Marco Rivadeneira
Marco Rivadeneira worked for more than 15 years as a leader of peasant communities in the Department of Putumayo. He was a member of the National Board of the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA), president of the Puerto Asís Peasant Association (ASOPUERTOASÍS) and the spokesperson of the region for the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination (Coeuropa).
Marco led an irreplaceable leadership in collective resistance to improve the living conditions of peasant communities, and in defending the compliance of the 2016 Peace Agreement. The peasant leader was particularly involved in the promotion and defense of local initiatives for coca substitution, bravely opposing the measures of forced eradication in a context of ongoing conflict.
On March 19, 2020 the defender was kidnapped by three armed men while attending a meeting with peasant leaders in the municipality of Puerto Asís. He was later found dead in the village Nueva Granada, in south of Puerto Asís, Putumayo.
HRDs in Colombia work in a violent and unsafe environment. They 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.
