• Human Rights Defenders

Gustavo Gallón, human rights defender and Colombian ambassador in Geneva, dies. Colombian human rights lawyer, academic and diplomat Gustavo Gallón, who served as Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva since 2022, has died in Switzerland after a period of serious illness. Widely regarded as one of Colombia’s foremost human rights defenders, Gallón founded the Colombian Commission of Jurists in 1988 and spent more than three decades representing victims of human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed during the armed conflict. He played a leading role in documenting paramilitary crimes, pursuing accountability in emblematic cases such as the assassination of journalist Jaime Garzón, and served as a UN human rights expert on Haiti and Equatorial Guinea. His death prompted tributes from across Colombia’s political and human rights communities.

Gulf Clan Threats to Journalist: Government Transfers Case to Verification Mechanism. Colombia’s Peace Counsellor’s Office (Consejería Comisionada de Paz) has referred threats made by the Clan del Golfo against Medellín-based journalist Norbey Valle David to the Tripartite Monitoring, Follow-up and Verification Mechanism, which includes representatives of the government, the MAPP/OAS and the armed group as part of the ongoing peace process. The case stems from a public statement issued by the Clan del Golfo accusing Valle of publishing false reports about the organisation’s activities in Antioquia, a move widely condemned by press freedom and human rights organisations as an act of intimidation against the media.

• Conflict, Victims and Peace Talks

Is Alias Marlon alive? The Ministry of Defense confirmed that authorities verify the authenticity of the video where the guerrilla leader appears. Colombia’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is verifying the authenticity of a video that appears to show Iván Jacob Idrobo Arredondo, alias ‘Marlon’, a senior commander of the Jaime Martínez Front within the EMC, alive despite government announcements that he had been killed during a military operation near Buenaventura on 20 June. Defence Minister Pedro Sánchez stressed that the government had never definitively confirmed Marlon’s death because troops were unable to recover his body, meaning there was no forensic identification to verify intelligence reports from the operation. The newly emerged video, in which the guerrilla leader appears to refer to events that occurred after the alleged strike, has prompted military intelligence to examine whether it is genuine and when it was recorded.

Clan del Golfo responds to De la Espriella’s ultimatum and asks for guarantees for his submission. The Clan del Golfo has responded to Colombian president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella after he gave the group one month to submit to justice or face an intensified military offensive. In a public letter, the organisation said it remained willing to pursue a negotiated process but argued that the key issue was not whether it would submit to justice, but under what legal and security guarantees such a process would take place. The group maintained that existing legislation is inadequate for the demobilisation of an organisation of its size and called for a bespoke legal framework that includes guarantees on truth, reparations, non-repetition and judicial certainty. It also invited international actors, including the United States and the United Kingdom, to participate as observers or guarantors in any future process.

One soldier was killed and four were injured by an ELN drone attack in Catatumbo. A soldier was killed and four others wounded in an alleged ELN drone attack in the Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander. The Colombian Army said troops were conducting security operations near El Tarra when they were targeted by drones carrying explosives. The soldier who died was identified as José Mariano Dumaza Conchave, from Alto Baudó in Chocó, who had served in the Army for nine years. The four injured soldiers were evacuated by military aircraft to Cúcuta for specialist treatment.

Maicao on alert for expansion of the Conquering Self-Defense Forces and war with ELN and dissidents. Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) has issued an urgent warning over the expansion of the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN) into Maicao and other parts of La Guajira, raising fears of a new escalation in violence involving the ACSN, the ELN and FARC dissident groups. According to the Defensoría, the ACSN are seeking to consolidate control over strategic smuggling and drug-trafficking corridors stretching across the Colombia–Venezuela border, prompting territorial disputes that could trigger clashes, targeted killings, forced displacement, extortion, recruitment of minors and restrictions on civilian movement. Indigenous Wayúu communities are considered particularly vulnerable. The alert also underlines the limited progress made in the government’s negotiations with the ACSN under former President Petro’s Total Peace policy, despite the group formally participating in the process.

The anti-drone shield: a “hot potato” that the new government will inherit. Colombia’s incoming government will inherit a controversial and unfinished National Anti-Drone Shield (Escudo Nacional Antidrones) programme intended to counter the rapid increase in explosive drone attacks by armed groups. According to El Colombiano, attacks on the security forces rose from 61 to 333 in the space of a year, exposing the military’s technological vulnerability and driving plans for a system expected to cost around COP 6.3 trillion, with an initial investment of approximately COP 800 billion. However, the procurement process has been dogged by delays, repeated changes to the technical specifications and scrutiny over overseas trips by Ministry of Defence officials to countries including Qatar, Türkiye and India. With the project still unresolved, it is now likely to fall to the incoming administration of Abelardo de la Espriella to decide whether and how to proceed with one of Colombia’s largest defence modernisation programmes.

Peasant Beneficiaries of Land Restitution Denounce Threats and Physical Retaliation. Beneficiaries of Colombia’s land restitution programme have reported a growing wave of threats and violent reprisals, raising concerns over the security of rural communities receiving land under the 2016 Peace Agreement’s rural reform provisions. The latest incident occurred in Puerto López, Meta, where seven armed assailants tortured five members of a farming family, including a 14-year-old girl and a 72-year-old woman, for more than seven hours, demanding that they abandon land they had received only two months earlier through the National Land Agency (ANT). The attackers accused the family of occupying land belonging to another claimant, destroyed their belongings and burned vehicles before leaving them seriously injured. Similar threats have recently been reported against land reform beneficiaries in Tuluá, Valle del Cauca, and Córdoba, where armed groups have sought to intimidate newly settled farming communities.

Ombudsman’s Office reports 51 cases of forced recruitment of minors between January and May 2026. Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) has reported 51 verified cases of the forced recruitment of children by illegal armed groups between 1 January and 31 May 2026, warning that the true figure is likely to be significantly higher due to under-reporting in conflict-affected areas. Norte de Santander (15 cases), Cauca (14) and Antioquia (4) recorded the highest numbers, while 65% of victims were boys and adolescent males. The Defensoría attributed the largest share of cases jointly to the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) FARC dissident group and the ELN, each accounting for 23.5% of reported recruitments, followed by the Estado Mayor de los Bloques y Frentes (EMBF) with 21.6%.

• Business, Human Rights, Environment and Indigenous peoples

Institutional threat’: election of far-right leader raises fears for democracy in Colombia. Colombian civil society, opposition figures and human rights organisations following the election of right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella as president, have argued that his rhetoric and governing style resemble that of Donald Trump and other populist leaders. Critics fear that De la Espriella’s promises to dismantle key elements of Gustavo Petro’s reform agenda, expand military operations against armed groups, challenge judicial institutions and confront the political opposition could weaken democratic checks and balances and reverse progress on human rights and the 2016 Peace Agreement.

Visit to Colombia: Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, following its visit to Colombia in July–August 2024, concluded that although the government has made important progress in aligning with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and strengthening constitutional protections, significant structural problems continue to expose communities to business-related human rights abuses. The report found that Colombia’s prevailing economic model, centred on large-scale extractive, agricultural and energy projects, has disproportionately affected Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and campesino communities through land conflicts, environmental damage and social exclusion. It also highlighted persistent violence, threats and stigmatisation against human rights and environmental defenders, particularly those opposing major business projects, alongside the continued influence of non-state armed groups, which heightens risks for affected communities.

• Women and Gender Based Violence

British man arrested after woman’s body found in suitcase in Colombia. A British man, 46-year-old Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith from Bournemouth, has been arrested in Ecuador in connection with the death of Colombian model and influencer Natalia Villalba, whose body was discovered inside a suitcase in a short-term rental apartment in Bogotá’s Chicó district. Colombian prosecutors allege that Foster-Smith ass aulted and killed the 36-year-old on 18 June, concealed her body in a suitcase and fled the country. Before his arrest, he reportedly told The Sun that he could not have been responsible because he was watching England’s World Cup match against Croatia in an Irish bar, although authorities noted the match took place the previous day. Following an arrest warrant and an Interpol Red Notice, Foster-Smith was detained at Quito International Airport with assistance from Colombian, Ecuadorian and British authorities, including Dorset Police.

• Civil Society and Protests

Petro’s government reconciles with the UN: publishes the 2024 report on illicit crops. After more than a year of disputes between the Colombian government and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the two sides have reached an agreement allowing publication of the long-delayed 2024 report on illicit coca cultivation. The report found that coca cultivation increased by 3.5% to 261,000 hectares in 2024, the smallest annual rise in four years, but, for the first time, omitted an estimate of Colombia’s potential cocaine production, a key concession sought by President Petro, who had argued that the UN’s methodology significantly overstated output. Instead, the government and UNODC agreed to revise the monitoring methodology and develop new indicators, including measures of “available cocaine” and “prevented cocaine”.

Cepeda demands De la Espriella renounce U.S. citizenship, under threat of “peaceful civil disobedience”. Colombian senator and former presidential candidate Iván Cepeda has warned that he will launch a campaign of “peaceful civil disobedience” unless president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella renounces hisUS citizenship before taking office on 7 August. In a public statement, Cepeda argued that De la Espriella’s dual nationality creates an unacceptable conflict of loyalty and claimed his inauguration would be “illegal and illegitimate” if he retains his American citizenship. He also demanded that the president-elect clarify any past links with US security agencies, guarantee respect for Colombia’s sovereignty and judicial independence, and abandon any plans to pursue the extradition of outgoing president Gustavo Petro. Cepeda said that if these conditions are not met, he will call on his supporters to disregard the authority of the incoming government through peaceful civil disobedience.

• International and Domestic Politics

Laura Sarabia Resigns as Colombia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Laura Sarabia, Colombia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and a close ally of outgoing President Petro, has resigned from her diplomatic post, with her departure due to take effect on 7 August, the day president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella assumes office. In a resignation letter dated 29 June, Sarabia said her decision was made in line with the constitutional change of government and thanked Petro for the opportunity to represent Colombia in London. She will remain in post until the transfer of power, after which the incoming administration is expected to appoint a new ambassador.