2016 ‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 202121165Community leadership
371 (29%)
Human rights, legal, political
164 (13%)
Coca eradication
106 (8%)Number of assassinations* Victims, by social cause†
Farming rights
418 (33%)Indigenous/Afro-ColombianTotal 830Others
298 310
279
207Total 450100 km100 miLA GAITANATIERRADENTROAMAZON
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AMERICACOLOMBIAcoast, thousands of humpback whales make
annual migrations to Colombia’s nutrient-rich
waters, and slender waterfalls pour from volcanic
outcrops onto black-sand beaches. Here, Afro-
Colombian and Indigenous Emberá and Wou-
naan people know their way through labyrinths
of mangroves and mountains, and are preserving
traditions rooted in generations of ancestors.
Biologists have explored new corners of the
country, discovering unknown species and pro-
tecting endangered ones. Annual international
tourist arrivals rose by more than one million
people from 2016 through 2019.
At the same time, the free-for-all passage of
loggers, ranchers, and gold miners has fueled
deforestation, and cultivation of coca—the key
ingredient for cocaine—reached an all-time high
in 2018, according to the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime. Large development projects—such as Los
Besotes dam in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
mountains and fracking explorations along the
Magdalena River—threaten to flood land, con-
taminate water, and displace communities and
species that depend on both.
Authorities have failed to rein in those who
put profits over protection of resources. There’sIN THE CROSSHAIRS
A 2016 peace accord with rebels was meant to
end bloodshed and open opportunities in former
conflict zones. But criminals and elites have
exploited resources, hoarded profits, and threat-
ened community leaders who challenged them.
By mid-December, 1,280 activists had been killed.MOST AT RISK: INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Killings of activists fell in 2021, partly due to better organi-
zation within civilian defense groups and disarray in cartels
and militias. Indigenous activists and Afro-Colombian land
defenders are disproportionately targeted.Seventy percent of victims
were in rural farming areas
and mountain regions.
The killers are often linked
to drug cartels trying to
control coca cultivation
and trafficking routes.- FROM THE NOV. 24, 2016, PEACE DEAL THROUGH DEC. 19, 2021
† THE FOUR SOCIAL CAUSES WITH THE MOST VICTIMS ARE SHOWN. OF
1,280 FATALITIES, 323 WERE ACTIVISTS ON MORE THAN ONE ISSUE.
evidence of widespread corruption among
regional authorities who’ve turned a blind eye
to deforestation, mining, and wildlife traffick-
ing that benefit elites. Politicians at the highest
levels, including the ruling Centro Democrático
party, have been linked to violent paramilitary
groups that are implicated in many killings. The
paras, as they’re known, arose in the 1970s and
’80s when wealthy landowners, drug traffickers,
and corporate interests funded private armies to
eliminate leftists.
The failure of the state to establish a strong
presence in former conflict zones has allowed
criminal groups to flourish, fighting over natural
resources, smuggling corridors, and ports where
they can move illicit goods.
Activists are fighting back—and paying with
their lives.
Those targeted include Indigenous leaders,
teachers, scientists, conservationists, farmers
trying to replace coca with legal crops, femi-
nists, and advocates for the 2016 peace accord.
Juana Perea Plata was the 50-year-old owner of
an ecolodge, who mobilized opposition to an
industrial port near her home in Chocó Depart-
ment on the Pacific coast. She was murdered inCHRISTINE FELLENZ AND MONICA SERRANO, NGM STAFF; ERIKA NUNEZ. SOURCES: INDEPAZ; GREEN MARBLE