Background
Guillermo Cano was the heir of Fidel Cano Gutiérrez, the founder of El Espectador.
Guillermo Cano was the heir of Fidel Cano Gutiérrez, the founder of El Espectador.
As a journalist he had worked on the paper"s bullfighting, sports, cultural and political sections. He had served as the editor of El Espectador since 1952. Murder
While working as the editor of the daily El Espectador, he was murdered in front of the paper"s offices by two hitmen linked to Colombia"s drug cartels.
lieutenant was assumed that the attack was in reprisal for a campaign he had launched in the paper to denounce the influence of drug traffickers in the country"s politics.
The same building was destroyed in a bomb attack three years later. In an October 1995 ruling, four individuals (María Ofelia Saldarriaga, Pablo Enrique Zamora, Carlos Martínez Hernández, and Luis Carlos Molina Yepes) were found guilty of conspiring to commit his murder and sentenced to prison terms of 16 years, 8 months.
However, on appeal, the convictions of all but Molina were overturned. In 2000 he was named one of International Press Institute"s 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th century.
Cano is portrayed by the Colombian actor Germán Quintero in the television series Escobar, el patrón del mal.