Colombia’s Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) regretted the decision to make the case of the murder of journalist Arsenio Hoyos, killed on September 13, 1991, in Granada, Meta, subject to statute of limitations, a decision made after 20 years in which no one has been convicted, bringing to eight this year the number of cases with statute of limitations and remaining unsolved.

In recent months the statute of limitations was applied to eight other cases of murder of journalists, their having reached the 20-year mark. Before year-end the same risk faces two additional cases, those of journalists Rafael Solano Brochero, a freelance killed in Fundación, Magdalena, on October 30, 1991, and Néstor Henry Rojas Monje, correspondent of El Tiempo in Arauca, murdered there on December 28, 1991.

On December 29, 2010 the executive branch of the Colombian government approved an amendment to Law No. 1426 which increased the length of the statute of limitations to 30 years, but not retroactively.

Hoyos was the owner and director of radio station La Voz de Ariari, which broadcast in the municipality of Granada, Meta province. He was also an acknowledged civic leader in the region.

According to the FLIP in the Hoyos case “the Colombian justice system has failed to comply with its obligation to investigate and prosecute those responsible during a reasonable timeframe, or to respect the right of his family members to learn the facts of the events.”