For some time, opposition sectors had demanded from all prominent figures of the ruling party, the Pacto Historico, especially its women members of Congress, a clear position regarding cases of alleged aggressions against women attributed to figures in the circle of President Gustavo Petro. The response had been resounding silence. This time, though, women from Pacto Historico call for Hollman Morris removal from RTVC.
But with the scandal surrounding the departure of Jorge Alfredo Vargas and Ricardo Orrego, journalists and presenters from Caracol TV, in a context of allegations of sexual and workplace harassment in that media outlet, the issue gained new momentum.
In addition, Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo ordered the transfer, to a higher instance, of the case against activist Lina Marcela Castillo, who had been reported by Hollman Morris.
Hollman Morris files a complaint against the woman who accused him
Morris, director of the public media system RTVC (Radio Television Nacional de Colombia, in Spanish), initiated legal action against Castillo after she publicly denounced, on Jan. 28, 2019, that Morris, then a councilman in Bogota, had allegedly engaged in harassment conduct.
“[Morris] asked me to sit next to him and grabbed my legs,” Castillo said at the time to the media. In response, Morris filed a complaint for libel and slander, as he considered his good name had been affected. The result was that the Prosecutor’s Office filed a formal accusation against Castillo in March 2023.
But on March 23, Attorney General Camargo decided that the case would no longer remain with the Bogota Sectional Prosecutor’s Office and would be transferred to the Third Delegated Prosecutor’s Office before the Supreme Court of Justice.
The objective is for the case to be addressed under a gender-based violence approach, taking into account the origin of the complaints. Camargo warned that the initial file did not analyze the harassment accusations, but only the complaint for libel and slander.
She further elaborated on her explanation. She warned that when a person accused of harassment responds with legal actions, as in the case of Morris, the Prosecutor’s Office must avoid a “silencing effect” on victims. “It should not be presumed that there is intent to damage a person’s good name when acting as a mechanism of self-protection,” she said.
“In the case in which the aggressor reports the victim for libel or slander, it is the duty of the Prosecutor’s Office to evaluate such conduct with a gender perspective, so that it does not have a ‘silencing’ effect on victims and to avoid presuming intent to damage the aggressor’s good name or honor, when the victim acted in the legitimate exercise of a mechanism of resistance and self-protection,” the Attorney General concluded.
Women from Pacto Historico call for Hollman Morris removal from RTVC
In this context, the women’s caucus of the Pacto Historico in the House of Representatives asked President Petro for Morris’ resignation from the management of RTVC.
They made the request through a statement read by Representative Maria Fernanda Carrascal, a staunch defender of the national government. She was accompanied by Maria del Mar Pizarro, daughter of Carlos Pizarro and sister of Senator Maria Jose Pizarro. These women from Pacto Historico called for Hollman Morris Removal from RTVC.
“In the context of recent complaints and the public debate on gender-based violence in spaces of power, in institutions, in the media and, in general, in the world of work, public and private, the women of the Pacto Historico consider it necessary to set a clear, responsible and coherent position regarding the events that today generate concern in public opinion,” she said.
“We immediately request that the alleged perpetrators be removed from their positions while the corresponding processes advance, as a measure of transparency and guarantee of nonrepetition, as well as respect for due process for both parties,” she added, and said that this call responds to the urgent need to guarantee safe spaces, free of gender-based violence, both in the institutional and political spheres.
“In RTVC, there are complaints of workplace harassment that must be investigated with all guarantees. However, the allegations of sexual harassment against Hollman Morris correspond to events that occurred in a previous work context. And they cannot be transferred or diluted within the institution,” they warned.
They also welcomed the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office “to reassign the case with a gender perspective as an important step toward more fair processes sensitive to the violence historically exercised against women, and we urge that, in coherence with the political project and responsibility toward the institution, the manager step down from his position.”