Colombia’s Bloody War of Words

Maria Jimena Duzan is a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. As a member of El Espectador‘s investigative reporting team during the 1980s, she was the first to discover an alliance among drug traffickers, military officers, and landowners. In December 1989, she fled Colombia after narcoterrorists attempted to kidnap her, and has been writing from abroad ever since. The International Women’s Media Association recently gave her an award for journalistic courage, and in 1989 French president Mitterand honored her in Paris on International Women’s Day. She is now writing a book about her experiences as a journalist in Colombia.