Villar, a prominent journalist and former congressman, was killed by motorcycle gunmen in Villavicencio, capital of Meta Department. Villar had just attended a meeting of mayors and had gone to a bar. There, an unidentified individual shot him in the head three times. The assailant fled on a motorcycle, driven by an accomplice. Villar’s journalistic career started with the local radio station Macarena. He then worked as an economic reporter for the newspapers La República and El Siglo, as well as for the magazine Síntesis, all of which are Bogotá-based. He started his political career around 1995. He had been a member of the lower legislative assembly in the conflict-ridden Vaupés Department. At the time of his death, he was working as a contractor for the municipality of Mit, capital of the Vaupés Department. Although Villar wasn’t working as a journalist at the time of his death, local journalists consider that he may have been targeted because of his stance against drug trafficking during his career as a journalist.
