Because of his legitimate work in defense of human rights, Alberto Yepes Palacio, the coordinator of the National Observatory of Human Rights, has been subjected to threats, thefts, surveillance, and other acts of intimidation. In retaliation for his participation in the Roundtable on Extrajudicial Executions, which implicated the commander of the National Army, he and his daughter were threatened by the Black Eagles paramilitaries (as well as by agents of the Colombia Armed Forces). In 2021, he was victim of several incidents of surveillance over a two-month period.
During the early afternoon of May 31, Alberto Yepes Palacio was meeting at a restaurant in Bogotá with delegates of social organizations and human rights defenders when three people barged in and stole his backpack containing his work computer, which contains sensitive information related to cases of human rights violations. Conducting such an action (in plain sight amongst a group of people in a public place in the middle of the day) shows the audaciousness of those who attack human rights defenders.