Colombia sees record number of killings of social leaders and rights defenders 

Almost 200 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed so far this year in Colombia, marking the highest number ever recorded, the country’s human rights ombudsman said on Wednesday. 

The 199 murders recorded in the first eleven months of the year are higher than the number of human rights defenders and social leaders killed in the two previous years. According to the Ombudsman, 145 people were killed in 2021 and 182 in 2020. 

At least 66 individuals have been killed since President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftist leader, assumed power in August. 

"It's an alarming and unprecedented figure, the highest since 2016 when we started keeping records," said ombudsman Carlos Camargo.

"There's a correlation between the increase in the killings of social leaders and human rights defenders with the increase in illicit crops in different territories and operations by illegal armed groups that dispute territorial control of drug trafficking routes," Camargo added.

Most of the murders have been tied to illegal armed groups in regions that are involved with the drug trade. 

According to the Ombudsman’s office, the provinces of Narino, Cauca, Putumayo, Antioquia, and Arauca have seen the most violence against social leaders and human rights defenders. 

Colombia has recently restarted peace negotiations with the leftist guerilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela in an attempt to put an end to a decades-long war. 

In a joint declaration, the two parties said they wanted “build peace based on a democracy with justice” by restarting the dialogue “with full political and ethical will, as demanded by the people of rural and urban territories that suffer from violence and exclusion, and other sectors of society.”