Luis Alberto Anay Ruiz was a teacher and defender of afrodescendant rights. He dedicated his life to the dream of helping young people in in remote rural areas build a better future for themselves through education.
On 22 December, 2020, Luis Alberto was reported missing by other community members in vereda El Chontal in the municipality of Tumaco.
He had gone out fishing in his boat early in the morning but did not return. Community members launched a search and some days later they found the boat but there was no sign of Luis Alberto. Finally, on 27 December, they found the body which showed clear signs of torture.
A former colleague of Luis Alberto described him as, “a person who gave up his own dreams and projects to work for an abandoned community. Cheerful, charismatic, a good friend, an excellent dad, a great life partner, a dedicated teacher, snatched away by endless bloody violence and an unpunished death like so many or like all unjust deaths in this country. Chontal hurts, the children for whom he was an example hurt, his little children hurt, his wife and an entire community that relied heavily on him. Why do the good ones keep dying?”