Pedro Rivas Laínez
Pedro Rivas Laínez is a human rights defender who is the leader of the community of Santa Marta and a member of the “Nueva Heroica Santa Marta” cooperative. He has actively worked as a defender of the land rights and common goods of his community against the negative effects caused by metallic mining.
The human rights defender community is regularly subjected to campaigns of defamation - they are labeled as 'traitors of the nation', 'terrorists' and 'subversive'. This tactic employed by the authorities is designed to discredit and undermine the work of human rights defenders by isolating and marginalising them, making them a vulnerable target for abuse. Community leaders and environmental activists who are opposed to large-scale mining projects face death threats and violence.
