Mary Luz Avendano receiving her award at the 100 Unseen Powerful Women ceremony in London

Ivana Davidovic
WVoN co-editor

Colombia has been ravaged by an armed conflict lasting for almost 50 years.

Paramilitary and guerrilla groups, drug traffickers and corrupt police have been trying to silence, by any means necessary, those journalists unwilling to be bribed to look the other way.

Covering controversial issues, like the link between the country’s armed forces and the paramilitary, has transformed journalism into a life-threatening activity.

Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. It was ranked 145th out of 178 on Reporters without Borders’ Press Freedom Index in 2010.

And not many know the situation better than Mary Luz Avendano, a journalist for the El Espectador daily newspaper.

This brave woman has achieved an investigative tour-de-force in her home town of Medellin, which, in the 70s and 80s, was the base of the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, whose Medellin cartel controlled most of the illegal drugs entering the US.

Medellin’s two-million-plus inhabitants are still caught in the continuous violence between various criminal gangs and guerrila groups.

Avendano has closely followed the demobilisation process of the paramilitary groups, started by former president Alvaro Uribe, and their reinsertion into civilian life.

She has uncovered evidence showing that many demobilised paramilitaries have returned to a life of crime and are now members of the many criminal gangs in the country.

Avendano’s investigations show that these gangs have links with the police, government institutions and politicians.

Unfortunately, her enemies have finally managed to silence her.

After years of enduring threats and living, on and off, with some form of police protection, the situation became too grave for her to stay in Colombia.

In June this year, uncovering the links between the police and criminal gangs, she received death threats from drug traffickers. The United Nations Human Rights office in Medellin took them very seriously and advised her to leave Colombia.

When we talked at the One Hundred Unseen Powerful Women Awards, where she was one of the winners, I was curious to know what had been different this year, that she felt she finally had to leave her country?

“All the people I love were saying I had to leave, it was not safe. The difference is that before I felt that I had someone to turn to as the threats were coming from the paramilitaries.

“They had something to lose, their image was still important to them, so there existed a possibility of a dialogue.

“But more recently, the threats were coming from the drug traffickers and the corrupt police. And those people have nothing to loose. There is no-one to talk to.

“It’s a paradox. On one side we have a functioning system. Nominally, there are places where you can turn to, like the police or the public prosecutor’s office.

“But in my case, I received threats from the corrupt police and at the same time I also had the police trying to protect me! The state can’t do much, the corruption is too endemic.”

Avendano has also been writing extensively about another under-reported but widespread issue – rape as a weapon of gang warfare.

Throughout the violent decades, the warring parties have all used the bodies of women as “spoils of war” to humiliate, punish and silence their enemies.

Sexual violence in the context of armed conflict in Colombia has left thousands of victims exposed to male chauvinism, shame and a lack of understanding that this is a crime.

Since President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon took office in 2010, his government has stressed its commitment to tackle the rife sexual abuse of women.

However, Amnesty International has in a recent report warned that the rights of survivors of sexual violence to truth, justice and reparation continue to be denied by the authorities.

Avendano is very critical of both the international community and her own government for turning a blind eye to the human rights tragedy in Colombia.

“The reality is that the conflict in Colombia has been going on for 40 years. There has been a loss of interest on the part of the international community because it has been going on for so long. And other conflicts since have overshadowed it.

“The government in Colombia has also been very successful at projecting a false positive image, pretending that this is not such a huge problem any more.

“It’s been very difficult to talk to rape victims. I recently interviewed a young woman who was raped by 10 paramilitaries when she was 14. Only now, at the age of 20, is she beginning to realise that what happened to her is a crime, that she has rights, that she should be helped.

“Even when women muster up the courage to talk, they don’t have many places to seek help from.”

Avendano is hoping that the international community will put much more pressure on the Colombian authorities to deal with corruption, which she believes is the main stumbling block on the path towards justice and change. Otherwise, she warns, “we will be left with a never-ending downward spiral.”

And that last sentence effectively describes her thoughts about her own life at the moment.

“Thinking about the future torments me the most. What will happen to me? Will I be able to return to Colombia? When? If I do, will I be able to be a journalist again? I have so many questions and no answers.

“I am in a country which is hosting me temporarily, where nobody knows me. I was a recognised journalist for 13 years. Right now, I have nothing. I am a nobody.”