In 2000, Bedoya was kidnapped. She worked at the newspaper El Espectador in Bogota, Colombia. Her job was to write about the Colombian war against terrorism. [2] On 25 May, she went to La Modelo prison in Bogota. She planned to talk to a leader called "the Baker". She was afraid of a trap, so she went with an editor and photographer from El Espectador newspaper. While she waited to go into the prison, they were separated, and Bedoya disappeared. [3]
Three men kidnapped Bedoya. They said their boss was paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño.[4] In May 2011, the police arrested a paramilitary soldier. He said he was one of Bedoya's three attackers.[2]
2003 kidnapping
In 2001, Bedoya started a job with El Tiempo newspaper in Colombia. Her job was to write about crime, including paramilitary groups. In early August 2003, she went to the town of Puerto Alvira. She wanted to write about how the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) controlled the town and forced the 1,100 people in the town to work in the illegal cocaine trade. The leader of the FARC guerrillas kidnapped Bedoya and her photographer. [5]
The FARC leader ordered the people in the town not to help the journalists, but the women of the town brought food to them. [5] Then the people in the town told the regional FARC commander, and the journalists were free. When Bedoya returned, she wrote a story about the town in FARC-controlled land, but she was careful and did not write about the townspeople who helped her.[5]
