Cristian Herrera Niño, the founder and editor of the online news sites Cúcuta al Rojo Vivo and Cúcuta Real, was shot and killed by motorcycle gunmen near the Colombia-Venezuela border on June 6, 2026, according to Colombian authorities.
On Saturday, June 6, gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed Herrera outside his home in the northwest city of Cúcuta on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. Security camera footage shows Herrera standing next to a parked vehicle then collapsing on the pavement after being shot. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a Cúcuta hospital, according to news reports.
Herrera and often reported on government corruption and criminal groups involved in extortion, kidnappings, drug trafficking and human smuggling in the border area. Herrera was also a board member of the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) and worked as a part-time security consultant for the Cúcuta mayor.
Following death threats stemming from his reporting, Herrera briefly fled to Chile in 2004. He returned to Cúcuta and since 2014 had received at least 17 death threats, prompting the government’s National Protection Service to provide him with bodyguards, FLIP executive director Sofía Jaramillo told Caracol Noticias. But she said none of the threats were adequately investigated by judicial authorities.
"This crime undermines press freedom by silencing a critical regional voice. Moreover, it has a serious impact on FLIP by depriving it of one of its members…and by placing at risk—and intimidating—the organization's work in defending the rights of journalists,” FLIP said in a statement.
Cúcuta police chief Col. Fabio Ojeda announced a 100 million pesos (US$28,270) reward for information leading to the capture of the gunmen and masterminds of the crime. The National Protection Unit said that, at the request of Herrera, his bodyguards were not with him when the journalist was killed.
CPJ’s text messages to the press department of the Attorney General’s office, which is investigating the crime, went unanswered.