THREATS AGAINST AN AMAZON DEFENDER 

UA: Colombia 84.24
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This action ended on December 17, 2024

On September 10, 2024, Jani Silva, a defender of land, territory, and the environment and the president of ADISPA, an organization managing a peasant reserve zone in the Colombian Amazon (department of Putumayo), received a phone call threatening to “blow you up, car and all”. Jani and ADISPA have protection measures in place, provided by the government’s National Protection Unit (UNP). The threats make direct reference to killing her by attacking the armored vehicles provided for her protection, possibly using explosives. We call on the Colombian authorities to respond to these threats by conducting robust and effective investigations to identify those responsible and bring them to justice, with due process guarantees, and by providing timely and comprehensive protection to this human rights defender and her community, addressing the structural causes of the violence they face.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: December 17, 2024

take action:

  • Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  • Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 84.24. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.

contact information:

Luz Adriana Camargo

Attorney General of Colombia

Avenida Calle 24 No. 52 – 01

Bogotá DC, Colombia

E-mail: [email protected]

Twitter/X: @FiscaliaCol

Colombian Embassy in the United States

Ambassador Daniel García-Peña Jaramillo

1724 Massachusetts Ave, NW,

Washington, DC 20036

Email: [email protected]

sample letter:

Dear Attorney General, 

I am writing to express my deep concern for the safety of human rights defenders and defenders of territory, land, and the environment in Colombia, in particular, Jani Silva, president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA), a community organization managing the Peasant Reserve Zone of La Perla Amazónica in the municipality of Puerto Asís (in Putumayo, Colombia). 

The Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace reported that on September 10, 2024, Jani Silva received a phone call threatening her life, with the caller explicitly stating that she would be attacked in one of the vehicles provided to ADISPA by the government’s protection program through the National Protection Unit (UNP). In addition, in the afternoon of the same day, unknown men were seen around Jani Silva’s house and ADISPA’s office in the town center of Puerto Asís. 

We are deeply concerned that armed groups present in this part of the country are directly threatening civil society organizations and stigmatizing them as collaborating with other criminal groups in the region. I call on you to act with the utmost diligence in the effective fulfilment of the duty of the Attorney General’s Office to investigate the threats and attacks against Jani Silva and members of ADISPA, to identify those responsible for ordering and carrying out these attacks, and to bring them to justice, with due process guarantees, in order to prevent further attacks against human rights defenders in the Bajo Putumayo region.

Yours sincerely, 

[YOUR NAME]

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