A Reporter on the Lam in Latin America

As an aviation reporter, he covered Uribe during much of his rise. After being hired by El Nuevo Herald in 2000, he wrote several stories about the Colombian president's ties to Escobar. Guillén was also one of the first to write about Uribe's use of Escobar's helicopter, he says. In 2003, he says, he received an unexpected call from the president. "He said he had copies of several e-mails that I had sent to people and that he didn't like the investigation I was doing," Guillén remembers. "People from the [American] embassy that I knew told me these calls were really threatening and dangerous. And a secretary of the government named Moreno told me that I was really in danger."

But Guillén didn't surrender. This past May he published a book, Confidants of Pablo Escobar, that claimed the Uribe family had ties to organized crime. Then on May 25 at 1:39 p.m., the opinion section of El Nuevo Herald received an anonymous e-mail. It said police and paramilitaries had searched for Guillén while he was away. Their orders were to assassinate or "shut him up." "It would be best to tell Gonzalo to be very careful or they'll put him down — the plan is well under way," the e-mail said.

Through an international program — partially funded by the United States and the European Union — Guillén secured two bodyguards. They also kept an eye on the reporter's wife and 23-year-old son.

Then early this month, Virginia Vallejo, Escobar's mistress until he was killed in a 1993 shootout with police, published Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar. The tome claims that when Vallejo asked the drug lord how he managed to have a fleet of planes and a runway, he credited Uribe, "a key guy at civil aviation." The book also contends Escobar termed Uribe a "blessed kid" who had granted licenses for the planes.

Uribe reacted angrily to the book, calling Vallejo a liar and criminal. Guillén recalls switching on his radio about 8:00 a.m. October 2. He was at home. "Behind this lady," Uribe said, referring to Vallejo, "is Gonzalo Guillén, who has dedicated his journalistic career to infamy and lies."

It got worse. "They took [one of my bodyguards] away that very same day," Guillén reports. Then the threats began coming by e-mail. "We will kill you," said one. Four or five telephone calls were placed to his home. "We know where you are," said an unidentified caller.

"I was more afraid for my wife and my son than for myself," reports Guillén, "so I had to leave."

Guillén says he had nothing to do with Vallejo's book. Uribe might have blamed him because he was among the first to interview Escobar's lover. CPJ's Simon penned an October 11 letter to Uribe. "Your baseless allegations have endangered" Guillén, he wrote.

For Uribe the stakes are high. He desperately wants the United States to approve a pending free trade agreement with Colombia. (We buy 40 percent of the country's exports.) And he hopes to continue receiving the millions of dollars in foreign aid that have helped him fight rebels and prop up a troubled economy.

If Congress and the Bush administration believe in a free press, they should take action against Uribe. Gonzalo Guillén's family and all Colombians, including the estimated five million who have been forced to leave for Miami and other places, deserve no less.