Photo: CAJAR lawyer Yessika Hoyos Morales in Ottawa, Canada.
Peace Brigades International-Canada is attentive to the request from the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) for “human rights organizations to stand in solidarity with those under threat and monitor the State’s response”.
El Espectador reports: “CAJAR, one of the most threatened human rights organizations in the country throughout 5 decades of operation, is once again the target of attacks. The lawyer and former president of the Collective, Yessika Hoyos, comments on the situation she faces after she and three other lawyers received a message in which they are ordered to ‘buy the drawer’.”
The three other threatened lawyers are with the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) in the department (province) of Sucre.
In the published interview, Hoyos tells El Espectador: “Just last October 21, the lawyer and human rights defender Alirio Uribe, of our organization, realized that he had also received that threat with the same text and from the same number. Alirio was out of the country for several days and had little access to the WhatsApp application. That’s why he didn’t find out from the beginning.”
She adds: “Throughout our history, CAJAR has faced death threats, harassment and persecution of such magnitude that several of our members have had to leave the country, at different times, to save their lives and those of their families.”
Hoyos also highlights: “So far we have not received a response from the national government, the Ministries of Defense and the Interior, or the UNP [National Protection Unit] to our requests [for protection measures].”
In this press released dated October 19, 2026, CAJAR demanded: “That the President of the Republic, the Ministry of the Interior, the Sucre Departmental Government, and the municipal governments: activate prevention measures as first responders and urgently convene the local institutions responsible for ensuring human rights.”
To read the full El Espectador interview with Hoyos, go to “Hemos sido amenazados muchas veces, no sé cuántas”, denuncia abogada del CAJAR (Cecilia Orozco Tascón, El Espectador, October 25, 2026).
Image of the news article from CAJAR on X.
Further reading
–Amenazan de muerte a la abogada Yessika Hoyos Morales y a tres integrantes del MOVICE Sucre tras la condena por la masacre de La Guaripa (CAJAR, October 19, 2026)
–PBI-Canada expresses concern over the threat made against Colombian lawyer Yessika Hoyos and three members of Movice-Sucre (PBI-Canada, October 20, 2026).
