Bogotá, July 7, 2025—Colombian authorities must thoroughly investigate the shooting of journalist Gustavo Chicangana and his wife, Ana Milena Torres, to determine whether the reporter was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

On Saturday, July 5, Chicangana, news director of radio station Guaviare Estéreo, and Torres were leaving their home in the southern town of San José del Guaviare when a man shot them. Chicangana was wounded in the throat, thorax, and shoulder and was in stable condition at a Bogotá hospital, while Torres, who was wounded in the throat and chin, is recovering in a San José del Guaviare hospital also in stable condition, Erica Londoño, Guaviare Estéreo’s director, told CPJ.

“We strongly condemn the shooting of Colombian journalist Gustavo Chicangana and his wife,” said CPJ Latin America Program Coordinator Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “This is a heinous attack on press freedom and the safety of those who work to inform the public. We urge Colombian authorities to immediately investigate it and ensure that journalists can do their work without fear of violence or intimidation.”

Chicangana, 62, who also works for Caracol Radio Guaviare and the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), has received numerous threats for his reporting and had been assigned a bodyguard by the Colombian government’s National Protection Unit but he was off-duty and not with the journalist at the time of the shooting.

The most recent threat against him came from the Renacer de Erpac, one of several drug-trafficking groups operating in south-central Colombia’s violence-plagued Guaviare department. A week before the attack on Chicangana and Torres, the group had demanded that Guaviare Estéreo broadcast a statement announcing Renacer de Erpac’s presence in the area. When the station refused, the group declared its journalists “military objectives,” Londoño said.

In a statement Monday, the Colombia attorney general’s office announced that the suspected gunman, William Alexander Perea, 21, had been arrested and charged with aggravated attempted homicide. A second man was also arrested in connection with the shooting, but the statement provided no further details.