Linares killed

Well-known Colombian gay activist Alvaro Miguel Rivera Linares, 41, was killed March 6 in his apartment in Cali.

He suffered a fatal blow to the head and was found tied to his bed and gagged. The apartment had been trashed but there were no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen.

Rivera received national attention when he fought a 2001 mandate by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas that all residents of a FARC-controlled sector of the eastern state of Meta take an HIV test or leave the area within a week.

Thereafter, he received death threats and was followed on the streets and harassed at work. He eventually left Meta, his home state, as a result.

Leading Latino-issues blogger Andres Duque called Rivera's death "a tremendous loss to the international human rights movement."