Colombia transfers inmates after Bogota prison chief killed

Police stand guard outside the La Modelo prison in Bogotá, whose director was murdered by hitmen, on May 17, 2024 – Copyright US Central Command (CENTCOM)/AFP –

About 15 inmates were transferred from a major Colombian prison on Friday, hours after the facility’s director was gunned down on a street in the capital city, authorities said.

Elmer Fernandez, who took charge of La Modelo prison in Bogota last month, was murdered late Thursday while traveling in an unarmored prison car. 

Fernandez had ordered guards to search cells and was killed after receiving a threatening note, Justice Minister Nestor Osuna told reporters.

Local media said threats had come from an inmate who runs illegal businesses inside the prison.

The gunman remains at large.

Fernandez had this week requested personal security, and Osuna acknowledged flaws in the protocol for protecting the prison chief.

On Friday, guards were moving about 15 prisoners to other facilities, a source from the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC) told AFP.

A large contingent of police special forces was standing guard Friday outside La Modelo, one of Colombia’s largest prisons, which houses about 3,000 inmates. 

There have been 506 threats against prison authorities in the past two years, official data show.