Saúl Rivas Ortega is a human rights defender and the legal adviser of the Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social “Santa Marta” ADES (Economic and Social Development “Santa Marta” Association). He has actively worked as a human rights lawyer of the Santa Marta community, including the defence of the right to a healthy environment free of private interests that want to implement mining activities in the country.
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.
