Several regions of Colombia continued to experience high levels of violence throughout February, as indigenous activists, community leaders and former guerrillas, among others, in the peace process came under attack. Fighting also forced many people to abandon their communities and prevented others from leaving their homes, leaving all at severe risk of harm.
The first two months of 2025 saw 27 social activists and 11 former FARC members killed. Ongoing instability threatens the wellbeing of many others.
Here is JFC’s monthly update for February 2025 on the human rights situation in Colombia.
N.B. This article does not provide a definitive list of all human rights violations committed in Colombia. Various others are likely to have been committed during the period.
2 February – Awá indigenous youth leader James Tomás Guanga Quelal was killed in Ricaurte in the southern Nariño department. He belonged to the local Association of Traditional Awá Indigenous Authorities (CAMAWARI). Armed assailants attacked James Tomás as he travelled through Ricaurte with his partner, who was injured. Several armed groups are active in Nariño due to its strategic importance for illicit economies.
2 February – Colombia’s National Ombudsman issued an alert over fighting in the municipalities of Pradera and Florida, Valle del Cauca department, with both urban and rural zones affected. The state institution warned that those at risk included ‘peasant communities, Nasa indigenous people, social leaders and human rights defenders, signatories to the peace agreement [former FARC guerrillas], their families and political organisations, women, children and adolescents.’ Recent clashes between armed groups have led to a rise in killings, forced displacements and threats, with young people vulnerable to forced recruitment. The Ombudsman also highlighted eight indigenous communities at particular risk, Kwet Wala and Kwet Le’cxkwe in Pradera, and Nasa Kwe’sx Kiwe, Kwe’sx YuKiwe, Triunfo Cristal Páez, Nasa Tha, San Juan Páez and Kwe’sx TaTa Kiwe in Florida. It called for an urgent inter-institutional state response to address the crisis.
3 February – Community leader Didier de Armas Sierra was murdered in the city of Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. He was a former council member for the district of Ciudadela 29 de Julio and had worked in municipal housing projects.
6 February – Social activist Jhon Alberto Plaza was murdered in San Andrés de Tumaco, Nariño department, where he was a well-known promoter of cultural and sports activities organised through the JAC community council or the Candelillas district.
6 February – Community leader Robinson Loaiza López was killed in Santa Rosa del Sur, department of Bolívar, where he was president of the JAC community council for the district of El Golfo. Reports said he was attacked on a bridge as he returned home from working in a nearby mine.
7 February – Social organisations warned that an escalation in armed confrontation between rival groups had placed African-Colombian communities at major risk in several municipalities in the department of Chocó, as well as the port city of Buenaventura in neighbouring Valle del Cauca. According to the General Community Council of San Juan (ACADESAN), the threat level was particularly high in the communities of Puerto Murillo and Fujiadó, where they had been mass displacements of local residents, and in the municipality of Sipí. ACEDESAN called on authorities to ‘adopt urgent measures of prevention and protection’ against mass displacement, confinement, armed conflict in civilian zones, threats, killings, forced displacements and other violations. It also called for boats to be provided so that river-based communities can attend to residents in need of medical attention and other essential services.
7 February – Teacher trade unionist Jorge Enrique Cano Jaramillo was murdered in Santo Domingo, Antioquia, while on his way to work. He belonged to the ADIDA Antioquia Teacher Union, an affiliate of the main FECODE federation which has close relations with several British unions including the NEU, NASUWT and EIS. 49-year-old Jorge Enrique had taught for over 40 years at the Roberto López Rural Education Institute, where students held a protest against his killing. Jorge Enrique’s wife is a town councillor in Cisneros. Teacher trade unionists face alarming levels of violence, with at least six killed in 2024 alone. Already in 2025, Antioquia has seen high violence towards teachers, including the murder of Daniel Esteban Raigoza in Turbo on 10 January and an attack five days later on Geiver Nair Palacio and Carlos Sarmiento in Fredonia.
9 February – Indigenous leader Leonairo Samir Montero Paz was killed in Puerto Asís, Putumayo department. He was governor of the Kwe’sx Tata Wala council. Putumayo has seen an expansion of armed groups in recent months.
10 February – Another indigenous activist Alberto Quitumbo Yatacue, 41 years old, was killed in Toribío, department of Cauca. He was a member of the Indigenous Guard, an unarmed volunteer group that provides security for local communities. He had previously received threats over his organising activities. Alberto’s murder came the day after an attack in the same zone had injured two people, one of whom was a ten-year-old child.
12 February – At least 32 Wounaan indigenous families were forcibly confined to their homes by armed group activity in the Santa Rosa de Guayacán reservation in Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca. The situation was preventing them reaching essential services such as healthcare, food and education, with a high threat of violence due to the presence of rival groups. The Justice and Peace Commission (CJP), a human rights group that has long collaborated with JFC, warned that dead bodies had been seen in the River Calima and that a number of young people had been forcibly recruited. Community leaders had also received threats. The CJP called on authorities to urgently ensure delivery of food and medicine, and to establish a state presence in the area.
12 February – The year’s tenth killing of a former FARC guerrilla in the peace process was committed in Corinto, Cauca. Jhon Mario Chantre Banguero was attacked in the evening while visiting a family member. He was a member of Corinto Agro-Ambiental Collective, established by former guerrillas to earn incomes following the signing of the 2016 agreement. The ten deaths already in 2025 is a sharp increase on the rate of killings in 2025, when 33 such cases were recorded throughout the whole year.
13 February – A group of armed men entered a community of former FARC members in San Francisco, Antioquia, where they threatened residents and cut off communications including internet coverage. The former guerrillas had established a New Area of Reincorporation (NAR), the name given to residential areas created by those in the peace process but which are not formal components of the agreement. The incursion had generated high levels of concern among those affected, according to human rights groups.
16 February – Colombia’s tenth massacre of 2025 claimed three lives in Jamundí, Valle del Cauca. Several other people were injured in an attack carried out inside a public establishment.
18 February – The recent escalation in fighting between armed groups in Chocó had forced around 3,500 people from their homes, according to human rights groups. INDEPAZ urged the groups to respect civilian life, while making clear the need for a greater civilian state presence, social investment and security measures to protect local communities. Another human rights group, the Pacific Route for Women, said that ‘homes and territory should be safe environments where [residents] are not denied basic rights such as the right to life, a dignified life, freedom, education, work, equal opportunities’.
18 February – Indigenous activist Jacinto Chocue was killed in Paéz, Cauca. He was a traditional authority and medicinal practitioner of ethnic Nasa heritage who resided in the San Vicente de Togoima community.
19 February – Armed assailants attacked a medical post in the town of El Plateado, Cauca.
20 February – Former FARC guerrilla Hernán Amaya Velásquez was murdered in Cumaribo, department of Vichada. He played an active role in standing up for the rights of rural communities and in promoting agrarian reform programmes. It is the 11th murder of a former FARC member since the start of 2025.
20 February – Indigenous leader Alex Lulico Fernández was unharmed after armed assailants fired gunshots at his vehicle on the main road connecting the cities of Cali and Buenventura, Valle del Cauca. He is a member of the Cañón del Río Pepitas Indigenous Council. The National Protection Unit, which provides Alex’s security detail, said its bodyguards had taken evasive action to avoid a worse situation.
23 February – Social activist Luis Alirio Delgadillo Muñoz was killed in Algeciras, Huila, where he was JAC community council president for the district of Ciudad Barranquilla. Armed assailants attacked Luis Alirio outside his home and he died in hospital soon afterwards.
24 February – In Morales, Cauca, a motorbike packed with explosives detonated in the town centre, close to a school as children were leaving to go home. At least five children were among the 20 people injured. Authorities implemented a curfew in response, with people confined to their homes at night, public establishments closed and the sale of alcohol prohibited.
26 February – The Links of Dignity Foundation, a human rights organisation, denounced a raid conducted by the army and state officials on a property in the formal transition zone Pondores in La Guajira department, where a number of former FARC members are based under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement. It said the officials had impeded residents form properly reviewing the warrant and that soldiers had intimidated them. FLD has worked closely with JFC for a number of years.
27 February – Community activist Lucero Velásquez was murdered in Herveo, department of Tolima, where she was a spokesperson for local interests and organisations. She was attacked inside her home, with her son and husband both injured in the incident.
28 February – Comunes party official José Díaz Castillo was murdered in the city of Santa Marta. He was a councillor for Comunes, the party founded by former FARC guerrillas under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement, in the department of Magdalena, where Santa Marta is situated.