An Irish human rights worker in Colombia is in hiding in a remote area of the country after suffering a narrow escape from right-wing paramilitaries.
Mr Gearóid Ó Loinsigh, who is working with Colombian rights group Sembrar, was invited to Santa Rosa del Sur last week by a nearby farming and mining community to investigate reports of human rights abuses.
He arrived at the local airport, where he found his contact in the hands of army troops. An army commander told Mr Ó Loinsigh that the area was under military rule and that their safety could not be guaranteed. Mr Ó Loinsigh was questioned for several hours, then escorted in a military truck to a hotel.
The Irishman, travelling with a German co-worker, feared for his safety as Colombian paramilitaries have declared war on human rights workers. Mr Ó Loinsigh made contact with the community he was due to visit and fled to another location. At midnight the hotel was raided by paramilitary troops who asked after "el mono", the monkey, a term frequently used for a pale-skinned foreigner.
The Colombian army has since questioned other visitors to the area about the whereabouts of the Irishman. The Irish Embassy in Mexico has made contact with the Colombian government and is monitoring the situation.
Meanwhile, Ms Blanca Valencia, a human rights activist who visited Ireland last month, has gone into exile in Spain.
Ms Valencia, who worked with Sembrar, was invited to address the Frontline conference in Dublin last month. She said she had received 50 death threats because of her work in collecting testimony and giving advice to rural communities facing violence from state security forces and paramilitary assassins.