Chronicle of a Rebirth.

• Author: Diaz, Hector Pena
• Position: !Ojo! - Colombian newspaper El Espectador

ONE OF THE MOST difficult challenges for a media outlet is to preserve its identity based on journalistic principles, independence, and style. The Colombian daily El Espectador--which has published in three different centuries, since it was founded in 1887 by Fidel Cano--has withstood many trials by fire and risen repeatedly from the ashes. Its latest resurrection took place in May of this year, when it launched a daily edition again.

Not long after its founding, in Medellin, the newspaper was deemed anathema by the Catholic Church, whose leaders prohibited the faithful from buying it on penalty of mortal sin. During that era, El Espectador underwent several deaths and resurrections.

In the 1950s, the newspaper's installations were set on fire by conservative fanatics, and during the dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla its presses were silenced. Many years later, in the 1980s, the news organization faced pressures from the country's largest business group at the time, which wanted the paper to ignore its misdeeds, particularly the swindle of thousands of bank depositors. The Cano family newspaper stood up to attempts at blackmail--economic interests were withholding advertising because of its editorial stance--and maintained its independence, at a high price for its financial stability.

As if that were not enough, the newspaper--under the guiding hand of its legendary editor, Guillermo Cano--alerted Colombian society about the nefarious influence of drag trafficking and unmasked one of its most violent perpetrators; in response, Pablo Escobar declared a war to the death. On December 17, 1986, as "Don Guillermo" was leaving the newspaper's Bogota headquarters, he was assassinated by gunmen who silenced one of the country's most cogent and honest writers. But the drug capo's wrath did not end there: A car bomb would totally destroy the newspaper's installations on September 2, 1989. The next day, a ray of light seemed to shine through the ashes when, to the astonishment of its readers, El Espectador got out the paper.

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