Venezuelan journalist in Bogotá asks the Colombian government for refuge

Venezuelan journalist Carolina Briceño asked Colombia to grant her refugee status after receiving threats following the publication of a report in the newspaper El Nacional involving Venezuelan government officials.

(Also read: Venezuela: police arrest journalist from El Nacional and are looking for four more)

However, Briceño told this newspaper that since January 25 he has only found obstacles For this reason, he is on a hunger strike at the UNHCR headquarters in Bogotá and requests protection from the Colombian Foreign Ministry.

Briceño told EL TIEMPO that she left her home in Villa del Rosario after she received information that the Venezuelan government would be looking for her. On January 25, he renounced the Temporary Protection Permit (PPT) to be able to request refuge, however, he assures that the Foreign Ministry insists that the process has not been carried out and therefore refugee status cannot yet be granted.

From Villa del Rosario he moved to Bogotá. There she was cared for by various organizations that offered her refuge. However, she insists that they do not give her a concrete answer about her protection and that is why she undertook the hunger strike for “fear” of being sent to Venezuela.

The former vice president of Colombia, Francisco Santos, wrote on Twitter that the Foreign Ministry is aware of the case and that “with total willingness to begin the refugee process, only the resignation of the PPT does not become effective immediately. The vice foreign minister
@Lauraggils assured me that Monday will be dealt with directly. No one will hand it over to the dictatorship.”

Last week several journalists from El Nacional were summoned by the Venezuelan police after the publication of several reports involving government officials.

Several of them are in exile, such as the case of Carolina Briceño and Miguel Henrique Otero, director of the outlet, who was even charged, but the crime is unknown.

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