The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:
“Andrea Torres Bautista, director of @fundacionnydiaerikabautista and coordinator of the National Network of Women Searchers, speaks with MEP @cristina_guarda about the lack of protections that women searchers still face, such as murders, threats, sexual violence, and stigmatization.
It is urgent to implement the Law on Women Searchers and provide real safeguards for their work.”
Cristina Guarda is an Italian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. She is the vice-chair of Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community and a member of Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.
PBI-Colombia has also posted on social media about meeting with Verena Mertens, a German Member of the European Parliament representing the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats).
On June 19, 2026, Torres Bautista told the publication El Salto: “[If the extreme right wins the election, the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers] is not going to be implemented, it is going to remain on paper and there will be no guarantee of protection or recognition of women seekers.”
Bautista further stated: “But also, I think our lives are at stake. In other words, I am personally afraid that if the right wing wins, they will kill us, they will continue to physically attack us, they will continue to persecute us, they will continue to harass us, forced disappearances will increase and the security situation and guarantee to continue doing our work will no longer exist. …[We] feel that there will be no guarantee for the organizations, much less for the women searchers who have denounced the State, who have denounced the military, the paramilitaries, the guerrillas.”
On June 24, 2026, Colombian electoral authorities declared conservative presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella the winner of the June 21 runoff election.
On June 25, 2026, Global Affairs Canada posted on social media: “Congratulations to Colombia’s new president Abelardo De la Espriella. Canada values its longstanding partnership with Colombia. Canada looks forward to continued cooperation on shared interests such as stable economic growth, expanding trade under our existing free-trade agreement, and peace and security.”
De la Espriella will be sworn into office on August 7 for a four-year term.
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.
