Local newspaper columnist and politician Wilfred Ojeda Peralta was found murdered in La Victoria, in the northern state of Aragua, on May 17 after disappearing the day before. Local press reports quoted relatives as saying they were not aware of his having any enemies.
So far there are no clues as to the motive but the method suggests that it was a contract killing carried out at the behest of organised crime. His body was found with a hood over the head and with the hands and feet tied. He had been killed by single shot to the head. Traces of blood were found in his abandoned pick-up, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
Aged 56, married and the father of two children, Ojeda had written a column called “Critical Dimension” every Monday for the past 22 years for the regional daily El Clarín. He was also a member of the opposition Democratic Action party who had been a representative in the Aragua state legislature and had held various municipal and regional posts.
“Our thoughts are with Ojeda’s family and colleagues,” RSF said. “While it is too early for any theories about the motive, we note that organized crime is a major menace in the region and was behind the last murder of a journalist in Venezuela, that of Orel Sambrano in January 2009.”
RSF hoped the Ojeda murder investigation will be as successful as the Sambrano one, which led to the arrest of the presumed killers, Víctor Reales and Álvaro Ospino, in Colombia on May 15.
"We urge Venezuelan authorities to fully investigate the brutal murder of newspaper columnist Wilfred Ojeda, establish whether he was killed for his work, and bring those responsible to justice," said Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the Americas with the New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
CPJ's database of killed journalists shows that while lethal violence is uncommon in Venezuela, three journalists have been killed for their work since 2002: Orel Sambrano, Jorge Aguirre, and Jorge Ibraín Tortoza Cruz. The motives behind the killings of three other journalists--Pierre Fould Gerges, Jesús Rafael Flores Rojas, and Mauro Marcano--are still unclear and CPJ continues to investigate.
