Cuts to UN Human Rights Office deepen risks for HRDs and journalists as HRD killings remain widespread

This update covers developments relating to the freedoms of expression, association and assembly in Colombia from July to October 2025.

Association

Colombia continued to record high levels of lethal violence against human rights defenders (HRDs). The Global Witness 2025 report, which covers incidents recorded in 2024, documented 48 killings of land and environmental defenders in Colombia that year, the highest number recorded in any country for the third consecutive year. Separately, the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (INDEPAZ) recorded at least 192 peacebuilder leaders and HRDs killed in the country during the whole of 2025. Some of these cases are detailed below.

Community and water rights leader killed in Valle del Cauca

On 27th October 2025, armed men killed Guillermo Velasco, a social and campesino leader, in the sector of La Abadía farm in the rural district of Tenjo, Palmira, Valle del Cauca. According to media reports, armed men entered the property, took Velasco away and then shot him several times.

Velasco founded the Asociación Agroperpetua, through which he promoted projects supporting small-scale agricultural producers and food sovereignty. He also served as vice-president of the Socorro community aqueduct, a locally managed rural water system, where he advocated for access to community-managed water. Velasco was also an active member of the Community Action Board (JAC) of La María, a grassroots organisation through which residents address local issues, and participated in initiatives to protect the territory and preserve local cultural traditions. He had also helped promote the creation of the Agua Azul Indigenous Council (Cabildo Indígena Agua Azul), where he supported cultural recovery and efforts to protect ancestral territory.

The killing occurred amid previous official warnings about non-state armed group activity and risks facing communities and local leaders in Palmira.

Armed assailants kill community leader inside her home in Cauca

On 27th June 2025, armed assailants shot dead Angie Leandra Henao Zambrano, a community leader affiliated with the National Association of Peasant Users (ANUC), an organisation representing campesino communities, inside her home in El Silencio, Corinto, in the south-western department of Cauca.

According to ANUC, Henao’s three children were inside the house when the assailants attacked her. The killing occurred in Cauca, a region where campesino and other community leaders have repeatedly faced violence amid territorial disputes and the presence of non-state armed groups.

Councillor and disability rights advocate Juan Camilo Espinosa killed

On 16th June 2025, a gunman shot dead Juan Camilo Espinosa Vanegas, a 32-year-old councillor in San Andrés de Cuerquia, in the Antioquia Department, as he returned home through the town centre. Espinosa had won the 2023 local election with the backing of Autoridades Indígenas de Colombia (AICO), a political movement rooted in Indigenous representation and participation. Espinosa had served two terms as a municipal councillor and was recognised for his community work and advocacy on inclusion and the rights of people with disabilities. He had a permanent motor disability and used a wheelchair.

Security footage showed a gunman approach Espinosa and fire three shots at close range while several people stood nearby. Investigators later identified a second person whom they suspected of involvement in the attack and said this person had fled the area. Police apprehended a 17-year-old shortly after the killing and recovered a revolver and a motorcycle that they allegedly linked to the attack. In initial statements, police said the teenager might have links to Frente 36, a FARC dissident armed group. Authorities also said Espinosa had not previously reported threats, while investigators continued working to establish the motive for the killing.

On 27th June 2025, the 17-year-old admitted responsibility for killing Espinosa during proceedings under the juvenile justice system. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated homicide and aggravated firearms offences, and a judge ordered his preventive detention in a specialised juvenile facility. Subsequent investigations provided evidence of alleged involvement by a FARC dissident structure.

Awá Indigenous leader and two protection officers killed in Nariño

On 3rd June 2025, armed assailants killed Luis Aurelio Araujo Hernández, coordinator general and legal representative of the Cabildo Mayor Awá de Ricaurte (Camawari), an Indigenous organisation representing Awá communities in Ricaurte, in the south-western department of Nariño, in Cuaiquer Viejo, Ricaurte. Civil society reported that armed men fired at the vehicle carrying Araujo and the two protection officers (Jesús Albeiro Chávez and Jackson Solarte) before setting the vehicle and their bodies alight.

A few months earlier, on 22nd March 2025, unknown individuals had reportedly set fire to Araujo’s home, shortly after Camawari recognised him as its coordinator. Indigenous representatives also affirmed that non-state armed actors had sought to influence leadership and internal governance processes within Awá communities. Media sources have identified Los Comuneros del Sur—an ELN dissident faction engaged in national talks—as operating in the area and attempting to shape internal electoral dynamics.

The Awá people have long faced systematic violence. Colombia’s Constitutional Court has deemed them at risk of extermination, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued precautionary measures for Awá territories in Nariño and Putumayo. By mid-June 2025, four Awá leaders had been killed this year (three in Nariño, one in Putumayo).

HRD searching for disappeared relatives killed in Huila

On 31st May 2025, armed assailants shot dead Lina María Puentes Vega, a member of the search network Tras las Huellas de la Vida, in Nueva Reforma, a rural community in Baraya municipality, in the southern department of Huila. According to reports, the attack was carried out by a member of the Darío Gutiérrez substructure of the Jorge Suárez Briceño bloc, a FARC dissident armed group.

Puentes Vega served as secretary of the Nueva Reforma Community Action Board, a grassroots organisation through which residents coordinate local initiatives and represent community interests. She also defended human rights and supported efforts to find people forcibly disappeared during Colombia’s armed conflict. Through Tras las Huellas de la Vida, a network supporting the search for disappeared people, she had spent years searching for her brothers, José Oswaldo and Wilson Armando Puentes Vega. She had also publicly denounced extortion and other forms of control that armed groups imposed on local communities.

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in Colombia condemned the killing and called on the authorities to strengthen protection for civilians and rural communities. Its response highlighted the continuing risks that human rights defenders face in areas where armed groups operate and seek to exercise control.

On 30th May 2025, unidentified attackers shot dead Jorge Eliécer Rangel Quintero, an official with the Ombudsperson’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo), the national human rights institution, inside a public establishment in La Gloria, in the northern department of Cesar. Rangel had served as La Gloria’s personero municipal from 2008 to 2023, a local public official responsible for administrative oversight and the protection of residents’ rights. Since April 2024, he had worked with the Ombudsman’s Office’s Delegation for Regions and Territorial Coordination, which supports the institution’s work across Colombia’s regions.

On 1st June 2025, the Ombudsman’s Office condemned the killing and called on the authorities to investigate and identify those responsible. It also stressed that, at that stage, it had no information linking the killing to Rangel’s work with the institution. In October 2023, the Ombudsman’s Office had previously issued Early Warning 035-23 for La Gloria and neighbouring Pelaya, warning of risks linked to territorial disputes involving the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), FARC dissident factions associated with the Estado Mayor Central and other organised criminal groups.

Peacebuilder and LGBTQI+ rights defender killed in Bolívar

On 22nd May 2025, Nawar Michel Jiménez Pión, known as La Micho, a 28-year-old trans woman, LGBTQI+ rights defender and peacebuilder, was found dead near El Carmen de Bolívar, in the northern Bolívar Department, with head injuries apparently caused by a blunt object.

Jiménez participated in the collective reparation process for LGBTQI+ victims in El Carmen de Bolívar, a state-backed mechanism that seeks to address harms suffered collectively during Colombia’s armed conflict. She also served on the Territorial Peace Council, a local participatory body that supports peacebuilding, and belonged to Red Montemarianas, where she worked on memory, justice, diversity and peacebuilding initiatives across the Montes de María region, in northern Colombia.

Police opened an investigation and initially examined information about a possible personal dispute. Investigators also considered whether someone had targeted Jiménez because of her LGBTQI+ activism and community leadership. Authorities had not established a motive. Following the killing, the El Carmen de Bolívar Mayor’s Office convened a security council and offered a reward of up to 14 million Colombian pesos for information leading to those responsible.

The OHCHR in Colombia, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)—the transitional justice tribunal established under Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement—and the Victims’ Unit, the state institution responsible for assistance and reparation for victims of the armed conflict, condemned the killing. The UN urged authorities to investigate from a gender and diversity perspective and to guarantee truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition.

LGBTQI+ rights organisation Caribe Afirmativo also condemned Nawar’s death and reported that she was the 43rd LGBTQI+ person killed in Colombia in 2025 by that point in the year.

On 23rd June 2025, the OHCHR announced that funding cuts would force it to close its field offices in Medellín, Neiva and Villavicencio, which covered eight departments, and cut 46 professional posts, almost half of its workforce in the country. OHCHR warned that the reductions would limit its ability to accompany human rights defenders and Indigenous, Afro-descendant and campesino (peasant) communities; monitor abuses in areas where armed groups operate; and provide technical assistance to police to help prevent excessive use of force.

The cuts came amid a broader decline in international aid to Colombian civil society in 2025, following the US government’s January 2025 suspension of most foreign assistance while programmes were under review. For example, INDEPAZ said it had suspended activities supporting social leaders and Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino guards, community-based structures that protect their territories and populations. The Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), a peacebuilding organisation, reported that it had paused all projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), affecting researchers, regional organisations and community leaders. The Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Pares) said funding reductions had also affected its programmes on urban peacebuilding, transparency and anti-corruption in Buenaventura and Cúcuta.

The US funding cuts also affected humanitarian assistance and community programmes. On 20th May 2025, Save the Children reported that organisations had suspended almost 90 per cent of humanitarian programmes in a large settlement in La Guajira, in northern Colombia, leaving only three of 28 organisations active. Funding reductions also disrupted the work of Médicos del Mundo, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, citing World Health Organization figures, said more than 183,000 people had already lost access to assistance, with hundreds of thousands more at risk.

Civil society organisations also coordinated efforts to respond to the funding crisis. On 11th July 2025, the Foreign Ministry and APC Colombia, the country’s international cooperation agency, convened 17 organisations, including CODHES, Redprodepaz, Casa de la Mujer, CINEP, Temblores, Sisma Mujer and the Colombian Commission of Jurists, to discuss changes in international cooperation and explore alternative funding and sustainability mechanisms. Likewise, on 31st July 2025, human rights organisation Dejusticia described a deep funding crisis across the sector and called on organisations to diversify their sources of funding as international funders reduced or redirected support.

Court recognises 11 farmers in Jericó as environmental defenders after AngloGold Ashanti lawsuit over opposition to mining project

On 16th June 2025, a municipal court in Jericó, in the north-western Antioquia Department, rejected a prosecution request to place 11 campesinos and environmental defenders under house arrest while criminal proceedings continued. The court found that prosecutors had not justified preventive detention and allowed the 11 defenders to remain at liberty while the case continued.

The group, known as “Los 11 de Jericó”, has opposed a proposed copper-mining project by Minera de Cobre Quebradona, a subsidiary of AngloGold Ashanti, for several years. The defenders argue that the project threatens local water sources, agriculture and the surrounding territory.

The Attorney General’s Office charged members of the group with offences including simple kidnapping, qualified theft and personal injury over incidents that occurred during protests against the company’s exploration activities between 2022 and 2023. In December 2023, community members dismantled a drilling platform that the mining company had installed on private land. AngloGold Ashanti alleged that protesters damaged or took equipment and prevented company personnel from moving freely. The defenders disputed this account, saying they dismantled the equipment as part of a peaceful protest and intended to return it to the company or hand it over to the authorities.

The Ombudsperson’s Office and UN representatives had expressed concern about the use of criminal proceedings in connection with the social protest.

This ruling did not end the prosecution or clear the defenders of the charges. They remained subject to the criminal proceedings.

Expression

Colombian investigative journalist exiled in Spain receives new death threat after criticising government

On 22nd May 2025, Laura Ardila Arrieta, a Colombian investigative journalist and author, received a death threat on X after posting a message defending the independence of journalism from government funding. An anonymous account identified as @Silenciando666 responded with misogynistic insults and warned that she would not live past the end of the year. Ardila called on the Attorney General’s Office and the National Protection Unit (UNP), the state body responsible for protection measures for people at risk, to investigate the account and take measures to protect her. She also urged social media users to report threats and abuse targeting journalists.

Ardila had lived in Spain since August 2024, after leaving Colombia following a prolonged pattern of threats and intimidation that she linked to her investigative journalism. The threats predated her book La Costa Nostra but intensified after its publication in 2023. The book examines the political and economic power of the Char family in Barranquilla, a major city in the Caribbean coast, including its influence in business, public contracting and football.

Ardila subsequently received serious threats and said investigations had linked some of the threatening accounts to people close to the family’s political and economic circles. The UNP classified Ardila’s risk level as “extraordinary” and assigned her two bodyguards in March 2024. Ardila said, however, that the security situation prevented her from practising journalism freely, prompting her to leave Colombia several months later.

In March 2025, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) cited Ardila’s case when warning that threats and intimidation had contributed to an adverse environment for journalism in Colombia, including self-censorship, displacement and exile. The Rapporteurship stressed that states must prevent and diligently investigate threats against journalists, punish those responsible and provide adequate reparation.

Death threats against Indigenous journalist escalate after online harassment

On 20th May 2025, the Indigenous Technical Secretariat (STI) of the National Commission of Indigenous Territories (CNTI), a body that supports Indigenous participation in land and territorial policy, denounced death threats against Sandra Chindoy, an Indigenous journalist from the Kamëntšá people and presenter with RTVC, Colombia’s public media system.

The statement followed the circulation of a manipulated image showing crosses over Chindoy’s eyes and a simulated gunshot wound to her forehead, alongside a message insinuating that she would be killed. The STI described the threats as racist and discriminatory and called on the Attorney General’s Office to investigate urgently and on the UNP to provide effective protection.

On 28th May 2025, the FLIP reported that Chindoy had received multiple death threats from the same account on X since 17th May 2025. These included manipulated images depicting bullet wounds and messages referring to her funeral. FLIP said the threats marked an escalation of earlier online harassment. In September 2024, the organisation had documented over100 racist and misogynistic messages targeting Chindoy’s journalistic work, Indigenous identity and appearance. FLIP urged the authorities to investigate the repeated threats, identify those responsible and activate protection measures for Chindoy and her family.

Death threats target journalist Andrés Campuzano and his family after reporting on illegal mining

Between April and May 2025, journalist Andrés Campuzano, a member of the audiovisual outlet Cofradía para el Cambio, received two death threats after publishing reports on alleged links between the Clan del Golfo armed group and illegal mining in the Colombian departments of Chocó and Antioquia.

On 30th April, an Instagram user called Campuzano a “guerrilla member” and threatened to kill him if he mentioned the Clan del Golfo again in his videos. On 29th May, the same account extended the threats to his family, warning that they would “start with” those closest to him. The sender also sent Campuzano a video showing him with his young son, and a message suggesting that the next image would show a funeral.

FLIP stated that the case reflected a broader increase in threats against journalists’ relatives that it had documented. FLIP described the targeting of family members as an increasingly aggressive form of intimidation intended to deter journalists from reporting and disseminating information. It also recalled that states must take effective preventive measures when journalists and their families face specific risks because of their work.

Journalist attacked despite existing protection measures

On 5th July 2025, armed assailants shot and injured journalist Gustavo Chica, director of Guaviare Estéreo and correspondent for national broadcaster Caracol Radio, and his wife near their home in San José del Guaviare, the capital of Guaviare Department. Authorities later arrested two suspected perpetrators and seized a weapon that they believed was linked to the attack.

Chica had previously received threats linked to his journalistic work. At the time of the attack, the UNP was already providing him with protection measures. The Colombian Federation of Journalists (FECOLPER), a national journalists’ organisation, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the attack and called for a prompt investigation and stronger protection measures for Chica and his family. Authorities also condemned the shooting and said violence against journalists sought to silence reporting and undermine democracy.

Criminal complaint against Horacio Brieva

In June 2025, conglomerate Grupo Argos filed a criminal complaint against El Heraldo columnist Horacio Brieva Mariano for alleged libel, slander and “economic panic”, an offence under Colombian criminal law that includes disseminating false or inaccurate information capable of affecting the confidence of clients, users, investors or shareholders in certain regulated institutions or investment schemes.

Brieva had published 42 opinion columns between 2022 and May 2025 questioning alleged environmental impacts and planning decisions linked to the company’s Ciudad Mallorquín development in Puerto Colombia, in the northern department of Atlántico. His columns addressed, among other issues, the alleged deforestation of tropical dry forest and construction in an environmentally protected area.

According to the FLIP, Grupo Argos rejected Brieva’s allegations, accusing him of conducting what it described as a “systematic campaign of misinformation and unfounded attacks” that had harmed the company’s reputation and sought to influence confidence among clients, users, investors or shareholders. Environmental defender María Esther Correa, who had also publicly questioned Ciudad Mallorquín, was likewise accused of participating in the alleged campaign. FLIP said this indicated a broader pattern of attempts to silence people raising concerns about the project.

FLIP described the complaint as judicial harassment. It warned that resorting to criminal proceedings against journalists commenting on matters of public interest could intimidate critical voices, discourage public participation and have a chilling effect on reporting about possible environmental harm.

Nine army officers sanctioned for illegal surveillance of journalists in “Secret Folders” scandal

On 2nd May 2025, the Office of the Inspector General (Procuraduría General de la Nación), the state body responsible for disciplinary oversight of public officials, issued a ruling holding nine members of Army intelligence units responsible for unlawfully profiling and monitoring journalists in the case known as The Secret Folders (Las Carpetas Secretas). The officers, attached to units under Military Intelligence Brigade No. 1, were found to have deliberately exceeded their functions by ordering, coordinating or carrying out unjustified Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) activities targeting journalists, in breach of constitutional guarantees and fundamental rights.

The Inspector General suspended the officers from their duties and imposed special disqualifications from holding public office for periods ranging from three to six months. The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), a Colombian press freedom organisation, appealed the classification of the misconduct as “serious” rather than “very serious”, arguing that it failed to reflect the systemic nature of the violations, their impact on journalists’ fundamental rights and the need for proportionate sanctions. In September 2025, the Inspector General upheld the disciplinary ruling on appeal.

The disciplinary investigation followed Revista Semana’s May 2020 investigation, Las Carpetas Secretas, which revealed that Army intelligence units, including the Military Cyberintelligence Battalion, had compiled intelligence files on more than 130 people, among them at least 30 journalists. FLIP and affected journalists reported that the surveillance caused fear, panic attacks and self-censorship, led some journalists to abandon investigations and prompted at least one journalist to leave Colombia for safety. The Prosecutor General’s Office has yet to advance in the criminal investigation.

Supreme Court acquits torturer of Claudia Julieta Duque

On 7th May 2025, the Supreme Court of Justice acquitted Ronal Harbey Rivera Rodríguez, a former detective with the G-3 intelligence unit of the now-defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the former state intelligence agency. A lower court had previously convicted Rivera of aggravated psychological torture against investigative journalist Claudia Julieta Duque. The Supreme Court ruled that the evidence did not meet the standard required to establish his criminal responsibility.

In response, FLIP criticised the ruling, arguing that the Court had not adequately assessed key evidence and had applied an overly restrictive interpretation of psychological torture. It also said the decision fell short of international standards requiring accountability for serious human rights violations and risked reinforcing impunity in Duque’s case.

Constitutional Court protects journalists' right to access public information on networks

On 30th April 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled that blocking a journalist from social media accounts used by a public official to communicate information about their official activities may disproportionately restrict freedom of expression and access to public information. The case concerned journalist Ricardo Marín Rodríguez, director of the digital media outlet COLEXRET, and Indigenous congresswoman Carmen Felisa Ramírez Boscán, who had blocked Marín and his outlet on Facebook and X.

The Court held that where an elected official uses social media accounts to communicate information about their public functions and engage with constituents, those accounts may operate as public forums for information, debate and participation. It also found that some of journalist Marín’s publications amounted to violence against women in politics, including attacks based on gender and Indigenous stereotypes.

Nevertheless, the Court concluded that permanently blocking the journalist and his media outlet was disproportionate because it prevented access not only to abusive interactions but also to information and discussion concerning matters of public interest. The Court ordered the congresswoman to unblock the journalist while requiring Marín to remove the specific content found to constitute political violence against women and to refrain from comparable violations in future.

Peaceful Assembly

National strike brings mass mobilisation and clashes in Bogotá

On 28th and 29th May 2025, trade unions, teachers, students, Indigenous and campesino organisations and other social movements staged a 48-hour national strike in support of the government’s proposed popular consultation, labour reform and other social reforms. The Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), one of Colombia’s main trade union confederations, called for marches, neighbourhood actions, public assemblies and cacerolazos—protests in which participants bang pots and pans—across the country, including Cali and Medellín. By midday on 28th May, authorities had recorded at least 131 protest actions, including 36 marches, 70 gatherings and seven road blockades.

Most demonstrations remained peaceful. In Bogotá, protesters blocked several major roads and points on the TransMilenio bus rapid transit system, the capital’s main mass-transit network, including around Portal Américas, Banderas, Portal Suba, Portal 80, the National University and Usme. The blockades forced authorities to close some stations temporarily and divert routes.

Clashes broke out in the Bogotá districts of Kennedy, Suba and Usme after largely peaceful demonstrations earlier in the day. Groups of masked individuals reportedly threw stones and other objects at officers from the National Unit for Dialogue and Maintenance of Order (UNDMO), the specialised police unit that manages demonstrations and public order situations. Police used tear gas, stun devices and water cannon in some areas while dispersing those involved and reopening roads. Bogotá authorities also reported damage to TransMilenio infrastructure and buses, rubbish containers and a commercial establishment.

On 29th May 2025, Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán announced that city authorities would file a criminal complaint against Fabio Arias, president of CUT, over comments he made about TransMilenio blockades during the national strike.Galán said Arias’s remarks indicated that protesters had included blockades of TransMilenio in their strike strategy and argued that the disruption had affected residents who were not participating in the demonstrations. The following day, TransMilenio filed the complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, asking prosecutors to investigate whether Arias bore criminal responsibility for disruption and damage linked to the blockades.

In response, on 13th June 2025, Bogotá councillor Heidy Sánchez Barreto and the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar) asked the IACHR to call on the Colombian state to guarantee the freedom of peaceful assembly and to address the complaint against Arias.

Trade unions mobilise nationwide in support of labour reform

On 11th June 2025, trade unions and social movements held another national day of mobilisation in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Pereira and other cities in support of the government’s proposed popular consultation, labour rights and broader social reform agenda. One day earlier, the Ministry of Labour reiterated that workers had the right to participate in protests without facing labour reprisals, salary deductions or disciplinary sanctions.

Cali became one of the main centres of the mobilisation. Around 1,000 Indigenous people arrived in the city as part of a minga, a form of collective Indigenous mobilisation used to advance political and social demands. They joined trade union, campesino, student, women’s, youth and ethnic organisations at Plaza de San Francisco. President Gustavo Petro attended the gathering and addressed protesters, defending stronger labour protections and the proposed consultation.

The mobilisation coincided with the final congressional debate on the government’s labour reform, which the Senate was still considering and later approved on 17th June 2025. The demonstrations also took place amid an institutional dispute over the proposed popular consultation as a mechanism to put a series of labour and social policy questions directly to voters, after the government faced difficulties advancing parts of its reform agenda through Congress.