Colombia: News & Updates

Our partner in Colombia, the  Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace, alerted us to a concerning pattern of surveillance and intimidation against Indigenous authorities of the Nasa people of Putumayo, the southwestern department that borders Ecuador and Peru. On the Indigenous Reserve Jerusalén San Luis Alto Picudito from late June to mid-July, Indigenous Governor Alicia Ipia Ramos and her security team witnessed men keeping an intent eye on her at events.  On more than one occasion between July 1 and 6, men dressed in black were spotted hiding in vegetation near her house and another seen emerging from the lower level of her house, fleeing after the arrival of the security team’s vehicle.

On July 18 at 9:30pm, two men arrived at her home on motorcycles. Calling for Alicia from outside, her daughter replied that she was not home. As they left, the men warned, "We'll return later and pay her a proper visit." The daughter fled and hid in the woods.  Members of the Indigenous Guard found her and took her to a safe place.

We are urging that authorities in Colombia (1) consult with authorities of Jerusalén San Luis Alto Picudito to create and implement a protection scheme for their leaders, including Alicia Ipia Ramos and her family, and (2) conduct a thorough investigation to find and hold accountable the men who sought out the governor at her home on July 18.

Although it has been almost ten years since the government of Colombia signed the historic Peace Accords with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), several armed groups, including dissident factions of the FARC, wreak havoc on local communities as they battle for territorial control.

Last month on the El Bosque farm in Remedios, Antioquia Department, the FARC-dissident faction 4th Front took responsibility for the massacre of four farmers. Armed men entered the Botero family farm, tied up Efraín Botero, his wife Rosa Silva, farm administrator Alexander Restrepo García, and his assistant Leidy María Cáceres Carrillo. Alexander and Leidy María were taken to a separate location and murdered. Efraín and Rosa were separated and killed individually, their bodies left in the pasture. The victims were tortured and burned alive. The armed group also set fire to the house and left behind explosive cylinders, constituting a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

Alexander Restrepo García and Leidy María Cáceres Carrillo had moved to the farm over the past year. They were displaced from Chocó Department, where they lived in one of the humanitarian zones, which are collectively titled territories belonging to the region’s Afro-Colombian communities. The pair had come to Remedios seeking dignified work and escape the violence that has been ruining their home community.

Members of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) are subjected to continuous surveillance, intimidation, and credible threats against their lives. Beginning in March, CIJP member Juan Carlos Gaona, began receiving text messages. The first stated that an operation to murder him in Sincelejo, Sucre Department, had failed only by chance due to the presence of an Army truck near the place where he was holding a meeting. The message described his recent activities in detail, revealing that he was under surveillance, and warned that he would not be as fortunate next time, with the clear intention of attacking him and other members.

This incident is not an isolated occurrence but more a symbolic case of the danger faced by human right defenders in Colombia by illegal armed groups who directly target those who support and accompany victims of human rights violations. The failure of the state to fully implement the protection scheme ordered by of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Protection Measures 629-03) needs to be addressed now. When defenders are silenced through threats, fear, and violence, the protection of all victims is placed at risk.

Threats of social cleansing that have been circulating in pamphlets in the departments of Valle del Cauca (Yumbo, Vijes, Yotoco) and Cesar (Valledupar, Pueblo Bello, Codazzi, and La Paz), spreading hate towards certain groups, explicitly threatening the LGBTIQ+ community. Many of the pamphlets are attributed to armed groups vying for territorial control. 

These pamphlets have been accompanied by in-person actors threatening transwomen in Santa Marta (Magdalena Department). In April, several transgender women were approached by male members of an armed group, demanding payment of “security fees” to allow them to work (and threats if they did not pay). The armed men’s nightly patrols resulted in displacement, widespread fear, and the loss of work.

The stigmatization and dehumanization of LGBTIQ+ people expressed in these pamphlets is set in the context of a protracted and violent social climate for LGBTIQ+ persons that includes homicides, forced displacement, and systemic threats.

The risk to human rights defenders and community leaders in Cauca department is exacerbated by the presence of armed groups such as the “Iván Mordisco” dissident faction of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army), which are vying for control of territory and the illegal economy in the region.

Two social leaders were killed on April 22. Milton Penagos and Edwar Rubiano Álvarez, two social leaders who were both killed on April 22, 2026. 

Milton Penagos was a union leader and public official from Sandtander de Quilichao in northern Cauca. He was in charge of planning for the public services company Emquilichao, a former secretary to the mayor, and vice president of the Sintraemquilichao union.  He was murdered in his home on April 22 under unknown circumstances.

Edwar Rubiano Álvarez, age 34, was a leader of the Micay Canyon Peasant Association and president of the Community Action Board of the Los Tigres village in northwest Cauca.  His body was found on a rural road between El Estanguillo and La Fonda in the municipality of El Patia on April 22.  Rubiano was promoting organizational processes with cocoa farmers, seeking the voluntary substitution of illicit crops in one of the most conflict-ridden areas of southwestern Colombia.

On April 19, the National Police used a local school as a staging center for armed maneuvers in the La Esperanza neighborhood of Saravena, Arauca Department. On that Sunday afternoon, the armed rebel group National Liberation Army (ELN) attacked Colombian state security forces with explosives, injuring eight police officers. According to Municipal Ombudsman José Luis Lasso Fontecha and several community residents,  about 30 minutes later law enforcement indiscriminately fired on a pickup truck carrying teacher union member Paola Infante Jaimes, causing injuries to her skull, chest, and upper extremities. She was treated at the same hospital but died on the morning of April 20 due to the severity of her injuries.

The Cauca Network for Life and Human Rights issued an early social and community alert urging the government, state institutions and international organizations to take action against the increasing violence in the department.  In the first half of April alone, 22 people were murdered in the region, and the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous to the local community. Civilian communities in Cauca have further been threatened by videos of firearms and pamphlets announcing possible plans for a “social cleansing” in the region.