Indepaz recorded 117 killings of social leaders in Colombia in 2026, as armed groups contest routes and pressure community organisations in Cauca. The latest victim on its list was Gloria Buitrago, a community leader shot in El Plateado, in the municipality of Argelia. No group claimed responsibility, and authorities hadn’t identified who carried out the killing.
Buitrago served as fiscal, or oversight officer, for a Junta de Acción Comunal, an elected neighbourhood board that runs local projects and represents villages to the state. She also led the local committee of bar owners. El Diario reported that armed men in two vehicles stopped her and shot her.
Local control under pressure
Cauca had the highest number of cases in both the Indepaz and ombudsman counts. El Diario put the department’s 2026 total at 26, including six in September. The department sits along routes used for cocaine, weapons and illegal gold, where armed groups fight for control and pressure community organisations.
Indepaz’s list records the killings of James Flor and María Ovidia Palechor, an indigenous leader, in Cajibío on 1 September. It also records the killing of Jacob Guacheta Zambrano, another indigenous leader, in Morales on 10 September, and Manuel España, a community board member, in Argelia on 29 August. These reported cases include indigenous leaders and people serving on community boards that link villages with local projects and the state.
Leonardo González, director of Indepaz, identified three armed forces operating around El Plateado: the Carlos Patiño structure, a faction of former FARC guerrillas who rejected the 2016 peace deal; the Diomer Cortés front of the Segunda Marquetalia, another group of former FARC fighters; and the ELN, described as Colombia’s largest remaining left-wing guerrilla. González told El Diario that the groups “maintain disputes for territorial control and exert pressure on community organisations”.
The toll beyond Cauca
Colombia’s ombudsman for human rights, the Defensoría del Pueblo, counted 112 social leaders killed from 1 January to 31 August 2026. El Diario reported that the total comprised 91 men and 21 women, and that August was the deadliest month, with 22 cases. The ombudsman’s count covers a different period from Indepaz’s figure of 117, reported by El Diario on 30 September.
Since January 2016, the year Colombia signed its peace deal with the FARC guerrilla, the ombudsman had recorded 1,777 such killings. It also counted 10 former FARC fighters who had signed the deal and were killed by August. Indepaz keeps a separate list of former FARC fighters who signed the peace deal and were killed after laying down arms.
Warnings and unanswered questions
Indepaz recorded 187 social leader killings in 2025, with more than 150 recorded by the end of September that year, compared with 173 in 2024. The 2026 count was lower than the 2025 total; at the pace described in the report, a social leader was killed roughly every two to three days.
The ombudsman counted 86 massacres with 326 victims in the first eight months of 2026. Colombia defines a massacre as three or more people killed together. Most killings of social leaders happen in rural areas far from Bogotá, Medellín and the tourist coast. Many victims worked on land claims, environmental issues or community boards.
The ombudsman issues early warnings for specific risk areas, including parts of Cauca, while Indepaz updates its list as it confirms cases. The report identifies armed groups and territorial disputes as sources of pressure on community organisations, but it doesn’t identify who ordered Buitrago’s killing or name an institution benefiting from the violence.