Crimes under international law and human rights violations and abuses in the context of the continuing internal armed conflict increased in rural areas where control of territories formerly dominated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) was disputed. The primary victims continued...

On 10 April, at around 5:30 pm, an explosive device was found 5 meters away from the front door of the office of the Santander’s (North) Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS in Spanish) According to the National Police, the explosive artefact was placed by the National...

On July 5th, Yuli Velásquez, President of the Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment (FEDEPESAN), an environmental organization operating in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, was the victim of an armed attack. Two unknown assailants shot at her, harming her bodyguard. Members of...

On May 31st, four environmental defenders from the organization Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment (FEDESPAN) were victims of an attack with firearms by unknown people while assessing possible environmental harm in the Magdalena Medio region, an extensive inter-Andean...

Human rights defenders from the Magdalena Medio region in southeast Colombia have been subject to multiple threats in recent weeks. On 9 February unknown men broke into the house of the environmental defender Yuvelis Morales. She had received a death threat the day before and was forced to leave...

On 7 July 2021 a local civil society organization received confidential information about a plan to kill journalist José Alberto Tejada. Since 28 April, he has faced more than 14 security incidents including surveillance by unidentified men and a security forces official had treated with killing...

Since 28 April, thousands of people took the streets across the country calling for the withdrawal of a tax reform and for better social and economic measures in a national strike (“Paro Nacional”) called by several social movements. The authorities responded by deploying the military to several...

On 12 April 2021, President Ivan Duque signed decree 380 allowing the spraying of glyphosate for the eradication of illicit crops to resume. This policy, which was stopped in 2015 due to its detrimental effect on human rights and the environment, could negatively affect the health and other related...

On 24 March, the Santander’s (North) Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS in Spanish) received a threatening call from a unknown man self-identified as member of the Magdalena Medio Block of the armed group FARC- EP saying “stop making publications and being toadies,...

On 26 February, the Major of Barrancabermeja notified the National Protection Unit (UNP) about the risk Luis Alberto González Lopez was facing and acknowledged his role as a human rights defender. On 3 March, the UNP strengthened his protection scheme providing him with one bodyguard and a vehicle....

On 10 February, a civil society organization received a verified report of an ongoing plan to kill or displace Association for the Integral and Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA) members, an organization protecting the rights of hundreds of peasants (campesinos) in the Putumayo...

On 8 February, unidentified persons distributed threatening pamphlets giving 72 hours for Luis Alberto González López to leave the territory before becoming a military objective near the place of his residence in the city of Barrancabermeja. Luis González López is the vice-president of FEDEPESAN,...

On 2 July, the Inter-Ecclesiastic Commission of Justice and Peace received confidential information about an ongoing plan to kill the Human Rights Defender Jani Silva. The plan is allegedly run by an armed group called “La mafia” because of the voluntary crops substitution program that Jani Silva...