IRTF News

Agricultural workers are being targeted in the Pacific coastal departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca. So far in 2025, at least five sugar industry workers have been murdered and another seven injured. On September 2, security personnel at a sugar mill were intercepted by armed individuals who apparently intended to rob them. They fired gunshots; one worker was seriously injured.  

This month, Jordy Alexis Cárdenas Campo, a member of the sugar cane workers union Sintraicañazucol, had recently been hired by the La Cabaña SA sugar mill. When he was working on November 8, armed men on a motorcycle approached him and shot him multiple times. Despite the efforts of rescue workers and his transfer to a medical center in Puerto Tejada, he died due to the severity of his injuries.

We are urging that authorities in Colombia consult with leadership of Sintraicañazucol and Asocaña (Association of Sugar Cane Growers of Colombia) to devise safety measures for workers in the fields.

When the Peace Agreement was signed with the guerrilla army FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in November 2016, the government pledged to help over 14,000 former combatants reintegrate into society in exchange for the fighters laying down their weapons. Most went to live in any of 24 camps scattered across Colombia, known as Territorial Spaces for Training and Reintegration (ETCR). But there are risks faced by those who opted to enroll in the formal reintegration process.  Since November 2016, more than 460 former guerrilla combatants have been murdered.  

In the Department of Valle del Cauca, ex-combatant Wilmer Noguera España was leaving school accompanied by a friend in the municipality of Dagua when they were intercepted by unknown individuals. His companion was released, but Wilmer Noguera España was killed.  His body was found in the same area two days later.

Wilmer Noguera España became the 35th signatory of the Peace Agreement assassinated in 2025. One year ago, his brother, Wilmer Noguera España (also an ex-combatant and signatory of the Peace Agreement) was killed in the same municipality. This deadly violence threatens the reintegration process of all former combatants.

The Garífuna, descendants of Indigenous peoples from the Caribbean and formerly enslaved Africans, have lived on the Bay Islands and Atlantic coast of Honduras since 1797. The State of Honduras has already been condemned three times by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights for violating the Garífuna people’s right to collective land ownership.

Because of the government’s failure to implement the international court’s orders, Garífuna community members have taken matters into their own hands. Outside of Trujillo, Colón Department, they have “recuperated” (recoccupied) a neighborhood where outside investors have illegally begun constructing forty tourist condominiums. On October 23, fifteen masked and heavily armed men arrived in two armored vehicles, surrounded the Garífuna reoccupation site, fired weapons, and threatened to kill residents; the police failed to respond to repeated emergency calls. Days later, the mainstream media published a defamatory and false article accusing the Garífuna of illegally occupying the tourist condominiums.

Then on October 27 there were two more violent incidents. In Vallecito, Colón Department, armed men apparently aimed at Garífuna defender Miriam Miranda. And on the Bay Islands off the coast, Garífuna defender Melissa Martínez received a death threat which included racist slurs and warned her to “watch her steps.”

Garífuna defenders, particularly women, have faced years of armed aggression, threats, and smear campaigns. But the current racist media campaign is fueling hostility and is resulting in armed attacks. The intensification of violence demonstrates the urgent need for decisive state action to protect those defending collective land rights guaranteed under Honduran and international law.

November marks nine years since the signing of the Peace Accords between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But dissident factions of the FARC—as well as other armed groups—continue to wage violence as they vie for control of territories and resources.  Social leaders are especially at risk. Since the beginning of 2025, there has been a killing of a social leader more than once every other day: 174 to date.

In the city of Chaparral, Tolima Department, Julián Rincón Arenas, a member of the Patriotic Union and the Historical Pact,  was deeply committed to defending the rights of his community. On November 17, returning home from several meetings with farmers, he was shot multiple times and died at the scene.  The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman had issued a warning about the risk posed by armed groups in this region, especially for human rights defenders. Julián Rincón Arenas had previously requested protective measures but had not received a response from the government.

Julián Rincón Arenas, ¡presente!