Leónidas González Pérez

Leónidas González Pérez, journalist, was found dead on Friday, February 27, 2017 in a street in the municipality of Bello, a suburb of Medellin, with trauma from apparent blows to the head and signs of torture.

As a sports commentator, Leónidas was a member of the Asociación de Redactores Deportivos de Antioquia (Acord) for 20 years. He was also a correspondent for radio stations in Medellín, Urabá and Quibdo. Leónidas was the coordinator of the committee working on the rights of the Afro descendant community on the Mesa de Derechos Humanos de periodistas de Medellín y Antioquia (Mesdhupera), an organization dedicated to the human rights of journalists in those regions.

More recently, Leónidas had returned to his journalism studies at Universidad de Antioquia, where he was completing the last modules in order to graduate.

According to Mesdhupera, Leónidas had received a death threat two months prior to the killing, which could have been linked to the fact that he had denounced 10 years earlier the presence of paramilitaries in Urabá.


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Region:Americas

Country:Colombia

Department/Province/State:Antioquia

Sex1:Male

Age:50

Date of Killing:27/01/2017

Previous Threats:Yes

Type of Work:Journalist/communicator

Organisation:Mesa de Derechos Humanos de periodistas de Medellín y Antioquia (MESDHUPERA)

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Afro Descendant Rights, Freedom of Expression

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).