Journalist Diana Saray Giraldo told EL TIEMPO about the harassment she has suffered from digital ‘warehouses’ and officials from President Gustavo Petro’s government, who created a false narrative following information she published within the framework of her journalistic work.
Is there any relationship between the information that you published in 2024 with the murder of Josué Castellanos by the FARC dissidents in Arauca?
Peace talks with the ELN were taking place in the country. It was the stage of the citizen tables, spaces in which citizens bring proposals about what they expect or would like to be taken into account in these dialogues. At that time, journalists and political leaders from Arauca contacted me and told me that there is great concern in the region because some social movements are being infiltrated by the ELN, a guerrilla that has historically exerted a strong influence there. There was fear that some of the initiatives that were coming to the table as citizen proposals were, in reality, promoted or imposed by the ELN. I say it on the radio. What was my big mistake? I replicated the exact words of those journalists and leaders when I said that, in the region, the Social Mass Movement was perceived as the political arm of the ELN. My mistake was having said it as it is, because that movement brings together several social movements, many of which really work for the region and have legitimate social leadership. And for that reason, from the bottom of my heart, I regret if my statements affected those true social leaders.
But there is a great truth that no one dares to talk about in the country: there is an infiltration of the ELN in Arauca and in some social movements to, precisely, camouflage itself within civil society. It has been one of the war tactics of that armed group for decades. But no one can talk about that, because anyone who dares to say it is immediately accused of stigmatizing social movements. That was the regional reality that I wanted to tell. Perhaps two days after that report, Josué Castellanos was assassinated, as far as I know, by the FARC dissidents. And the narrative that is created from then on is that I said that Josué Castellanos belonged to the ELN and that that is why they murdered him. I never mentioned Josué Castellanos. I never said I belonged to the ELN. I didn’t know of his existence, I didn’t know who he was. He was a well-known social leader in Arauca, but they wanted to construct the narrative that I had stigmatized him and that, for that reason, they had killed him. He was part of a movement called Joel Sierra.
Now, it is not true that he had founded the Mass Social Movement. That was another of the narratives created by a leader of the Historical Pact in Arauca, whose name I prefer to omit, who said that Josué Castellanos was one of the founders of the mass movement, that I had said that he belonged to the ELN and that I had ordered him to be killed. That is absolute infamy. Nothing like that ever came out of my mouth. But that narrative was repeated by government supporters over and over again and, to this day, it continues to circulate.
Diana Saray Giraldo Photo:Private Archive.
Is Josué Castellanos murdered as part of that war for territorial control that both armed groups have?
I understand that that’s how it was. As part of that tremendous war that exists in Arauca between the ELN and the dissidents for territorial control, a confrontation in which many innocent people have been murdered.
Since that date you have been the victim of accusations by officials of the Government itself. Who are they and how has this affected their journalistic practice?
There is something very important in all this. I never received a request for rectification, I never received a complaint, an investigation was never opened against me nor did anyone denounce me for this alleged responsibility in that homicide. Even at that time, some political leaders close to the Government in Arauca said that they were going to take me to justice. None of that happened. I have no legal action against me. But a whole narrative was created. The first to do so is a leader of the Historical Pact in Arauca. And that is beginning to be replicated and replicated, with great amplification by the so-called Government influencers, many of whom today work in media systems. But the most serious thing is that it is beginning to be replicated by officials such as the then ambassador to Mexico, Moisés Ninco Daza; such as Alfredo Saade, former chief of staff and current ambassador to Brazil; such as María Niny Echeverry, delegate for Consumer Protection of the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce; like Hernán Muriel, representative to the Chamber for Antioquia of the Historical Pact. And the list goes on.
How has this harassment censured her?
Look, I am a regional journalist. I have spent my entire career doing journalism in Santander and I got to where I got to the point of my work, making complaints about corruption and telling how politicians move in the regions. I started precisely in Arauca because I feel that, by arriving at a national media like Caracol Radio, I have the responsibility of giving a voice to regional journalists. Because I know how hard it is to denounce corruption and denounce violence in the regions. That was my flag. From the moment that narrative was created, I feel that my credibility as a journalist was totally undermined. And even more so among young journalists and in front of young audiences, because today, sadly, even within the same newsrooms, many people get their information through social networks and believe in those digital formats. And in those digital formats this story was repeated over and over and over again.
Diana Saray Giraldo. Photo:Private Archive.
Did you receive threats after the publication of this information from any armed group or radical sectors?
This is something very crazy because, if you look at social networks, I have been sent thousands of times the photo of the murdered leader, of a microphone full of blood or of a gun being fired. I received dozens of messages saying: “I wish they killed this journalist,” “I wish this journalist were dead,” “I wish the same thing happened to her.” Many messages of that type. And what happened? I reported those threats. But since my home is Bucaramanga, the complaints were transferred there and, to this day, absolutely nothing has happened. This week I received the first summons from the Prosecutor’s Office after having filed, two years ago, the complaint against these people who, anonymously, threaten me through social networks. They summoned me to tell what happened. I responded to the summons and they reiterated that what existed was digital harassment, but that the deadline to report it was six months. Then they told me that they were very sorry, but that they couldn’t do anything because there were no direct threats and the deadline to report the harassment had already expired. They also regretted that, when I filed the complaint, it had been classified as threats.
What legal actions did you take against the Government officials who were part of this harassment?
In this I did say: I am not going to stay still. Because it is one thing for a citizen, hiding behind an anonymous profile, to say atrocities. Sadly, social media became that. But it is another very different thing for someone from the Government, with the investiture and power that holding a public office gives them, to do the same. Through my lawyer Juan José Castro, I initiated legal proceedings before the Prosecutor’s Office against Moisés Ninco Daza, then ambassador to Mexico; against Gareth Sella, deputy youth minister at the time; against Alfredo Saade, today ambassador to Brazil; against Maria Niny Echeverry, delegate superintendent for Consumer Protection; against the Government contractor who identifies himself as ‘Don Izquierdo’; against Hernán Muriel, representative to the Chamber for Antioquia; and against Laura Juliet Martínez, contractor of the National Unit for Risk Management. All of them occupied a place within the State and I initiated legal proceedings against all of them. I also went to the Attorney General’s Office. Margarita Cabello’s Attorney General’s Office opened a formal investigation and, at that time, warned that there was a risk that the Government was exercising digital violence against a female journalist. But until today the attorney changed, time passed and nothing happened. And neither in the Prosecutor’s Office. Only Maria Niny Echeverry publicly recanted. Of the rest, they do not even attend to judicial proceedings. Nothing just happens.
The FLIP has spoken out about this case and has classified it as profiling, harassment and a risk to press freedom due to the censorship it represents. What other support have you received from organizations?
The Colombian Association of Information Media, AMI, also issued a statement a couple of months ago in which it called for an end to digital violence against me and expressed concern about the constant activity of sectors of the Government against journalists who are uncomfortable. Those are the two entities that have spoken publicly. And here is a very important thing for me: I have had to carry out all these actions on a personal basis, out of my pocket.
Do you think that, as these organizations maintain, this profiling and harassment responds to their critical role towards the Government and their exercise of political control from the microphones?
I don’t have any doubt. All of this responds to a strategy coordinated by the Government, led by digital influencers and people with an enormous impact, especially among young people, like Gareth Sella, who comes from the student leadership. The same happens with Hernán Muriel, who also has that origin. Everything is coordinated. The images they use are the same. The videos that the different accounts play over and over again are the same. Digital influencers repeat exactly the same messages. If you review the content, you find the same photo, the same phrases, the same signs. I have no doubt that this is a strategy promoted by the Government itself to silence uncomfortable journalists. And I am not the only journalist who has been attacked. But I am the only one they are accusing of having murdered someone. Even President Gustavo Petro himself, in some trill, called me “destroyer of people,” making an implicit reference to the death of Josué Castellanos.
What comes next for this case of harassment and censorship? Do you plan to take it beyond national courts, even to the inter-American system?
I would love nothing more than to take it to the inter-American system, but I would have to get lawyers and take on the entire process. And at this moment I am not able to do it.
Sara Valentina Quevedo Delgado
Justice Editorial
