Woman Studied Journalism To Take Her Father's Murderer To Prison

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

On February 22, 1997, the life of Diana López Zulema was forever marked when her father, Luis López Peralta, was killed after receiving a bullet in the neck. A few weeks before, the girl had celebrated a party to celebrate her tenth birthday with her father.

"I didn't want to see my dad in the coffin. I preferred to keep the image of the last time I saw it. It was on my birthday, "Diana López mentioned to the British media BBC.

From then on, the little girl made a decision and studied journalism to manage to put behind bars the man who had taken her father's life, a corrupt politician from her native Colombia whom López challenged and even considered removing the position of mayor competing against him.

“My dad denounced the corruption of the administration of [ Juan Francisco] Kiko Gómez, who at the time was mayor. For this reason, assassins kill him, "he added. “I always believed that my dad's death would go unpunished. I was nobody. So I chose journalism as my career. It was to get out of all the distress I felt."

The dream of being a journalist was fulfilled and with the help of a colleague, Gonzalo Guillén, Gómez could be brought to trial; This was accompanied by strong threats against López, who was not intimidated and continued in the process until achieving his objective. Thus, on June 27, 2017, Juan Francisco Gómez was sentenced, in Colombia, to serve a 55-year sentence for the murder of Luis López and two other people.

"I felt calm and peace that justice had been done for his death," concluded Diana López.