Víctor Daniel Bonilla Sandoval is a Colombian investigative journalist. He was born in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

in 1933; his family was originally from Cauca. He grew up near

Popayán Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in the Pubenza Valley in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. The municipality has a population of 318,059, an a ...

, and moved to

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

at the age of 18, where he studied at the National University. He worked as a journalist and editor for 25 years, for newspapers such as '' El Tiempo'' and ''

El Espectador ''El Espectador'' () is a nationally circulated Colombian newspaper founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez in 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It was initially published twice a week, 500 issues each, but some years later became ...

'', and for journals like ''La Calle'' and '' Gaceta Tercer Mundo''. He was chief editor of ''Revista Alternativa''. He is best known for his 1968 book '' Siervos de Dios y amos de indios?'' which was based on extensive travels in the regions of Caquetá, Putumayo and Amazonas. The book examined the negative impact of the local Capuchin mission on native life in Putumayo. The Capuchins had been granted enormous powers in an agreement known as the

Concordat of 1887 A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 s ...

(the Mission Agreement). The publication of Bonilla's book led to widespread discussion, reaching the highest levels of government and the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

, and eventually leading to the cancellation of the agreement in the 1970s. The book was later translated into French and English, appearing in a Penguin paperback edition under the

Pelican Latin American Library The Pelican Latin American Library (PLAL) was a specialist series of books published by Penguin Books UK in the 1970s. The series was inaugurated in the wake of the success of another Penguin imprint, the Penguin African Library. The general editor ...

imprint. Bonilla also exposed the presence of a fugitive

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in Leticia in the mid-1960s, with the assistance of Héctor Muñoz, a journalist for ''El Espectador''.Biographical essay
by Alejandro Cuevas Ramirez

References

{{Authority control Colombian journalists