Colombian community leader, Luis Alberto Torres Montoya, member of the Rios Vivos movement was murdered in Antioquia on the 8th of May, 2018.

The 35-year-old social leader was killed alongside his brother in the same area one week after another prominent activist, Hugo Albeiro George Perez, and member of the same organization was killed. Torres Montoya’s murder occurred in the lead up to another day of protests against the Hidrotiango dam construction that is accused of illegal logging, and deleterious environmental effects, particularly to the Cauca river.

Torres Montoya was a leader of the Association of smaller miners and fishers of Puerto Valdivia, known as the AMPA. The AMPA joined the Rios Vivos movement that opposed the construction of the Hidrotuango, one of the largest embarkment damns in Latin America that affects more than 26,000 hectares and 27 municipalities that will flood close to 4500 hectares of land.

The perpetrators of Torres Montoya’s death are not known. However, the number of deaths in the area in relation to protests highlights the necessity for local authorities to focus on the security of human rights defenders and leaders, insists the AMPA and the Rios Vivos movements.