Colombia: News & Updates

On Monday night, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) denounced the murder of John Jairo Esquivel. This fact brings to 55 the number of human rights defenders killed so far this year. Esquivel, who was a member of the Peasant Guard and a member of the National Peasant Association (ASONALCA), lived in the municipality of Fortul, in the department of Arauca. Illegal armed organizations and the Second Division of the Colombian Army are present in this area. The Association also highlighted that the persecution, stigmatization, prosecution, and murder of social activists aggravates the humanitarian crisis. This happens amid the reconfiguration of the armed conflict carried out by paramilitary structures, which are continuing the genocide against Colombians.

Colombia’s opposition and anti-corruption advocates have sued President Ivan Duque for allegedly trying to influence the May 29 presidential election. Senator Ivan Cepeda said last week that he would sue the president and seven mayors for abusing their position for electoral purposes. The Anticorruption Institute, a non-government organization, said Monday that it sued before the Cundinamarca Administrative Tribunal for his allegedly illegal participation in electoral politics.

The United Nations’s human rights body has urged Colombia to prosecute those responsible for a military raid that resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including four civilians that community members say were passed off as fighters. The Colombian military said last month that it had carried out an operation against Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dissidents involved in drug trafficking. But human rights groups have reported that there were four civilians among the dead. The UN urged authorities to protect witnesses and journalists that have been threatened in recent days over their reports.

Almost 1.5 million votes that were cast in Colombia’s congressional elections were omitted from the announced results, according to election observers. Vega has blamed the discrepancy on a design flaw in the senate vote form and irregularities committed by jurors. Alejandro Barrios, the director of the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), disputed Vega’s explanations. "That does not explain why we are talking about a difference of around 6% or 7% between what was announced and actually counted, because in other electoral processes we talk about a 0.5% difference".

On March 31, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “@Ccajar, on behalf of Afrowilches, and other human rights organizations file tutelage against #fracking pilots in #PuertoWilches for lack of prior consultation with Afro-Colombian communities who, in the midst of threats, protect their #ancestral territory, water and ecosystem.” Their tweet helped to amplify this statement from the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) that notes: “Human rights organizations together with the Colombia Free of Fracking Alliance, filed before a Circuit Court a charge against the Ministry of the Interior, the ANLA [National Environmental Licensing Authority] and Ecopetrol, for the violation of the right to prior, free and informed consultation of the Afro-Colombian Corporation of Puerto Wilches – Afrowilches.”

The United Nations’ Security Council will not allow social leaders to contradict President Ivan Duque on Colombia’s peace process. The Security Council will meet in New York on Tuesday for its quarterly session on the implementation of a 2016 peace deal with now-defunct guerrilla group FARC. These sessions have always been attended by Colombia’s foreign minister to represent the State and a social leader to represent civil society. This time, only Duque will address the UN ambassadors.

U.S. human rights, faith, labor, environmental, and grassroots organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding their deep concern with the human rights and humanitarian situation in Colombia. We believe the Biden Administration should take firmer action to fully protect and implement the accords, particularly with respect to the rights of Colombia’s ethnic minorities, police brutality, and the right to peaceful protest. The letter outlines a series of actions the State Department can take to ensure coordinated diplomacy for forward momentum on peace accord implementation, human rights, and racial justice. This includes pressing for protection of human rights defenders and for full implementation of the accords’ comprehensive rural reforms, Ethnic Chapter, and gender provisions. The letter also urges the State Department to take a much stronger stance regarding police brutality and human rights abuses by Colombia’s military.  The Biden Administration must immediately mobilize a range of government agencies to rescue Colombia’s long sought-after and waning peace.

The number of people in Colombia who identify themselves as right-wing has decreased dramatically since 2019, according to Colombia’s statistics agency DANE. They released the results of their poll weeks after congressional elections in which the far-right Democratic Center party of President Ivan Duque received a major blow. The elections made the progressive “Historic Pact” party of opposition leader Gustavo Petro the biggest party in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.