Orel Sambrano

A motorcycle-riding assailant shot Sambrano, director of the local political weekly ABC de la Semana and Radio América, at around 3 p.m. outside a video store in Valencia , 95 miles (150 kilometers) west of Caracas, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews. Sambrano, who was on his way home from Radio América, died from a gunshot wound to the back of his head, news reports said.

Sambrano, 62, a practicing lawyer, had worked as a political columnist for the local daily Notitarde in the north-central province of Carabobo for 18 years and was known locally for his investigations and commentary on local politics, Alejandrina Uribe, Notitarde's editor, told CPJ. Sambrano left Notitarde a year earlier but had announced his return as a columnist the morning he was killed, Uribe said. Prior to his death, he had reported extensively on local drug trafficking for ABC de la Semana and Radio América, according to news reports and CPJ interviews.

On February 13, Venezuelan authorities arrested Rafael Segundo Pérez, a former sergeant for the Carabobo police, in connection to Sambrano's killing. Pérez is accused of working as a hired assassin and conspiring to commit a crime, authorities told the local press.

Local Police Commissioner Robinson Castillo told reporters that authorities are investigating local businessman Walid Makled for masterminding the journalist's murder, reported the national daily El Nacional. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Makled, who is suspected of having fled Venezuela . At a press conference on February 22, the Makled family lawyer, Luis Ernesto López, said there was not sufficient evidence to link Makled to Sambrano's killing.

Colleagues told CPJ that Sambrano had published a number of investigative pieces on the Makled family in the months before his death. The local press also reported that Sambrano had mentioned Pérez as one of 13 police officers with ties to the Makled clan. Investigators said they believe Sambrano was shot in retaliation for his journalism