William Parra (journalist)

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William Eduardo Parra Jaimes (b. 1966 [1] ) is a Colombian journalist. [2]

Contents

Career

He has worked for Caracol Radio, Reuters, [2] and RCN TV,[ citation needed ] and in the 1990s was press secretary for then-Colombian President Ernesto Samper. [3] He worked for TeleSUR full-time from 2006 to 2008, and subsequently as a freelance journalist. [4] Parra currently has political asylum in Venezuela, after being charged in Colombia with links with the FARC rebels.[ citation needed ] Parra denies the accusations, and said in September that his lawyers had received death threats. [5] [6]

Parra was kidnapped for 10 days in December 1997, [7] by men claiming to be members of the Medellin cartel. [8] Arrests were later made of members of Jaime Bateman Cayon's rebel group. [9] In 2000 he fled to Spain following death threats, and in 2005 he was attacked and seriously injured near Bogota. [1]

On 25 September, he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. [10]

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