Last Friday, 26 July, Colombians took to the streets to honor and remember social leaders who have been assassinated since the signing of the Peace Accord.  Marches were held nationwide, and in cities across the world, crying out against impunity and calling for justice and protection.  Since January 2016, 289 human rights defenders have been murdered, according to the Attorney General's Office; however, only 11% of cases have resulted in convictions.¹  A Global Witness Report published this week confirmed that, for the third year in a row, Colombia is in the top three countries with the highest number of assassinated environmental activists. Of the 164 environmental leaders killed in 2018, 24 were Colombian, ranking the country second globally.²

Six months since beginning operations, the Truth Commission has delivered its first accountability report, indicating that its 19 regional Truth Houses have been established, 801 testimonies have been collected, and 60 collective interviews with affected communities have been conducted.  Any citizen can share his or her testimony in a confidential and extrajudicial manner in the regional Houses. The Truth Commission has also received testimonies from exiled Colombians residing in 14 countries. In 2019 and 2020, eleven Truth Meetings will be held with victims -one has been held already-, and ten with Armed Forces, former combatants of FARC-EP, former paramilitaries, and the private sector. The Commission remains with two and half years to present its final report on the trends, causes, and consequences of the armed conflict and make recommendations for the guarantee of non-repetition.³

The GOC announced this week that it has obtained a US$100 million loan from the World Bank to initiate the multipurpose cadaster, a key step for the fulfillment of the first point of the Peace Accord: Comprehensive Rural Reform. Currently, only 5.7% of the national territory has an updated cadaster; the GOC has set a goal to cover 60% by 2022, and 100% by 2025. The 170 municipalities that are part of the Development Programs with a Territorial Focus-PDET- will be given priority.⁴

Three months after the New York Times reported that commanders of the Armed Forces had ordered their troops to double the number of criminals and guerrillas killed or captured -resembling a return to the “false positives” tactic- the investigative commission appointed by President Duque has delivered its report.  The director of the Human Rights Watch-Americas Division, José Miguel Vivanco, scrutinized inaccuracies, stating that "the report is riddled with errors”. Taking to his Twitter account, he stated that the investigators did not evaluate evidence available in the public domain, including information on orders to double operational results and allegations that brigade rankings and other incentives were based on obtaining these objectives.⁵

Paramilitary and criminal groups have increased attacks in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region during the month of July.  Bodies, dismembered body parts, and severed skulls are among the discovered remains of violent acts. The Mayor's Office of Cúcuta has attributed the escalation of the conflict to the strengthening of the criminal gang La Línea.  With the ELN, Los Pelusos, and other groups vying for control of the narcotrafficking routes, the situation is precarious.⁶