Founded 2009 | ||
Key people Juanita León, Editor-in-ChiefOlga Lucía Lozano, Creative editor | ||
La Silla Vacía (Spanish: "The Empty Chair") is a Colombian news website founded by journalist and writer Juanita León. The site focuses primarily on Colombian politics.
Contents
La Silla Vacía describes itself as an "informative and interactive medium for people interested in Colombian political current issues," by focusing on "stories which actually describe the way power is exercised in Colombia: on political figures who pull the strings of power, strategies in order to reach and keep it, on ideas and interests which underlie the big decisions taken in the country," aiming to do "good journalism."
Name
Its name, "The Empty Chair" (or, alternatively, "The Empty Seat"), makes reference to at least two political events in Colombia.
The first one occurred 7 January 1999, when the failed peace process between president Andrés Pastrana administration and FARC started. Manuel Marulanda Vélez (aka Tirofijo / Sureshot), FARC top leader at the time, refused to attend the ceremony held in San Vicente del Caguán, leaving a plastic white chair assigned to him empty.
The second alludes to a proposal prompted by the parapolitics scandal. The idea was to punish lawmakers and ultimately parties involved with illegal armed groups in case they are investigated or arrested, leaving their seats in Congress empty, instead of being replaced with another politician. It was passed by the House of Representatives in May 2009, but it will be enforced only if the lawmaker is sentenced, and it will not apply for current Congresspeople, just as president Álvaro Uribe Vélez wished.
Contents
The website is divided in five big sections:
User registration is optional for reading the website, but compulsory in order to leave comments.
Funding
La Silla Vacía is funded through an Open Society Institute grant. León is also an Ashoka-Knight Fellow.