Bogota.- Colombia’s Minister of Labor, Antonio Sanguino, was sanctioned with a five-day arrest by a Bogota court for failing to comply with a guardianship ruling (amparo appeal) that ordered him to provide information regarding the ministry’s actions concerning reports of workplace and sexual harassment at the country’s public media system, Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC).
The right of petition was filed on March 24 by Chamber Representative Katherine Miranda Peña, and the guardianship ruling that protected that right was issued on May 20.
With this request, Sanguino was given a 48-hour deadline to respond to a 12-question questionnaire regarding the work carried out by the Ministry of Labor concerning reports of workplace harassment and gender-based violence within the state entity.
Faced with Sanguino’s silence, the 20th Labor Circuit Court of Bogotá ordered a five-day arrest that he must serve in a Police jail and he will have to pay a fine of three monthly minimum wages (around 1,500 dollars).
The order issued by judge Víctor Hugo González was also sent to the Police so that they “proceed with the capture” of the sanctioned individual and comply with the imposed arrest.
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Ministry of Labor Inspections
In April of this year, the Ministry of Labor received complaints of alleged sexual and workplace harassment at RTVC that pointed to the media outlet’s manager, Hollman Morris, who eight years ago was publicly denounced by Lina Castillo, who at the time was a militant of the Colombia Humana party, belonging to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
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Following that complaint, Morris filed a libel and slander lawsuit against her, a process that more than 40 female journalists cited in a public letter as an example of potential scenarios of revictimization.
In 2024, the then-director of Señal Colombia, one of the RTVC channels, Silvana Orlandelli, claimed to be a victim of harassment by Morris, who at that time was the deputy manager of that media outlet.
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This latest case at RTVC, added to other reports of harassment in the Colombian media outlets Caracol Televisión and RCN, led to inspections by the Ministry of Labor as part of a strategy defined as ‘Inspection for change’.
During the visit carried out in the first week of April, they identified some “ergonomic and occupational risks” related to the use of computer equipment and workplaces, which they were going to analyze “to issue recommendations for improvement”.
