Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez
It wasn’t enough for them to kill my son. Now they want to kill me and my family too.
Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez is president of the Comité Mujeres Corteras de Caña (Committee of Women Sugar Cane Harvesters). Darbey Mosquera Castillo, son of Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez, was murdered on 28 February 2008 by the Colombian Army and then presented as a guerrilla killed in combat. These cases are known as "falsos positivos" and represent a crime against humanity. Since then, Alfamir Castillo Bermúdez together with her husband have been fighting for justice.
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.
