Colombia and Brazil top deadly list for green activists

Colombia has retained its position as the country with the highest death toll for land and environmental activists, according to an annual report published by the campaign group Global Witness. Across the globe, at least 124 activists were murdered in 2025, with 39 killings recorded in Colombia and 26 in Brazil.

The report highlights that 85% of all documented killings took place in Latin America, cementing the region as the deadliest place for environmental defenders every year since the group initiated its reports in 2012. The majority of these fatal incidents stemmed from land disputes, frequently executed by hitmen or organized crime syndicates.

In Colombia, nearly half of the victims were members of indigenous communities, while a significant portion of the remainder consisted of small-scale farmers. To protect their homelands, numerous indigenous groups in the country have established unarmed civilian protection networks known as indigenous guards that patrol their territories.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

These indigenous guards frequently become targets for illegal armed groups seeking to expand territory for cultivating coca plants—the raw material used to produce cocaine—or to carry out illegal mining operations. Last week, Jacob Guachetá Zambrano, an indigenous guard member in Colombia's Cauca region, was found tortured and murdered.