Love Doesn’t Kill: Campaign Against Femicide in Colombia · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

Nataly Palacios is the woman being eulogized by the campaign: Love Doesn't Kill. Photo by Cati Restrepo.
[Editor’s note: The author of this post is part of the ‘Love Doesn't Kill’ campaign and was a classmate of Nataly Palacios Córdoba]
[Links are to Spanish-language pages unless otherwise indicated.]
The death of Nataly Palacios Córdoba, a 23-year-old social worker who was murdered at the hands of her boyfriend, caused such shock among her friends and classmates that they decided to create the campaign ‘El amor no mata’ [Love doesn't kill].
Nataly was killed on August 18, 2013, having just completed her university degree the previous March in the city of Medellín [en] in Colombia.
On August 20, the campaign was officially launch on Facebook, and from then on the page's administrators and followers began working on three fronts:
1. Selfies with the caption “Love doesn't kill”: Every contributor sent their picture with a message to the site, and the administrators published it.
2. Person of the week: the administrators selected and publicized a different woman's story every week.
3. Public action: campaign followers have participated in different demonstrations repudiating femicides.
To date the Facebook page has received more than 1,400 likes, and more than 200 faces bearing the tagline “Love doesn't kill” have been uploaded.
“I am Isa and I say, “Love doesn't kill.” An example of the images the online community has sent to Facebook. Photo by Sara López Carmona.
I am Sara and I say, “Love doesn't kill.” Photo by Sara López Carmona shared on Facebook.
The group is also allied with two particular public demonstrations: Plantón Movimiento Mujeres de negro [a sit-in by Women In Black] and Plantón: Mujeres, que los hombres no nos maten en nombre del amor, [a women's sit-in against men who kill in the name of love].
More recently, the El amor no mata campaign joined forces with the ‘International butterfly migration Fluturi’, which aims at generating awareness about the topic of femicides.
Image of the Fluturi event that took place in the town of La Ceja outside Medellín. Photo by Sara López Carmona.
As a final note, we share the lyrics of what has become a hymn for women's movements in Colombia. [It is based on a popular children's song that begins with the words “rice pudding” and urges women to be dutiful wives.]
“We don't want any more rice pudding;
no more murdered women in this city.
Whoever killed them, whoever raped them,
these are hate crimes and nobody was looking.”
Today, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women [en]. Rest in peace, Nataly.
Not one more death, nor one woman less.