Video clip: Andrea Torres in Norway, June 19, 2026.
The Madrid-based Spanish alternative newspaper El Salto reports that Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation legal coordinator Andrea Torres Bautista is on an advocacy tour in Spain with Peace Brigades International.
El Salto explains: “Torres is a lawyer, specializing in the protection of human rights and the fight against violence against women, focusing on cases where the accused are members of the Colombian armed forces.”
The article also notes: “Torres has suffered serious attacks and death threats for her work and has precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and a protection scheme from the National Protection Unit (UNP).”
Women Searchers Act
One year ago this week, on June 18, 2024, Law 2364 of 2024, the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers, championed by Bautista, was ratified by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Seven moths later, President Petro signed the Decree authorizing the Women Searchers Act.
El Salto asked Torres what would happen if “the extreme right” wins the presidential election in Colombia this coming Sunday June 21.
Torres responded: “Well, I think the worst could happen. In legal terms, surely the law 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. 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. These days, I saw an interview given by one of the right-wing candidates and he said that he was going to come out with a list in hand with the names of the human rights organizations, as well as with the names of the guerrillas. And I was going to give the colonels 30 days to bring them in or eliminate them. That’s the tone of the right, right now. That makes us 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.”
The full article can be read at Andrea Torres, abogada buscadora: “Si gana la extrema derecha en Colombia, están en juego nuestras vidas” (Sara Plaza Casares, El Salto, June 19, 2026).
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.
Additional reading
–PBI-Canada congratulates the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation on the presidential signing of Law 2364, the Women Searchers Law (January 29, 2026)
–PBI-Colombia says threat against CREDHOS a violation to democratic participation ahead of June 21 presidential vote (June 18, 2026).
Poster for public forum in Spain, June 15, 2026.
