Sirs:
We write this letter to report on the murder of Federico Bruno by the Colombian Army, while he was doing his job as a graphic journalist.
Federico José Bruno had been working as an independent graphic journalist for some time.
In 1995 he travelled along South America for the first time, from Salta (Argentina) to Bogotá (Colombia).
In 1996 his trip had a precise objective. (He had already attended courses at the CIEVYC, and on that opportunity he took part as a script-writer and director of six short films. He also attended classes at the Foto Club Buenos Aires). His goal was to travel to Santa Cruz de la Sierra and to Valle Grande (Bolivia) to be close to the job of the anthropologists who were looking for Ernesto Guevara’s body.
In the middle of 1997 he started his trip to Central America as an independent reporter (the project is enclosed).
He contacted the United Nations and, although he did not become involved in any working compromise, he obtained the possibility of publishing his work about the exploitation of women and children in Central America, if his job was accepted.
He left on a trip on schedule on June, 28th 1997, with the return planned for August, 28th the same year; through Lan Chile, emisor code 55990756.
The schedule included a few days in Colombia. The rest of the trip was to Panamá, San José (Costa Rica), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Guatemala (Guatemala) y Belmopan (Belize).
He left with his family names, telephone numbers and addresses of information offices in the United Nations to call in case of need.
His final objective was to meet Dr. Abel Pascualini who was at that moment in Guatemala.
When he arrived in Bogotá, he met the priest Manuel Pérez, head of the E.L.N., by chance. Due to this, he changed the course of his trip and he went to the region of Santander. Both his being an independent reporter and the death of the priest, delayed his coming back from Colombia.
During all his stay in Colombia, Federico José kept regular contact with his family, colleagues and friends, informing them about his work and his future plans.
On July, 20th 1998, Federico faxed his family telling them he was well and that they should tell his friend who was a cameraman to get ready to go to Colombia in a few days, as he would need his help to produce the material he would have access to.
The only information his family got about his death was the one published by the media, through the reports issued by the Colombian Army, where they said that an Argentine citizen, whose surname was Bruno, had been shot during an armed confrontation. They also said that the Argentine citizen above mentioned was part of a squadron of the National Liberation Army and was one of the guerrilla killed in the confrontation.
His family immediately contacted the Argentine Embassy in Colombia, and they started receiving telephone information through the Argentine Council and the diplomatic staff, this information was that the body of Federico had been disposed of by the Army and that they refused to allow the intervention of Civilian Justice.
Possible positions of ejecution
Again through the information of the diplomatic service, the family was told that there was going to be an autopsy on the body and that it was going to be buried in common ground in a cemetery of the city of Bucamaranga.
At the same time, the Colombian Army tried to ratify their version that Federico José Bruno was a member of the guerrilla movement. While they refused to give any official information to the family as well as to the Argentine diplomatic representatives, the Colombian Army produced press communications concealing the execution of a foreign journalist.
This cynicism was such as to give to the media a photograph of Federico José Bruno armed and dressed in a combatant uniform, without giving to his family his personal possessions, the negative films, the cameras, and the most important thing, the diary of his trip that Federico carried out with absolute dedication.
The Argentine diplomatic authorities in Colombia informed us that they were trying to get Federico’s body sent to Argentina. The family was advised to cremate or bury the body immediately without opening the coffin, and the unique legal constancy would be a provisional certificate of burial provided by some administrative authority of Santander, where besides name and surname the cause of death appeared to be "violence".
The family of Federico José was contacted by the lawyers of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and they asked for an immediate judicial intervention and required a necropsy by the Forensic Medical Body. The intention of the family was to prove Federico José’s identity, and to describe at least the cause and mode of his death.
Possible positions of ejecution
While the official papers did not specify anything about Federico’s wounds, the Colombian Army still continued to make known some information describing the bullet wounds they had proved in his body.
After a hard insistence on the part of the lawyers and family, the Judge in charge of the Nº 39 Court who had been reluctant to comply to the requirements, proceeded to order the necropsy and identification of the body. This identification was in charge of Federico José’s sister, Ms. Daniela Bruno, who was not able to identify her brother due to the deterioration of the body and the mutilations it had suffered.
However it was possible to obtain the digital fingerprints that allowed the identification.
The Colombian authorities handed in the body completely eviscerated and saturated in Formol. The body had been poorly embalmed, and although this allowed the conservation, it made difficult to identify the wounds and the exact way covered by the bullets .
The forensic physicians worked together with the Médica Legista del Equipo de Abogados de la Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo and they arrived at the following conclusions:
Federico José Bruno’s body received no less than 8 weapon shots.
The wounds are distributed in the following positions and directions: The test carried out by the forensic scientists and the medical expert nominated by the family proved that the shots came from a point behind and to the right of the body. The corpse presents a bullet wound that penetrated through the right temple, destroying the eye end nasal septum. And another bullet wound which entered through he soul of the foot and destroyed the leg bones. A bullet wound that entered from behind the body destroying part of the ribs. A bullet wound in that hand that entered through the back of the hand and came out through the palm.
Other bullet wounds in the legs crossing both extremities, destroying the bones.
All the shots were fired from more than 1.5 meters away and all from behind the body.
In virtue of the wounds and the trajectory of the projectiles, only two conclusions can be drawn ; either Federico José Bruno was sprayed with bullets from behind while he was running barefoot, or he was shot kneeling down with his hands behind his head.
It is probable that Federico José was shoeless when he was shot because there were traces of earth in his feet.
The position of the shots allow us to presume either he was running, escaping from the aggression, or he was executed kneeling and with his arms up at the height of the nape of his neck.
This is shown by the wounds in the back of his hands, the head, and the sole of the foot.
The family of Federico José Bruno have asked the corresponding Court, el Juzgado Federal Nº 2, in charge of Dr. Ferreyra Pella, to ask the Colombian Army through the corresponding authorities, the return of all his personal things, clothes, photographic equipment, copybooks, and diary. And especially, all his photographic material, and the negative films distributed to the press by the Army.
We have also asked for the complete copies of the papers of the Military Justice and the autopsy done to the body before the embalming.
The information to the press pointed out that it was General Fernando Millán, Head of the 5th. Brigade, the one responsible of military operation in the zone where Federico José Bruno was assassinated. This one is the same who refused the Civil Justice access to the autopsy and personal belongings, sustaining that the jurisdiction was a military one. The Military Judges still keep the proceedings related to the assassination in secret. However, the General Millán who refused to hand in the belongings, distributed the presumed photographs showing Federico José in military clothes.
The family of Federico José Bruno do not reject or feel ashamed at the possibility of their son choosing to join the National Liberation Army. They believe that their son was a young man always guided by the highest ideals of justice and, that the choice of his themes of work as a graphic journalist was determined by an immense involvement with the reality of Latin American people.
However, Federico José Bruno, was working as a journalist and was murdered -executed- treacherously, shot by the Colombian Army without any considerations, and then, they tried to "invent" an armed confrontation.
The official explanation of an armed confrontation with the guerrilla was frustrated by the presence of a foreign journalist. The logical solution of the Colombian Army was to invent the story of an Argentine citizen called Federico José Bruno, who had been killed when he formed part of the ranks of the ELN.
When Federico’s family started to explain that his son was working as a journalist, the Army distributed some photographs where he could be seen in a military uniform and carrying a gun, but they did not hand the original film or the personal belongings.
We have the firm conviction that Federico José Bruno was assassinated while he was working as a journalist in the region of Santander, near the city of Bucaramanga, in Colombia.
The ELN sent the following report to the family:
Family Bruno:
We send you our most sincere and brotherly greetings.
We want to tell you that there are few journalists who live their profession with such a commitment as Federico did. It is easy to write sensationalist, yellow, or superficial reports with the intention to sell a magazine or a newspaper and, also to earn an easy salary; but it is difficult to go into a reality, to go deep into it, to live it with all its intensity, to understand it in all its dimensions, to know it truly, that is to say, to know it really, so that it would be possible to give objective information without cheating and trustworthily about this reality. And if reality means a conflict like the Colombian reality, it becomes more difficult to understand it and live it with passion, because it demands not only the everyday reality, but also the dangers and the tension that these dangers imply; the tensions are great when the dangers imply the possibility of death.
Sometimes a small difficulty strange us from the realization of a work , also from a relatively small work, so bigger difficulties imply bigger obstacles; but when we commit ourselves to transform society and the world, because we understand it is necessary, we do not allow ourselves to be defeated by any difficulties, no matter how big and difficult they are. We believe that Federico obtained that level of commitment in reference to his individual work, but in relation to a more important work: the transformation of society on behalf of all society, and not on behalf of a few. When that moment comes, death does not frighten us ( or it almost does not), we can walk by it without suffering any trauma or fainting. We dare to place these words in Federico’s lips: " I felt that death was my friend, she glanced at me and I smiled at her quietly".
The commitment and devotion of men to a job, to an objective, to the people, can be measured with the daily work, with the transformation of their thoughts and life.
The commitment and devotion of Federico’s were great.
We can testify this as an Organization.
We almost forgot to comment that Federico and el Che are brothers; both of them are Argentinian, both of them died in a "foreign" land (apparently foreign), and both of them gave up the most valuable thing –their life- for the sake of truth and the people.
We shall do as much as possible to hand you what we can collect of your son’s journalist’s work. This is going to take us time, when we have it we will let you know.
In the meantime we send you five reports to help you understand best the difficult situation we live.
A brotherly embrace,
ELN Delegation in Europe (National Liberation Army From Colombia)
It is because of what is expressed above that we ask through you or the organization you represent, to sue formally the State of Colombia due to the criminal action of the Army. We held the 5º Brigade Military Commandment, General Fernando Millán, responsible for the assassination of the journalist Federico José Bruno.
We know that this will not give Federico his life back, but probably, it will be an alert for the Colombian Government in relation with the protection of those who risk their lives in the exercise of their journalistic work.
Thousands of journalists have lost their lives while they did their duty.
Thousands more will fall trying to show us the truth in the middle of human conflicts, wars and the interests of the great powers.
If we know something of the suffering of the peoples, of the desperate fight of millions of men and women to survive, it is due to those who risk their lives, with a camera, a tape recorder , a film recorder, or a piece of paper to bring us the other side of contemporary history.
Federico José was a young man ready to give up his life for his ideals and it is our duty to remember his commitment, his work and his sacrifice.
We thank you for your attention,
Yours sincerely,
 |
 |
 |
| José Agustín Bruno | Azucena Ilda Semeria | Daniela Bruno |
| Father | Mother | Sister |