Colombian movements condemn assassination attempt against peasant leader

Movements have called on the national government to advance on dismantling paramilitary structures in the country in the wake of the assassination attempt

April 23, 2025 by Peoples Dispatch
Colombian peasant leader Ernesto Roa. Photo via Colombia Informa

Social and political movements in Colombia have strongly condemned the assassination attempt against Ernesto Roa, a renowned social and peasant leader in the country. Roa was shot several times on the night of April 22 near his home in Saravena, Colombia by unidentified gunmen. The peasant leader was then rushed to a local hospital where he received treatment and is currently in recovery, according to the Joel Sierra Human Rights Foundation, based in Saravena.

Roa is the spokesperson of the Political Movement of Social and Popular Masses, a platform of organizations of peasants, youth, women, and human rights defenders, and community-based organizations, and previously was the president of the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA), a national platform of peasant organizations in Colombia.

In its statement denouncing the assassination attempt, the Joel Sierra Foundation noted that Roa has been, “constantly targeted, profiled, and stigmatized for his work in demanding the rights of communities by some national and regional media outlets, journalists, right-wing politicians, and officials.”

However, movements have also insisted that the threat on Roa’s life is part of a systematic policy of extermination against the Colombian social and political movement as a whole by the Colombian ruling class, reigniting long standing demands for the dismantling of paramilitary structures in the country.

The Joel Sierra Foundation condemned that “our movement has been made a military target in the regime’s criminal strategy of aggression” citing that in recent years there has been an uptick in assassinations of social leaders, threats, political persecution, displacement, and other acts of violence, directed not only against individuals but “also against the organizations, programs, projects, and processes to which we belong”. They highlighted that these actions have been carried out by paramilitary structures which in essence are a tool of “the established power, which created them to wage a dirty war against the civilian population and its social fabric.”

In a statement released by Congreso de los Pueblos (the People’s Congress), they called on Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “take clear action to guarantee the dismantling of paramilitarism and the military doctrine that perpetuates the existence of an ‘internal enemy’, which fuels a genocidal process through the extermination of the Social and Popular Movement in Colombia.” Adding that, “it is essential that the government comply with existing agreements for the dismantling of paramilitarism and commit to implementing structural transformations that prevent these events from happening again.”

The continental social movement platform, ALBA Movimientos, also condemned the assassination attempt against Roa, declaring “we stand with the demands of Colombian organizations and call on the government of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez to fulfill their promise to protect social leaders. Words are not enough: it is time to dismantle the paramilitary structures that continue to operate in Arauca and guarantee the lives of those who are building peace from the ground up.”

ALBA Movimientos declared in its statement: “Peace cannot be negotiated with bullets. Peace is built with social justice, with real investment in the regions, and with unconditional respect for the lives of those who, like Ernesto Roa, have dedicated their lives to defending the people. Enough impunity! We demand guarantees for human rights defenders!”