The International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia

Day: 11 April 2025

Solidarity with Those Fighting for Peace and Coexistence in Buenaventura.

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We strongly condemn the wave of violence that overtook the port city of Buenaventura on the weekend of March 29. Five youths were killed in a series of settling of accounts perpetrated by the urban illegal groups, the Shottas and Espartanos. Since the start of 2025, 50 persons have been murdered, many of them youth. Along with the violence comes curfews imposed by the armed groups, extortion, and the fear of being harmed. This has paralyzed the city’s economic and social life. Stores and schools are closed, and people are shut inside their homes.

It is particularly alarming that violence persists despite the existence of a social-legal table aimed at negotiating the dismantling of the warring Shottas and Espartanos. These two groups have approximately 1,700 members. This negotiation table between the national government and illegal armed groups was established in July 2023. Before this, a truce was brokered that reduced homicides between the groups but failed to stop all violations and criminal activities. On March 13, an important agreement was signed in which the illegal armed groups committed to ceasing the recruitment of minors into their ranks.

While essential, the socio-legal process lacks a framework for dismantlement that would provide adequate legal protections for the negotiating parties. The humanitarian and other assistance allowing actors to cease their illicit activities for survival is insufficient. The structural causes of the problem that incentivize young people to join illegal groups and engage in criminal activity remain intact. It is structural racism, classism, extreme poverty, and a lack of opportunities that drive youngsters to join these groups. The 2017 civic strike agreements and the Special Comprehensive Plan for the Development of Buenaventura 2040 were developed to address these inequities.

On March 31, 23 women’s organizations said no to violence and yes to peace. They state that “the women of Buenaventura will not give up. We will continue to work tirelessly for peace, equality, and the well-being of our families. We reject any act that threatens life, and we reaffirm our commitment to building a Buenaventura free of violence. We stand in solidarity with the women of Buenaventura, civil society, local government, and the Catholic Church, which are working hard to pacify the port, improve the living conditions of its inhabitants, and protect their rights.

We urge the Shottas and Espartanos to reinstate the truce and return to the negotiating table.

We urge the national, regional, and local governments, the private sector, and the international community to support Buenaventura by backing the socio-legal process, enhancing its civil society, and delivering humanitarian, development, and other assistance.

Another Buenaventura is possible.

Signed:

  1. ABColombia, London, UK
  2. Agir ensemble pour les droits humains, France
  3. Ángela Aguilera Morales, Resuena, Bogotá, Colombia
  4. Andrew Morehouse, human rights & peace supporter, Massachusetts, USA
  5. Antonio Albareda Tiana, CooperAcció, Barcelona, Spain
  6. Bibiana Peñaranda, Red Mariposas de Alas Nuevas, Buenaventura, Colombia
  7. Camila Reyes, Directora, Bogotá, Colombia
  8. Cristina Espinel, Washington, DC, USA
  9. DKA Austria, Austria
  10. Eric Duncan, Washington, DC, USA
  11. Francisco Ramírez Cuéllar, Boston, USA
  12. Fundación Oxfam Colombia, Colombia
  13. Gimena Sánchez, Director for the Andes, WOLA, USA
  14. Gisela Cujar Tenorio, Alianza Nacional de Periodistas Afrocolombianos, Washington, DC, USA
  15. Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, Washington, DC, USA
  16. Linithd Aparicio, Fundación FICAMAZONÍA, Washington, DC, USA
  17. Liz Enriquez Poveda, Americas Deputy Team Leader, CSW, Bogotá, Colombia
  18. Louise Winstanley, ABColombia, London, UK
  19. Maria A. Avendaño, Yoga Instructor, Body and Brain Yoga and Tai Chi, Miami, USA
  20. Maria Alejandra Rivera Maldonado, Coordinadora Nacional del Programa Colombia, Mensen met una Missie (MM), Buenaventura – Valle del Cauca, Colombia
  21. María del Rosario Vásquez Sepúlveda, La Colectiva de Mujeres Refugiadas Exiliadas y Migradas, Barcelona, Spain
  22. Ofunshi Hernández, President, Colombia Acuerdo de Paz NGO
  23. Patricia Novoa, Pacto Histórico, Washington State, USA
  24. Pax Christi International (PCI), Pax Christi International (PCI), International
  25. Plataforma Colombiana de Derechos Humanos Democracia y Desarrollo, Plataforma Colombiana de Derechos Humanos Democracia y Desarrollo, Colombia (135 orgs)
  26. Santiago Rivera Maldonado, Contratista Ministerio de Vivienda, Bogotá, Colombia
  27. SOLdePAZ.Pachakuti, Asturias, Spain
  28. Vicki Gass, Executive Director, Latin America Working Group, Washington, DC, USA
  29. Vicente Vallies, Coordinator, OIDHACO (European network Oficina Internacional Derechos Humanos Acción Colombia), Brussels, Belgium
  30. Yesid Blanco, Corporación Regional Yariguíes, Colombia

Joint statement on the attacks on NGOs in the European Parliament

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More than 570 other organisations, are joining forces to denounce attacks on European civil society organisations by certain Members of the European Parliament and call all democratic forces to counter this narrative.

European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an unprecedented attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. The attack, spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by the farright groups, is fuelled by disinformation. The attack resorts to misleading arguments to artificially fabricate a scandal, and is carried and amplified by badly informed media articles. At a time when democratic values are being eroded across the EU and Member States, and civic actors acting for these values are increasingly under attack, this renewed offensive on funding for CSOs and on our legitimacy in the democratic process risks not only shrinking European civic spaces further but weakening democracy as a whole.

We call on all democratic forces to oppose false narratives and disinformation around the role of civil society organisations, to protect our unique role in European democracy and to support public funding for civil society. Civic participation is an essential pillar of our shared European values. We call on decision-makers to ensure a robust legal framework in which civil society and citizens organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future and properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that.

Our solidarity is universal.

We are deeply concerned about all victims of armed conflict, repression and violence around the world — from Sudan to Syria, including the persecution of the Rohingya and so many other crises that often receive less international attention than they deserve. Each of these situations calls for solidarity, remembrance, justice and action.

However, we have decided to specifically highlight the message ‘Stop Genocide in Palestine’ because what is happening in Palestine represents not only a human tragedy of enormous magnitude, but also a direct challenge to the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and to the rules-based international system itself. The indifference and complicity of much of the international community in the face of the apartheid regime imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people represent one of the greatest moral and political contradictions of our time.

The persistent violation of essential norms — such as the protection of the civilian population, the prohibition of collective punishment and respect for proportionality in the use of force — not only has devastating consequences for the Palestinian population, but also erodes the global mechanisms designed to limit the power of states and prevent abuses.

When these rules are repeatedly breached without any effective consequences, the framework that protects all populations in conflict situations, anywhere in the world, is weakened. Therefore, speaking out in this case does not mean ignoring other forms of suffering, but rather emphasising the urgency of defending an international order which, if it collapses, leaves everyone in a more vulnerable position.

Drawing attention to this situation is, therefore, an act consistent with the universal values we uphold: the protection of life, human dignity and respect for international law, without exception.

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