William Parra (journalist)

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

Career

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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]

References

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