Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is “hopeful” that a new Colombian government will restore protections for religious leaders and work to improve the nation’s increasingly precarious humanitarian predicament following the upcoming presidential election.
The organisation has called upon the government to restore previously held protections to religious leaders due to their increased susceptibility to attack by armed insurgents, which featured their inclusion on a list of vulnerable populations, enabling them to access means of official security, such as protection programmes. The armed insurgency in Colombia is a complex, low-intensity conflict driven by splinter groups, drug trafficking, and territorial control by three groups including two guerrilla organisations and a narcotics cartel.
Legislative changes imposed by the existing regime in 2023 removed these provisions, leaving leaders, including pastors, vulnerable to attack. Eleven leaders have been killed or kidnapped since December 2024, which CSW’s Head of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl believes proves the government’s decision to have been “inexplicable”, whatever the rationale behind it was. However, she is optimistic that new leaders will engage with their concerns, with President Gustavo Petro constitutionally prohibited from seeking another term.
