Killing of a second Latin American influencer sparks criticism of authorities for failing to protect women
Article content
Article content
María José Estupiñán was shot and killed outside her home in Cúcuta, Colombia, on May 15.
Article content
Women's rights advocates and public officials have criticized Colombian authorities for failing to protect Estupiñán, highlighting systemic negligence in cases of violence against women.
Article content
Article content
The assailant, disguised as a delivery man, approached her residence in the morning and shot her at point-blank range when she answered the door.
Article content
Article content
Estupiñán had previously reported her ex-partner for domestic violence and had recently won a court case against him. Just a day before the shooting, a judge ordered her ex-boyfriend to pay her 30 million Colombian pesos (around $10,000) in damages for a longstanding domestic violence complaint. He is the prime suspect in the case.
Article content
Estupiñán was a well-known model and influencer, with nearly 45,000 followers on TikTok and a strong presence on other platforms. Her public persona as a young, enterprising woman brought her visibility and recognition in Colombia and beyond.
Article content
Violence against women with public profiles is a growing concern in Latin America. Her murder has fuelled public outrage and drawn national and international attention to her case.
Article content
Article content
Estupiñán's killing came just days after the murder of another Latin American influencer, Valeria Márquez of Mexico. Both murders have highlighted the heightened risks faced by women with public platforms, and sparked broader conversations about femicide and the dangers of being a public-facing woman in the region.
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
Colombian court frees former president Uribe from house arrest until it rules on bribery case
Former President Alvaro Uribe leaves court after a hearing in his trial over witness tampering and bribery charges in Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File) BOGOTA, Colombia — A Colombian appeals court ruled Tuesday that former president Alvaro Uribe must be released from house arrest while he challenges his conviction for bribery and witness tampering. On Aug. 1, the conservative leader was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest for threatening and trying to flip witnesses who had spoken to investigators about his alleged role in the formation of a right wing paramilitary group in the 1990s. Uribe denies the charges and has appealed the conviction to the Superior Tribunal in Bogota. The court has until mid-October to issue a definitive ruling on the case, which has gripped Colombia and also provoked reactions from Uribe's allies in the United States. On Tuesday the Superior Tribunal said it approved an injunction filed by Uribe's defense team seeking his release from house arrest. Uribe's lawyers argued the former president's right to due process was violated by the arrest order against him, as well as his right to a presumption of innocence.
CTV News
12-08-2025
- CTV News
Violent guerrillas are taking Colombia's children. Unarmed Indigenous groups are confronting them
CALDONO, Colombia — When Patricia Elago Zetty's 13-year-old son went missing in Colombia's conflict-ridden southwest, she didn't hesitate. Elago and five fellow members of the Indigenous Guard trekked across mountainous terrain to confront the guerrillas they suspected of taking her son and another teenager to bolster their ranks. When the unarmed Guard members reached the guerrillas' camp, about 30 fighters stopped them at gunpoint. After a tense wait, a tall commander stepped out from a gate, and Elago said she had come for her son. The commander said he would 'verify' whether the boy was there. After about an hour of negotiations and radio calls, five more guerrillas arrived with her son Stiven and the other boy. When she saw Stiven, Elago said, it felt like her soul returned to her body. 'He hugged me and said, 'Mom, I never thought you'd risk so much,'' she said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'It was a victory.' Rescue missions like Elago's have intensified for the Indigenous Guard of the Nasa people, which formed in 2001 to protect Indigenous territories from armed groups and environmental destruction such as deforestation and illegal mining. Since 2020, as armed groups tightened their control of Nasa territory to expand illicit crops like marijuana and coca, those guerrillas have ramped up their recruitment of the region's children by dangling offers of cash and protection. Over eight days reporting in the Cauca region, the AP spoke to more than 20 young people affected by the recruitment as well as several families grappling with the same threat. Some youths had escaped, others were rescued, and a few chose to remain with the groups. Guerillas, Revolutionary Armed Forces, Colombia, FARC Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, march up a hill after clashing with troops in Jambalo, southern Colombia on July 12, 2012. (AP / Juan Bautista Diaz) Guns versus a sacred staff Colombia has endured more than half a century of internal conflict fueled by inequality, land disputes and the drug trade. Leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal groups have fought for control of territory — with rural, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities caught in the crossfire. A 2016 peace deal ended the war with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, but violence never fully stopped. Since the accord, child recruitment has been driven mainly by FARC dissident groups who rejected the peace process. The ELN, a Marxist guerrilla force active since the 1960s, and the Clan del Golfo, Colombia's largest drug-trafficking gang, also forcibly recruit minors. Violence hangs heavy over the region. During AP's visit, two former FARC combatants who laid down arms under the peace deal were gunned down near Caldono. At the same time, families reported the disappearance of several youths — believed to have been recruited. This is the climate in which the Guard, known as Kiwe Thegnas in the Nasa Yuwe language, now works. For the Nasa, coca holds deep cultural, spiritual, and medicinal significance. Its exploitation to produce cocaine is seen by many as a distortion of a sacred plant — one that fuels violence and environmental destruction. Members of the Guard carry 'bastones de autoridad' — sacred staffs symbolizing moral leadership and collective responsibility. The staffs are often adorned with the traditional Guard colors of red and green — which represent blood and earth — and emblems. Elago, 39, had a small photo of her son on hers. Steeped in spirituality, the staff is believed to offer protection from harm, giving Guard members the courage to confront armed groups. Yet more than 40 Guard members have been slain since the peace deal, according to Colombia's Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), a longstanding organization representing Nasa and other Indigenous communities. 'They carry guns — we carry staffs. The staff represents our life, our courage,' Elago said. 'They've aimed their rifles at us … pressed them to our chests, to our heads.' Elago said the rebels her group confronted three years ago expressed respect for the Guard but claimed the boys had joined voluntarily, which infuriated her. She said Stiven had left home the day he went missing to collect wages he was owed for farm work near a coca-growing area controlled by FARC dissidents. She said she challenged them: 'You talk about respecting Indigenous people, but you're killing our youth. What respect is that?' One rebel told her he'd never seen a mother speak so boldly. But another warned: 'Take care, mamma. You already smell like formaldehyde,' a chemical used to preserve dead bodies. FARC In this Feb. 28, 2017 file photo, weapons belonging to rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, are stored at a rebel camp in La Carmelita near Puerto Asis in Colombia's southwestern state of Putumayo. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File) Not all rescues are successful. Eduwin Calambas Fernandez, coordinator of Kiwe Thegnas in Canoas, an Indigenous reserve in northern Cauca, described leading a 2023 attempt to bring back two teenagers recruited through Facebook. They met with commanders, only to find the 15- and 16-year-old boys did not want to return and were considered by the armed groups to be old enough to decide for themselves. Calambas said that the main armed faction in his area has declared it will no longer return recruits 14 or older to their families. Children are lured with promises of cash, cosmetic treatments, or food for their families, according to Indigenous Councils Association of Northern Cauca, or ACIN. Once inside the camps, many suffer physical abuse, political indoctrination and sexual violence — especially girls. 'Once in, it is very difficult to leave,' said Scott Campbell, the United Nations human rights chief in Colombia. ACIN has documented 915 cases of Indigenous youth recruited there since 2016, some as young as nine. ACIN has warned of a sharp increase lately, with at least 79 children recruited between January and June. Colombia's Ombudsman's Office confirmed 409 cases of child recruitment during 2024, up from 342 the year before, with over 300 cases alone in Cauca, one of Colombia's poorest departments. Campbell called the Colombian government's response 'ineffective and untimely,' noting a lack of consistent state presence and failure to partner with Indigenous authorities on prevention. ACIN said the government has left armed groups to fill the void by providing roads, food and other basic services in remote and neglected areas. Colombia's Family Welfare Institute, or ICBF — the main agency protecting children — told AP it funds community programs and Indigenous‑led initiatives that have contributed to 251 children leaving armed groups in the first half of 2025. The ICBF insists it is working with Indigenous authorities and pressing armed groups to uphold a ban on recruiting minors. FARC Colombia Rebels soldiers of the 32nd Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, stand in formation in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia, on Aug. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) Armed groups 'breathing down our necks' From her classroom high in the mountains, Luz Adriana Diaz watches children arrive each morning under the shadow of a conflict they're too young to fully grasp. Her small school in the village of Manuelico — reachable only by a winding road from Caldono — is surrounded by dense forest and coca fields planted and patrolled by armed groups. Banners promoting the Dagoberto Ramos front of the FARC — one of the most violent factions in Cauca — hang along the roadside. 'Since 2020, it's been very sad — threats, recruitment, killings … living in the middle of violence," Diaz said. Diaz has spent 14 years teaching across the Caldono municipality, but says only in this village, surrounded by coca, has the presence of armed groups felt so constant. Teachers 'work with them breathing down our necks,' she said. The Indigenous Guard has stepped up patrols outside the school to discourage recruiting. Diaz says the armed group members have come to the school to buy food, borrow chairs and interact casually with staff. 'We can't say no,' she said. 'I've had to be very careful.' Several former students, some as young as 11, are now in armed groups, she said. Some left quietly. Others were taken. One young woman who recently fled FARC dissidents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said she joined the armed group at 16 not because she was forced but to escape family problems. She said she mainly cooked, organized supplies and cleaned weapons. She was afraid at first but was not mistreated. She eventually fled after a change in commanders left her fearing harsher treatment or being moved to a faraway region with an increased threat of combat. Now she works with a local initiative that supports families trying to prevent their children from being recruited. She warns teens about the risks of joining armed groups. As for the parents, she said: 'I tell families they need to build trust with their children.' FARC rebels in Colombia Juan Pablo, centre, a commander of the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, walks with his comrades in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia on Jan. 6, 2016. (Rodrigo Abd/AP) A mother, once a recruit herself, fears the same for her children Fernández, a woman in her mid-30s who asked to be identified only by her last name for fear of reprisals, was 12 when armed men came looking for her in her rural Cauca community. Terrified, and with no clear way to say no, she joined the ranks of the FARC. In the years that followed, she said she endured rape, psychological abuse and starvation and saw brutal punishments against those who tried to escape. Her escape, three years after being taken, came by chance. One night, a commander sent her to charge a cell phone. Instead of returning, she hid for days in a nearby home, protected by civilians who risked their lives to shelter her, before fleeing the region. Now, raising three children in a village near Caldono, she watches and worries about her eldest son, now 12. 'Young people are so easily fooled … they're shown a bit of money or a cell phone, and they think that's just how life works,' she said. 'Then they're sent into combat zones where so many children die.' FARC rebels hiking to a new camp Members of the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, trek to a new camp in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia on Jan. 6, 2016. (AP / Rodrigo Abd) ___ Steven Grattan, The Associated Press
CTV News
11-08-2025
- CTV News
A U.S. senator from Colombia emerges as a Trump link for Latin America's conservatives
Sen. J.D. Vance, center, and Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, right, applaud as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, March 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean, File) MIAMI — When Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno visits Colombia this week as part of a three-nation tour of Latin America, it will be something of a homecoming. The Ohio senator, who defeated an incumbent last year with the help of Donald Trump's endorsement and the highest political ad spending in U.S. Senate race history, was born in Bogota and has brothers who are heavyweights in politics and business there. Moreno has emerged as an interlocutor for conservatives in Latin America seeking to connect with the Trump administration. In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the trip, he expressed deep concern about Colombia's direction under left-wing President Gustavo Petro and suggested that U.S. sanctions, higher tariffs or other retaliatory action might be needed to steer it straight. The recent criminal conviction of former President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative icon, was an attempt to 'silence' the man who saved Colombia from guerrilla violence, Moreno said. Meanwhile, record cocaine production has left the United States less secure — and Colombia vulnerable to being decertified by the White House for failing to co-operate in the war on drugs. 'The purpose of the trip is to understand all the dynamics before any decision is made,' said Moreno, who will meet with both Petro and Uribe, as well as business leaders and local officials. 'But there's nothing that's taken off the table at this point and there's nothing that's directly being contemplated.' Elected with Trump's support Moreno, a luxury car dealer from Cleveland, defeated incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown last year and became Ohio's senior senator on practically his first day in office after his close friend JD Vance resigned the Senate to become vice president. In Congress, Moreno has mimicked Trump's rhetoric to attack top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer as a 'miserable old man out of a Dickens novel,' called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and threatened to subpoena California officials over their response to anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. On Latin America, he's been similarly outspoken, slamming Petro on social media as a 'socialist dictator' and accusing Mexico of being on the path to becoming a 'narco state.' Such comments barely register in blue-collar Ohio, but they've garnered attention in Latin America. That despite the fact Moreno hasn't lived in the region for decades, speaks Spanish with a U.S. accent and doesn't sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'He's somebody to watch,' said Michael Shifter, the former president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. 'He's one of the most loyal Trump supporters in the senate and given his background in Latin America he could be influential on policy.' Moreno, 58, starts his first congressional delegation to Latin America on Monday for two days of meetings in Mexico City with officials including President Claudia Sheinbaum. He'll be accompanied by Terrance Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who is making his first overseas trip since being confirmed by the Senate last month to head the premier federal narcotics agency. Seeking cooperation with Mexico on fentanyl Moreno, in the pre-trip interview, said that Sheinbaum has done more to combat the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. than her predecessor and mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who he described as a 'total disaster.' But he said more co-operation is needed, and he'd like to see Mexico allow the DEA to participate in judicial wiretaps like it has for decades in Colombia and allow it to bring back a plane used in bilateral investigations that López Obrador grounded. 'The corruption becomes so pervasive, that if it's left unchecked, it's kind of like treating cancer,' said Moreno. 'Mexico has to just come to the realization that it does not have the resources to completely wipe out the drug cartels. And it's only going to be by asking the U.S. for help that we can actually accomplish that.' Plans to tour the Panama Canal From Mexico, Moreno heads to Panama, where he'll tour the Panama Canal with Trump's new ambassador to the country, Kevin Marino Cabrera. In March, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate struck a deal that would've handed control of two ports on either end of the U.S.-built canal to American investment firm BlackRock Inc. The deal was heralded by Trump, who had threatened to take back the canal to curb Chinese influence. However, the deal has since drawn scrutiny from antitrust authorities in Beijing and last month the seller said it was seeking to add a strategic partner from mainland China — reportedly state-owned shipping company Cosco — to the deal. 'Cosco you might as well say is the actual communist party,' said Moreno. 'There's no scenario in which Cosco can be part of the Panamanian ports.' 'We want Colombia to be strong' On the final leg of the tour in Colombia, Moreno will be joined by another Colombian American senator: Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona. In contrast to Moreno, who was born into privilege and counts among his siblings a former ambassador to the U.S., Gallego and his three sisters were raised by an immigrant single mother on a secretary's paycheck. Despite their different upbringings, the two have made common cause in seeking to uphold the tradition of bilateral U.S. support for Colombia, for decades Washington's staunchest ally in the region. It's a task made harder by deepening polarization in both countries. The recent sentencing of Uribe to 12 years of house arrest in a long-running witness tampering case has jolted the nation's politics with nine months to go before decisive presidential elections. The former president is barred from running but remains a powerful leader, and Moreno said his absence from the campaign trail could alter the playing field. He also worries that surging cocaine production could once again lead to a 'narcotization' of a bilateral relationship that should be about trade, investment and mutual prosperity. 'We want Colombia to be strong, we want Colombia to be healthy, we want Colombia to be prosperous and secure, and I think the people of Colombia want the exact same thing,' he added. 'So, the question is, how do we get there?' ___ Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio. Joshua Goodman And Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press
