Colombia

Murders of Colombian grassroots activists are increasing at an alarming rate. The killers seek to sabotage the country’s 2016 peace agreement and the rural economic reform it promised. Bogotá should step up prosecution of these crimes while pushing to improve social conditions in the countryside.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia and related reporting requirements until 25 September 2021.

Paramilitary groups continued to pose by far the biggest threat to Colombia’s community leaders and human rights defenders last year, according to a newly released report.

Almost as many children are estimated to have joined armed groups in Colombia in the first half of this year as in the whole of 2019, as the economic and social fallout of the coronavirus pandemic provides fertile ground for recruiters amid a resurgence of violence and conflict.

At least 17 people were killed in three attacks across Colombia in regions contested by criminal groups, drug traffickers, and dissidents of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.

The United Nations’ mission in Colombia urged the government to comply with a peace deal with demobilized FARC guerrillas, claiming there have been 33 massacres so far this year. The UN mission specifically urged the administration of President Ivan Duque to speed up its cooperation with the so-called National Commission for Security Guarantees.

Colombia’s most powerful politician is now under house arrest, drawing the country back into the pitched political battle it had been trying to overcome for years.

One of Colombia's most controversial political leaders faces charges of fraud and bribery. Alvaro Uribe also stands accused of being a founding member of a paramilitary group and could face up to 8 years in prison.