Wednesday, 17 December 2025
ABColombia, the joint advocacy project of Christian Aid, CAFOD, SCIAF, Oxfam Colombia and Trócaire, joins with our Colombian partners José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar), the Centre for Research and Popular Education (Cinep), and Censat Agua Viva – Friends of the Earth Colombia in denouncing and expressing grave concern regarding the attempt made on the life of Misael Socarrás Ipuana, renowned defender of the Wayuu Indigenous Peoples’, human, environmental, and territorial rights.
On 12 December 2025, in the urban centre of the municipality of Maicao, La Guajira, Colombia, unidentified individuals on a motorcycle fired shots at the vehicle in which Wayuu leader Misael Socarrás Ipuana was traveling. His life was saved by one of his security personnel placing himself between the attackers and Misael Socarrás Ipuana. The security person was seriously injured. This attempt on the life of Misael Socarrás Ipuana follows a visit by a delegation of the diplomatic community, which included the United Nations and the Irish Embassy, the week before this attack.
Misael Socarrás Ipuana has been denouncing for the last 20 years the environmental consequences and other impacts of the Multinational Glencore’s, Carbones del Cerrejón Limited (Cerrejón) coal-mine, the largest open-pit coal mine in Latin America, that displaced some of the Wayuu Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian communities. These impacts have been widely documented and recognised in Colombian Court rulings, including Ruling SU-698 of 2017i on the Arroyo Bruno, in which Misael Socarrás Ipuana is a plaintiff. The Constitutional Court in this ruling upheld the communities’ rights determining that there were several technical uncertainties that threaten the rights to water, food, and the health of communities. Some of these impacts were raised by the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd and seven other UN Special Rapporteurs ii.
Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for human rights defenders with 180 human rights defenders killed in the first eleven months of 2025.
Recommendations to the UK and Ireland to call on the:
The Attorney General’s Office
· To make this crime a priority for investigation so that the facts are immediately clarified, those materially and intellectually responsible are identified and brought to justice;
- that the case is transferred to the Unidad Especial de Investigación (Special Investigations Unit) to ensure it receives special treatment;
- ensure that there is a free, thorough and rapid investigation with a human rights focus
The National Protection Unit
- Request an immediate review, strengthen and make appropriate adjustments to the protection measures, to guarantee the life, integrity, and safety of Luis Misael Socarrás, his family, the members of the indigenous reserve, and other human rights and environmental defenders and organisations that accompany them.
We also call on the United Nations Office of Human Rights in Colombia and the Security Council Mission of Verification in Colombia to activate international observation and monitoring mechanisms, including a presence on the ground and documentation of the case, to prevent further attacks and raise international awareness about the situation of the Wayuu people.
i Derecho a La Salud, al Agua y a La Seguridad Alimentaria De Comunidades Indígenas Sentencia SU698-17_Cerrejon 28nov2017 decision.pdf ii UN expert calls for halt to mining at controversial Colombia site, 28 Sept 2020 www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/09/un-expert-c