Soraya Bayuelo
We had to invent new ways to live in the midst of war.
Soraya Bayuelo is the founder and director of the Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de Maria (Communications Collective of Montes de María), which was established in 1994 by a group of journalists, teachers, community leaders and cultural managers of El Carmen de Bolivar. As the leader of the organisation, Bayuelo fights to open of spaces for alternative communication and greater participation in civic life in Colombia.
Despite recent peace talks, Colombia remains one of the countries with the highest rates of killing of HRDs in the world. The UN reported that 69 HRDS were killed between January and August 2015 - the number was 35 for the same period in 2014. HRDs are subjected to threats, intimidation, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, physical assaults, torture, killings, illegal searches of their homes and offices and stigmatisation as a result of their activities in defence of human rights. The perpetrators of these abuses are frequently paramilitary groups, many of whom have links to the government or security services, or armed opposition groups.
