Front Line Director Mary Lawlor is currently leading a research mission to Colombia to investigate the high level of danger faced by human rights defenders. “Death squads continue to threaten the life of human rights defenders in Colombia” said Lawlor today during a week long mission to the country. On 15 October, a woman defender from the Yira Castro lawyers collective received a note saying “You are going to die on December 24th”. This was the latest in a series of threatening phone calls, emails and a raid on the office to seize computers. The death squads are a continuation of the paramilitary groups which officially have been demobilised.