respectively). 105 The departure of these individuals from Colombia coincides with the initiation of proceedings to continue the investigation (supra para. 87-94). 107. According to information that is public knowledge, cited by the petitioner and not disputed by the State, a key prosecution witness and demobilized FARC combatant was murdered in May 2007.106 Pablo Emilio Bonilla Betancurt provided statements to a Special Prosecutor on March 29, and October 11 and 12, 2006, in Pitalito, Huila. In those statements he implicated the former mayor of Pitalito, and the local businessman previously acquitted as the masterminds of Nelson Carvajal Carvajal’s murder. Based on his statements, the II Criminal Court Representative filed a motion for reconsideration of the judgments of the Single Criminal Court of the Specialized Circuit of Neiva and the Superior Court for the Judicial District of Neiva before the Supreme Court of Justice.107 The State did not provide any information regarding the investigations conducted following Pablo Emilio Bonilla Betancurt’s murder, or about the possible connection between his death and his participation as a witness in this case. 108. In August 2008 the Office of the Prosecutor General requested that the Ministry of the Interior and Justice and the Administrative Security Department (DAS) provide protection to petitioner’representative Diana Calderón. According to the information provided by the petitioner and not contested by the State, Calderón had received a piece of paper depicting a skull and a gravestone with Nelson’s name on it. The paper also depicted five more graves, each one alluding to a relative of Nelson Carvajal’s, and the message “keep investigating and you too will rest.”108 D. The practice of journalism in the context of the internal armed conflict in Colombia 109. In the 2005 report entitled Impunity, Self-Censorship and Armed Internal Conflict : An Analysis of the State of Freedom of Expression in Colombia, the IACHR and its Office of the Special Rapporteur found that “The exercise of the right to freedom of expression in Colombia has been gravely affected in recent decades by the internal armed conflict.”109 In this context, “Colombian society has suffered the grave consequences of a violence designed to silence the exercise of freedom of expression, among other freedoms.”110 The report indicated that crimes against journalists have a dual impact on the status of freedom of expression in Colombia. “On one side, the violence looks to eliminate those who attempt to investigate abuses and irregularities and to ensure that their investigations do not come to light. But on the other side, the violence is designed to be a tool of intimidation directed at those conducting these types of investigations.”111 In the report, the IACHR also observed with concern the particular vulnerability of journalists in outlying regions, as well as the persistent display of impunity with respect to the murders of journalists that took place in Colombia from 1998 to 2005 and the paucity of concrete results in the investigations of those crimes. It emphasized that “the fact that so many cases have gone unpunished have undoubtedly amplified the sense of intimidation fostered by the commission of these killings and threats.”112 105 Attachment 29. Petitioner’s communication dated August 12, 2013, forwarded to the State on August 22, 2013. 106 El Tiempo. May 5, 2007. Asesinan a testigo en procesos judiciales; Petitioner’s communication of May 13, 2009, forwarded to the Colombian State on May 14, 2009. 107 Attachment 27. Supreme Court of Justice. Criminal Cassation Division. Case No 30689. April 1, 2009. Attachment to the petitioner’s communication of May 13, 2009. 108 Communication of the petitioner dated May 13, 2009. 109 IACHR. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Impunity, Self-Censorship and Armed Internal Conflict : An Analysis of the State of Freedom of Expression in Colombia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc.51, August 25, 2005. Para. 5. 110 IACHR. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Impunity, Self-Censorship and Armed Internal Conflict : An Analysis of the State of Freedom of Expression in Colombia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc.51, August 25, 2005. Para. 42. 111 IACHR. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Impunity, Self-Censorship and Armed Internal Conflict : An Analysis of the State of Freedom of Expression in Colombia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc.51, August 25, 2005. Para. 53. 112 IACHR. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Impunity, Self-Censorship and Armed Internal Conflict : An Analysis of the State of Freedom of Expression in Colombia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc.51, August 25, 2005. Para. 78.