Violence continued to impact several regions of Colombia during the month of July, with Antioquia and Cauca particularly affected. Several social activists were killed, as well as at least two former FARC members in the peace process. The figure of massacres committed in 2024 reached more than 40. The ongoing crisis demonstrates the urgent need to advance peacebuilding strategies, such as the Total Peace policy of seeking dialogue with armed groups, in order to curtail the violence.
Here is JFC’s monthly update for July 2024 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.
1 July – Social activist Yeri Gaitán was murdered in Jamundí, Valle del Cauca. He campaigned for increased security for local residents facing armed groups in the area. He was also president of the JAC community council in the district of Villa Colombia. Reports said that members of an armed group abducted him from his home, taking him to a nearby football pitch where they killed him. Yeri is the 89th social activist murdered in 2024.
3 July – Cauca-based social organisation the Network for Life and Human Rights denounced the abduction of a young indigenous man, Yiner Quiguantar, by members of an armed group in the municipality of Paéz. He was released after Indigenous Guards approached the group to demand they set him free. It came days after the 28 June murder of another young indigenous activist and educator, Eyber Danilo Poto, by the same group, which had abducted him on 22 June.
7 July – Social leader Luis Fernando Tous Drago was murdered as he rode his motorbike through the town of Caucasia, Antioquia. Police subsequently arrested two suspects. Luis Fernando had been involved in the occupation of a large plot of land where 5,000 families are now campaigning for decent housing.
12 July – Human rights groups, including the ACIVA indigenous association of Valle del Cauca’s Pacific region, warned that three days of fighting between the military and an armed group close to the indigenous Eperara Siapidara reservation in the Buenaventura municipality had forced residents to abandon their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. They had been left unable to move freely or to carry out essential daily activities such as work or schooling, with the situation provoking severe stress among the community, particularly children. ACIVA called on authorities to take urgent action to safeguard the affected population.
15 July – In Silvia, department of Cauca, indigenous groups warned that the Kisgo community was at grave risk from armed groups that were encroaching on community territory and preventing residents from working, moving freely or performing vital daily activities.
15 July – Community activist Dideison Espinosa was killed in Cisneros, Antioquia. He represented young people on the municipal council of Briceño, where he had stood as a political candidate in last October’s local elections. He is the 90th social leader murdered in 2024.
15 July – Armed assailants killed three men at a farm in Amalfi, Antioquia, with reports saying that they opened fire indiscriminately at the occupants. Two of the victims were named as Leonel Álvarez López, who was 61, and Luis Amaya Bedoya, 41.
18 July – Cultural leader and teacher Armando Rivero Manjarrés was found murdered in Sampués, Sucre, five days after he was reported missing. He worked in the local council’s cultural department and was on the committee for the renowned Ovejas-Sucre National Festival of Gaitas. He also taught at the Gavaldá de Guaranda education institute. An alarming number of teachers have been killed in recent months: Armando is at least the fifth since March.
19 July – Colombia’s 39th massacre of 2024 claimed the lives of two men and one woman in Titiribí, Antioquia. Two of the victims were identified as 42-year-old Aida Marcela Echavarria and 59-year-old José Velásquez Molina, while the third victim was 32 years old.
19 July – A member of the Comunes political party, which was founded by former FARC members under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement, was unhurt after an attack in the Teusaquillo district of Bogota. Unidentified assailants threw an explosive device at the vehicle transporting Gabriel Ángel, a former FARC guerrilla. The attack came just hours after a JFC delegation met with Comunes officials at the party’s nearby offices, with the party emphasising that the incident so close to the centre of the capital demonstrated the increasing reach of armed groups.
20 July – Human rights defender Rubén Antonio Jaramillo was killed in Sonsón, Antioquia. He was a co-founder of the Network of Social and Peasant Organisations of North Antioquia, as well as the same region’s Association of Small Miners based in the municipalities of San Andrés de Cuerquía and San José de la Montaña. Following threats in 2019, Rubén received state security measures and left his home in El Peñol to relocate to San Andrés de Cuerquía.
21 July – High levels of violence in Antioquia continued with the killing of three males aged between 17 and 31 in the district of Cocorná. Two of them were named as Juan Lisandro Agudelo and Joán Castaño Mejía. It is the 40th massacre of 2024.
21 July – Social leader María Reina Gómez was murdered in Bolívar, Cauca, where she practiced traditional forms of medicine and was well-known for her community activism. The 63-year-old was attacked inside her home.
21 July – The day’s second massacre, and the 41st of the year, claimed five lives in Hobo, department of Huila. According to reports, an initial attack killed three people, including Hernando Vela Bautista and his nephew Eliecer Bautista. Two more men were subsequently killed nearby. Several armed groups are active in the zone.
25 July – Former FARC guerrilla Emilio Campo Dagua was killed in Corinto, Cauca. He was attacked inside his home at around 10.45pm. Emilio is the 16th former guerrilla in the peace process to be murdered in 2024.
28 July – Three days after the murder of Emilio Campo Dagua, another former FARC member, Juan Evelio Rivera Canas, was also killed in Cauca. He was based at the former transitional zone Monterredondo and had recently requested security measures due to threats he was facing. He was attacked in the Toribío zone.
29 July – Less than 24 hours after the murder of Juan Evelio Rivera Canas in Toribío, Cauca, an armed group – believed to be the same one responsible for Juan’s death – attacked an indigenous community in the same zone, killing one person.
29 July – Human rights defenders warned that at last 2,800 people, forming around 900 families, had been forcibly confined for three days under orders by the dominant armed group in the zone of Timbiquí, Cauca. All community activity was prohibited and people were not permitted to leave their homes, drastically impeding their access to healthcare, food and other vital services.
31 July – Embera indigenous activist Jhon Jairo Forastero was killed in the regional capital of Chocó department, Quibdó. He lived in the city but was originally from the Alto Baudó azone of Chocó. Armed assailants raided Jhon Jairo’s home and killed him in front of another social leader, Silvio Machuca, and an eight-year-old child.