I am Luz Marina Bernal. I live in Soacha, a municipality neighboring Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, which is the main destination for displaced people from the rest of the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown have made things very difficult for me as I work on the ground with people and communities, but I live alone.
I became a human rights activist after my son, Fair Leonardo Porras Bernal, was forcibly disappeared in 2008. At the time, I was happily married and had four children. But after Leonardo died and I began to question authorities about what happened, we received death threats. I had to protect the rest of my children and encouraged them to move them away.
