These events that have cast a shadow over the investigation seem to be a strange force intent on keeping the crime in darkness.

The first killed was José Aristídes Orozco Londoño, a retired police officer and director of 'La Blanca', the male prison in
Manizales . Hit men murdered him less than 24 hours after Sierra Hernández was killed.

During that time, the murder was not related to the killing of the journalist, but months later, Marco Aurelio Candelo, a witness, testified before the Attorney General’s Office that Sierra Hernández’s murder was ordered by the prison director, according to his statement, who hired 'El tuso' and 'Tilín', two alleged hit men leaders in the La Galería neighborhood.

"On the day they killed
Orlando Sierra they arrested one of the hit men and since 'El tuso' and 'Tilín' appeared to have been captured they ordered two of their other hit men, 'Perilla' and 'Giovanny', who were the right-hand men of 'El tuso' and 'Tilín', to kill the prison director,” Candelo told investigators.

The witness, who affirmed hearing a conversation between the hit men in the Italia bar, testified that a politician, Ferney Tapasco, a liberal leader whom Sierra Hernández wrote several columns against, paid for the crime. In some of them, he attacked him for his involvement in the murder of Professor Orlando de Jesús Salazar, for which the politician was sentenced in 1995 to one year in prison for harboring the murderer, who was hiding in a car given to Tapasco, then president of the State Legislature.

Meanwhile, Ferney Tapasco, declared that he never had serious or strong differences with Sierra Hernández and nothing ever happened between them “to even think about attacking him.”

He added that it appears strange that a witness involves him and the jail director in the death of the Assistant Director of La Patria .

Marco Aurelio Candelo, the witness, a 28 year-old security guard, testified twice, once in Manizales and then in en Bogotá, but his testify was weakened when during the second testimony he contradicted himself and demanded money in exchange for more information.

They also killed the man that implicated Tapasco and the jail director. On September 15, 2002, at 7:40 p.m., a hit man shot him in the back twice while he was riding a city bus. Seriously injured, Candelo was brought to Caldas Hospital where he died minutes later. The man had accused 'Tilín' of making death threats.

Previously, fifteen days after Sierra Hernández’s death, another four men that could provide leads in the homicide were kidnapped and killed by the Cacique Pipintá Front of the Colombian United Self-Defenders (AUC), which claimed responsibility for the multiple murders.

'El tuso', 'Perilla', 'Yilver' and 'Giovanny' were found dead in the outskirts of Manizales . Ironically, these four were mentioned in two testimonies as the men that along with 'Tilín' conceived Sierra Hernández’s murder.

For the journalist’s murder, a wise columnist and enemy of corrupt politicians in Manizales and armed groups outside the law, the Court sentenced to 19 years in prison
Luis Fernando Soto Zapata, the hit man who shot two rounds from a 7.65 caliber gun that took his life.

Also implicated in the investigation was
Francisco Antonio Quintero Tabares or Luis Miguel Tabares Hernández, known in the underworld as 'Tilín', who allegedly was the head of a gang of thugs in the La Galería neighborhood of Manizales where the hit man,
Luis Fernando Soto Zapata, lived.

Another individual with an arrest warrant is Luis Arley Ortiz Orozco, aka 'Pereque', a former police officer and owner of the meat store in the La Galería neighborhood. 'Pereque', who is on the run, was, according to witnesses, responsible for handing over part of the money to the hit man once he finished the job.

Testimony from a woman that claimed to work at a bar owned by 'Tilín' stated that the journalist’s murderer was going to be paid five million pesos, two upfront and three once completed.

The witness testified to investigators that 'Tilín' gave Luis Fernando Soto Zapata a suitcase with a gun and ammunition from Pereque’s meat store and there agreed on the payment terms.

However, according to this theory, the murder was contracted by a young man they called 'El Picao', who had asked that the 'job' be done fast, before elections, because the journalist had evidence against him.

Within this bleak framework comes the identity of the person or people that ordered to kill Sierra Hernández.

The Attorney General contacted by EL TIEMPO ordered the review of new leads that could give new light to the investigation.

While this happens, and for the next four years, Sierra Hernández’s story will appear in more than a hundred newspapers around the hemisphere as part of an international campaign organized by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), called “Let’s End Impunity.”

* Article published in El Tiempo , Bogotá , Colombia , on May 29, 2003