GERARDO  BEDOYA BORRERO

News Organization: EL PAIS

Died: 1997

Location: COLOMBIA

Shot six times March 20 outside a condominium complex in Cali by an assailant who fled on a motorbike. Bedoya, chief editorial writer for the conservative daily El Pais, was an outspoken opponent of Colombia’s drug cartels. He also backed the extradition of criminals. Two days before his murder, the 55-year-old journalist and former congressman wrote a column supporting U.S. intervention in Colombia’s drug-fighting efforts: "I prefer the interference of the gringos in our country’s internal affairs to that of the drug cartels."