Colombia: News & Updates

Luis Carlos Coicué serves as governor of the Nasa Reservation Jerusalén San Luis Alto Picudito in Villagarzón (Putumayo Department), which has consistently denounced violence committed by all armed actors—guerrillas, paramilitaries and the Colombian National Army alike. Despite this, Nasa leaders have been falsely attacked on social networks, unfoundedly accused of protecting “some border commandos.” This slander has placed leaders like Luis Carlos Coicué at particular risk.

The level of danger was heightened in March when an armed man with his face covered delivered a written warning. The unsigned document, which named leaders and community members from the reservation, stated: “Every collaborator becomes a military objective of our block.”  The notice came during a period of weeks when paramilitary organizations were occupying schools and churches; community residents were confined due to minefields and other unexploded ordnance. Because of imminent threats, community members held an assembly for 12 days straight as a strategy to safeguard their reservation.

When Governor Coicué and his wife received specific death threats in September (“tell your husband to stop causing problems or we’ll blow your head off”), the National Protection Unit assessed the risk to Luis Carlos Coicué as “extraordinary,” but they only offered him a cell phone and armored vest as protective measures.

Indigenous communities in Colombia are under threat of extinction. Shifts in climate are severely impacting their ability to continue their ancestral means of subsistence (fishing, farming). But more immediate is the violent displacement from armed actors.

The Wiwa Indigenous communities in La Guajira Department are some of the largest native communities in the country. They are one of four Indigenous groups (along with the Arhuaco, Kogui, and Kankuamo) who reside on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, one of the highest coastal mountain ranges on the planet. IRTF has been writing on behalf of the Wiwa people for the past 20 years. Two years ago, we echoed the Wiwa’s call for all armed actors in the Caribbean coastal region to unite in a joint proposal for Global Territorial Peace.  Shortly after their declaration for peace, the paramilitary organization Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Self-Defense Conquistadors of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta) began distributing pamphlets, in which they threatened to take measures against the Wiwa inhabitants of the region, whom they describe as "ass-kissers, drinkers, womanizers," among other adjectives.

In September of this year, four young Wiwa men from the community of El Limón Carrizal (Luis Elias Nieves Mendoza, Deivi Gomez, Eduardo Enrique Joño Calvo, and Luis Eduardo Mojica) were all stopped by armed men of the parmilitary organization Self-Defense Forces of the Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN) at illegal checkpoints, where they were assaulted and detained for several hours or even multiple days. Luis Eduardo Mojica was kidnapped for 24 days.

Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, a 30-year-old university student and father of a young daughter, had been receiving threats from illegal armed groups.  Deeply committed to his community at the Pueblo Nuevo Indigenous Reservation in the Indigenous territory of Sa’th Tama Kiwe, “Lobo,” as he was affectionately known by friends and family, was serving as coordinator of the Indigenous guard in the Indigenous territory of Sa’th Tama Kiwe in northern Cauca Department.

The national office of the Human Rights Ombudsman was aware of the particular dangers faced by Indigenous and other human rights defenders in northern Cauca. The office had already issued early warnings because of several illegal armed groups operating in the area and threatening community leaders.  Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo had filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, made a statement to the Public Prosecutor's Office, and requested individual protection measures from the National Protection Unit (UNP). The UNP, however, did not assess the seriousness of his situation and did not grant him protective measures.

On his way to pick up his wife and daughter from a swimming class on August 29, he pulled into a gasoline service station at about 4:30pm. In broad daylight in the El Pescador district of Caldono municipality, assailants gunned him down, and then sped away on their motorcycles.

The University of Cauca issued this statement: “The death of this renowned anthropology student from our alma mater comes at a time when the consequences of this absurd war continue to cause great grief. Therefore, reiterating our commitment to life and peace, we demand real guarantees for the protection of life, not only of our university community, but of every inhabitant of Cauca. We cannot allow the dreams and lives of those who fight for a more just and humane country to continue to be cut short. Men and women, young people, adolescents and children of this land need and deserve to live in a place where hope is not just another victim of the conflict, but a force capable of transforming the future.”

Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, ¡presente!

Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian LGBTQI+ advocacy organization, reports a growing wave of systemic violence toward the LGBTQI+ community across the country. The organization is based on the Caribbean coast in Barranquilla, the capital city of Atlántico, the department with the most killings of LGBTQI+ persons in Colombia. So far this year, they have documented at least 31 killings, with at least 16 victims who were transwomen.

In just one week, three LGBTQI+ persons were killed, two of them in Atlántico Department: Armando René Torres Bohórquez (on August 29 in Atlántico Department), Germán Ríos Cifuentes (on September 1 in Valle del Cauca Department), and Valeska London (on September 4 in Atlántico Department).

In addition to our request to officials in Colombia that both the material and intellectual authors of these assassinations be found and prosecuted, we are also urging that the government:

-work to end the culture of impunity of crimes committed against members of the LGBTQI+ community

-create a culture of economic and social inclusion to integrate transgender individuals so that they can live and work in less vulnerable conditions

-effectively comply with the creation of the mechanism for monitoring and preventing violence and discrimination against LGBTQI+ people, as established in the National Development Plan

Since 2017, Amnesty International and the Inter-Church Commission for Peace and Justice have documented a string of attacks and threats against Jani Silva, president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA), a community organization managing the Peasant Reserve Zone of La Perla Amazónica in the municipality of Puerto Asís, Putumayo Department.  State protection under the National Protection Unit (UNP) has proven insufficient to prevent at least seven different security incidents against her. Since January 2020, she has experienced persecution, illegal digital surveillance, death threats, shots fired into her home, and she uncovered a plan for her own assassination.

On September 10, Jani Silva received a phone call threatening her life, in which the caller described a truck that was provided to ADISPA by the UNP and explicitly stated plans to blow it up with her inside. Later that same day, unknown men with high-speed motorcycles were seen on two occasions prowling around Jani Silva’s house and ADISPA’s office in the town center of Puerto Asís.

Given that in 2023 more environmental defenders were killed in Colombia than in any other country in the world, we are deeply concerned for the safety of Jani Silva.

Living and working in a rural hamlet called La Gabarra, young community journalist Jorge Méndez, known as “Yeiko the leader,” had 650,000 followers on Facebook. Because his home region along the Venezuelan border had such a negative public image due to years of armed violence, Jorge started the page "La Gabarra con una imagen diferente," with content that was positive and favorable to the region.

In a country dangerous for social leaders and journalists, Jorge Méndez sadly became another victim. On the morning of June 27, Jorge was traveling along a road in a rural zone of Tibú, Norte de Santander Department. Local residents later found his car abandoned and alerted the police. They began a search and found his body with multiple bullet wounds and signs of torture.

After learning of his assassination, a social leader from La Gabarra commented: “He was a young dreamer, a young man who wanted to show a different image of La Gabarra, show its resilience, show the beautiful things, its people, its landscapes, its nature, he sought to remove that stigmatization of La Gabarra, which for many years [from] the outside looked like that image of violence that has plagued it for years…”

Jorge Méndez, ¡presente!

Because of his bold leadership in protecting the Wayuu people, Javier Rojas Uriana has suffered many reprisals: assassination attempts, death threats, slander, and trumped-up legal charges. For more than a decade, Javier Rojas Uriana has denounced the humanitarian crisis facing the Wayúu people, the largest Indigenous community in Colombia. Where they live in La Guajira, the department with the highest prevalence of food insecurity, extreme climate phenomena have been causing droughts and heatwaves, affecting food staples such as rice and corn. Their economy—based on artisanal fishing, sheep and goat breeding, and handicraft production—has been disrupted. Child malnutrition is reaching alarming levels.

On July 2 while he was in Valledupar, the capital city of Cesar Department, Javier Rojas Uriana suffered an assassination attempt when assailants targeted him with an explosive device.  Fortunately, he was not injured in the vicious attack. We are urging that the National Protection Unit (UNP) review and reinforce its protection measures for Javier Rojas Uriana and his family, in strict accordance with their wishes.