Hundreds of Colombians are taking to the streets today. Their demand? That the Colombian government get serious and do its job to protect the country’s human rights defenders and social leaders who are building peace from the ground up.
Defendamos La Paz is a grassroots peace movement that developed just recently to defend the historic peace accords signed in 2016. However, just last month it convoked a nationwide protest in response to the murder of human rights defender María del Pilar Hurtado. María is among the more than 460 social leaders and human rights defenders who have been killed since January 2016.
Peace is literally hanging in the balance in Colombia, consequently Viatorians join members of the Latin America Working Group in demanding protection for social leaders.
Read a full press release, here.