On She was killed while reporting about an

[Judi Lynn]

Editor’s note: this profile is part of wider coverage of threats against Indigenous reporters in Cauca (Colombia). The first story covers impunity regarding crimes against reporters, and the second, the context of indigenous and their fight to report on community land struggles.gacy of Killed Colombian Indigenous Reporter Lives On She was killed while reporting about an indigenous land protest.

January 1, 2022 by Global Voices
By J. Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo


It was an ordinary Sunday, with no hint of trouble. María Efigenia Vásquez Astudillo and her partner John Miller, both Indigenous reporters from the south of Colombia, took their camera and went to the Kokonuko indigenous reserve.

Miller’s job was to record the protest of the Kokonuko Indigenous community and their subsequent encounter with the police anti-riot unit, Esmad. The events took place at the Kokonuko reserve, in Puracé, a small town a couple of hours from the large city of Popayán.

Miller told Global Voices that he and Efigenia Vásquez had been called by people from their neighborhood to document possible confrontations with the police. The Kokonuko community had gathered to protest a private tourism project, led by Diego Angulo, on what they consider the heart of their reserve (resguardo, in Spanish), which is under collective property according to Colombian law.

On the morning of October 8, 2017, the couple was near the entrance of Agua Tibia N.2, in the reserve, which is also the location of Angulo’s ecotourism, spa, and thermal baths company called Centro de Turismo y Salud Termales Agua Tibia.

More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-legacy-of-killed-colombian-indigenous-reporter-lives-on/



María Efigenia Vásquez Astudillo