Colombia: Concerns over a wave of serious threats and lack of effective protection measures for members of CREDHOS
Since late December 2025, the Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (CREDHOS) has been reporting serious threats against it in the Barrancabermeja area of Magdalena Medio. The threats appear to be linked to the interests of businesses, state forces, and paramilitaries, and increase the risk of CREDHOS members, especially its board of directors and its president, human rights defender Iván Madero.
The Magdalena Medio subregion (Antioquia) is strategically located in terms of natural resources and is a recognised oil-producing area in Colombia. It is also home to one of the main facilities of Ecopetrol, the country's largest state-owned oil company. This has placed Barrancabermeja at the centre of prolonged disputes over territorial, political, and economic control by various armed and unarmed actors, politicians and businesses, historically causing serious human rights violations to civilian population.
In this context, CREDHOS has been dedicated to denouncing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law perpetrated by paramilitaries and state forces. The organisation supports victims and survivors of violence and human rights defenders at risk in the Barrancabermeja region since the 1980s. The key issues that CREDHOS works on are access to justice for human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict, the demand for full compliance with the Peace Agreements, and the defence of territory and environment. CREDHOS has also supported and represented communities and human rights organisations that denounce the serious environmental damages and pollution of bodies of water associated with oil extraction in the region. In regard to these damages, the organisation demands truth, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition. CREDHOS’s current president, Iván Madero, is a long-standing human rights defender and survivor of the genocide against the Patriotic Union.
On 22 December 2025, CREDHOS informed the Colombian authorities of a series of serious threats and attacks against it. A formal complaint was submitted to, amongst others, the Ministry of Defence, the Attorney General's Office and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). In its complaint, CREDHOS details an alleged intelligence operation involving surveillance and monitoring of the organisation. The operation appears to be part of an investigation instigated by an alliance between active and retired military personnel and police officers, and is allegedly aimed at stigmatising the CREDHOS board of directors and, in particular, its president, human rights defender Iván Madero. CREDHOS considers this an attempt to label it as part of the urban structure of the FARC dissidents in Barrancabermeja. In a context of conflict between armed groups, where the Clan del Golfo continues to be in dispute with the FARC dissidents and the National Liberation Army (ELN), this operation and potential stigmatisation further increase the risk to the integrity and security that CREDHOS members in the region permanently face.
In Magdalena Medio, human rights defenders are frequently declared military targets by armed groups, exposing them to direct and continuous threats and intimidation. These systematic threats and intimidation include pamphlets distributed by death squads, which have preceded numerous cases of killings of human rights defenders.
In addition to the above mentioned intelligence operation, in December 2025, new pamphlets appeared, allegedly from the ELN, declaring CREDHOS and Iván Madero to be military targets and threatening to take control of Barrancabermeja by "cleansing" social leaders and human rights defenders. However, CREDHOS obtained information that the pamphlets were an intimidation tactic by business actors affected by complaints of environmental pollution in the region.
Due to the multiple threats against CREDHOS and Iván Madero over the years, they are beneficiaries of protection measures implemented by the National Protection Unit (UNP). These measures include an agent and vehicle dedicated to their personal security during activities and transfers (also known as “security scheme”). However, there are notable and persistent flaws in the protection measures. In a recent complaint to the JEP, CREDHOS warned that the current operational manager of the UNP security schemes has appeared before the JEP for cases of serious human rights violations (in Macro-cases 03 and 08). In one of the cases - macro-case 08 - members of CREDHOS also appear as victims and representatives. This circumstance jeopardises the safety not only of CREDHOS members, but also of all human rights defenders benefiting from UNP protection measures in Barrancabermeja.
Front Line Defenders expresses its concern over the risks and threats that have affected the work of CREDHOS and human rights defender Iván Madero. Front Line Defenders also expresses its deep concern over the serious flaws and risks identified in UNP protection measures, as well as the lack of an official response or concrete follow-up by the Colombian Government even though CREDHOS reported the allegations over a month ago.
Front Line Defenders urges the Colombian authorities, particularly the Ministry of Defence and the Attorney General's Office, to conduct transparent, swift, and objective investigations with the aim of clarifying the alleged involvement of state forces and the military in the intelligence operation carried out against CREDHOS members and human rights defender Iván Madero. Front Line Defenders also urges the Colombian authorities to avoid any acts of criminalisation and stigmatisation that intend to associate CREDHOS members with armed groups.
CREDHOS plays a key role in defending human rights and access to justice for victims of serious human rights violations in the complex context of Colombia, which has the highest number of killings of human rights defenders worldwide. Front Line Defenders urges the Colombian State to publicly recognise the important work carried out by CREDHOS, as well as the importance of defending human rights in Colombia as an indispensable element for justice and peace, and to guarantee its work by countering impunity for attacks against CREDHOS and implementing effective measures for its holistic protection.
