COLOMBIA: Surge in killings of social leaders

Colombia saw a surge in killings of environmental defenders, Indigenous leaders, trade unionists and community leaders in 2020 as rival groups tussled violently to claim territory previously controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and now seen as up for grabs following the 2016 peace deal between FARC and the government of Colombia, which the government has largely failed to implement. The statistics are staggering. According to one report, in 2020 there were 90 massacres with 383 victims, and a further 310 social leaders and 64 ex-combatants murdered. Some 53 per cent of all cases of killings of human rights defenders worldwide in 2020, as documented by Front Line Defenders, were in Colombia.