Colombia: News & Updates

There are hundreds of self-governed Indigenous territorial reserves (“resguardos”) throughout Colombia. They have their own community councils and Indigenous Guards. Because the work of the Indigenous Guard involves direct confrontation with armed groups, prominent members are often labeled “military targets.”

Estiben Torres was recently elected to head the Indigenous Guard for the Honduras Reservation (aka U’h Wala Vxiç) in Morales, Cauca Department. At 9pm on June 25, Estiben Torres was leaving a community meeting at the “tulpa” sacred gathering space in the hamlet of Maco, traveling on a motorcycle. He was intercepted by armed men who signaled for him to stop. When he did not obey their request, they chased him and, upon reaching the urban area of ​​Morales, they opened fire, wounding him in one of his lower extremities.

It is unclear to us whether the National Protection Unit (UNP) has allocated security detail specifically to Estiben Torres. According to CRIC (Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca), “the existing measures implemented by the UNP are inefficient and inadequate for the level of risk.” 

We are urging that authorities consult with leaders of CRIC to strengthen security measures for the Indigenous communities of Cauca and their Indigenous Guards.

Despite the historic peace agreement between the Colombia government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in November 2016, the armed conflict continues in various regions of the country. Since January 16 of this year, the National Liberation Army (ELN) has been carrying out a campaign to regain control of large parts of the trans-border Catatumbo River region (Colombia-Venezuela), a strategic location for drug production and trafficking in North Santander Department. They have killed, assaulted, kidnapped, and disappeared civilians whom they accuse of having ties with the 33rd Front, a dissident faction of the demobilized FARC. Fighting and abuses by both sides have reportedly forced over 56,000 people to flee their homes, one of the largest mass displacements in Colombia in decades.

Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations are facing threats. Catatumbo Mothers for Peace (MCP), for example, provides shelter and psychosocial support to displaced women. On June 25, MCP denounced  a series of defamatory content published on a digital platform, which included direct threats to Carmen García, president of the association.  Less than two weeks later, two individuals on motorcycles grabbed her son in front of the group’s women’s shelter in Cúcuta, beat him, and dragged him along the asphalt, causing severe physical and psychological injuries.

We are urging that authorities in Colombia coordinate a protection scheme for Carmen García and her family and implement a comprehensive plan to ensure that all human rights defenders in Catatumbo are able to operate without threats and abuse.

Indigenous communities continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia. Even if leaders are not blatantly political in their work, they are still targeted.

William Ferney Pazú Toconás, age 23, was a renowned Indigenous cultural leader from Vitoyó village in the Jambaló Reservation in the north of Cauca Department. A member of the musical group Los Tiraflechas, he was passionate about playing flute and drum music and was respected for his work teaching traditional Indigenous music and instruments to children and young adults.

The morning after a cultural celebration, his body was found on the banks of a river in the center of the reservation. He became the 21st social leader killed in Cauca Department this year, and the 85th overall in Colombia.

William Ferney Pazú Toconás, ¡presente!

Last month, the Peace Commission of the Evangelical [Protestant] Council of Colombia (CEDECOL) issued a statement condemning the massacre of eight Christian church leaders in a rural area of Calamar municipality, Guaviare Department.

Upon receiving personal summons from an illegally armed group (understood to be a dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), the eight appeared for their respective meetings over a two-day period (April 4-5), from which they never returned. Unrelenting, international organizations and members of the public security forces discovered the location of the mass grave in a rural area of the same municipality; this was later confirmed by the Office of the Attorney General Office on July 1. 

We are urging the Colombian government to take the following actions:

(1) conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the killing of these eight church leaders, publish the results, and bring to justice those materially and intellectually responsible

(2) consult with religious leaders who conduct pastoral work in regions occupied by illegally armed groups to devise protection mechanisms, in strict accordance with their wishes

(3) accelerate efforts to bring justice and closure to the fate of so many others who have been disappeared or lost their lives at the hands of illegally armed groups

Maryuri Hernández, Jesús Valero, James Caicedo, Óscar García, Nixón Peñaloza, Maribel Silva, Isaid Gómez, and Carlos Valero: ¡presente!

In a press release on the rights of transgender persons issued March 31, 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reminded the member nations of the Organization of American States (OAS) that recognition of gender identity is essential to all civil, political and human rights. The IACHR expressed its disposition to work with member nations and civil society to promote and guarantee the human rights of persons who are trans, non-binary, or otherwise of the sexual diversity community.

In Colombia, trans people were given the right to change their gender on all identification documents starting in 2015. In October 2019, Bogotá elected their first woman and lesbian mayor. Various elected representatives across national, departmental, and local levels now come from the LGBTI+ community. Increased visibility in TV shows and media coverage has grown more consistent.

Despite the advances, hatred and violence against LGBTI+ persons (especially transgender persons) persists. In 2024, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman reported a 30% increase (compared to the previous year) in cases of bias-based violence against transgender women, transgender men, and non-binary people.   And so far this year, at least 24 LGBTI+ have been killed.

Three of those hate killings have happened in just one town, Bello, a suburb of Medellin. In a horrific act of violence on April 4, assailants abducted Sara Millerey González, a 32-year-old trans activist, beat her, broke her arms and legs and threw her into the Playa Rica River and left her to die. The incident gained national attention because onlookers recorded her screaming from the water and posted videos on social media. When rescuers finally retrieved her and took her to an emergency clinic, she was suffering from a punctured lung and hypothermia. She died from a heart attack the following day, with her mother at her bedside. “I knelt down and hugged her and told her that I loved her very much. I told her she was going to be with God, because no one in heaven was going to humiliate or discriminate against her for being her.”

After the Peace Accords were signed between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the national government, some factions of the FARC (“dissidents”) broke off into other armed bands, rejecting the peace deal. They continue to manipulate vulnerable communities for armed political objectives, endangering civilians in ways that violate international humanitarian law.

In several rural zones of Cauca Department, the Residual Armed Organized Group (GAOr) Carlos Patiño (FARC dissidents) are deeply involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and environmental destruction, particularly in the Micay River basin. Last month, because of the presence of the National Army in Argelia municipality, a commander of the the GAOr threatened the local campesinos if they did not work with the GAOr to violently expel the soldiers. In a radio communication, he said: “…gather everyone around, and if anyone doesn't want to leave, shoot them and they'll be hidden from the military.” If the civilians did not join the GAOr in setting fire to Army armored vehicles, he further threatened to halt the purchase of coca leaves from the campesinos—whose livelihoods depend heavily on coca cultivation—if they did not violently confront the military presence in the region.

This manipulation of vulnerable communities for armed political objectives is unacceptable. We are urging that government authorities consult with local civilian leaders to create protection schemes to ensure that they are not subjected to collective punishment, manipulation, or coercion by any armed actors. We additionally urge that the government strengthen civilian institutions and implement lasting, community-centered alternatives to coca cultivation in the region.