The Associated Press reports: “Jani Silva sits inside the wooden house she built on the banks of Colombia’s Putumayo River — a home she hasn’t slept in for more than eight years. The longtime environmental activist has been threatened for work that includes protecting part of the Amazon from oil and mining exploitation. She describes a tense escape one night through a back window after community members tipped her that armed men were outside.”
The article then notes: “Colombia says it protects activists through its National Protection Unit, which provides bodyguards and other security measures. Silva, 63, now lives under guard in Puerto Asis, a river town near the Ecuador border. She has had four full-time bodyguards for 12 years provided by the National Protection Unit.”
Notably, Silva is also accompanied by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, which is accompanied by Peace Brigades International.
Threats
AP explains: “Armed groups known locally as Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos, operate throughout this stretch of Putumayo, controlling territory, river traffic and parts of the local economy.”
It further notes: “Silva has been a main voice challenging oil operations inside the reserve. As president of ADISPA, she documented spills, deforestation and road-building tied to Bogota-based oil company GeoPark’s Platanillo block and pushed environmental regulators to investigate. Advocates say those complaints, along with ADISPA’s efforts to keep new drilling and mining out, have angered armed groups that profit from mining and oil activity in the region.”
Photo: Silva on Gitanyow territory in northern British Columbia learning about the environmental impacts of the proposed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) fracked gas pipeline, June 2025.
The need to strengthen the protection mechanism
The AP article also reports: “About 15,000 people nationwide receive protection from the NPU, the Interior Ministry said in a 2024 report. They include environmental and human rights defenders, journalists, local officials, union leaders and others facing threats, though watchdog groups say protections often fall short in rural conflict zones.”
Global Witness has highlighted: “National and subnational protection mechanisms are among the most important tools states can provide for at-risk land and environmental defenders around the world. …But while they are a safeguard for many, these measures are far from infallible.”
Silva has told Global Witness: “Having gone through the system, I have seen first-hand how measures need to adapt to the realities that defenders face, reflecting the diversity of our needs. Too often they are conceived in cities by people who know little about our realities. After six months of requesting, persuading and waiting, the Colombian government finally granted me basic protection measures in 2014: a bulletproof vest and a mobile phone. I remember the vest was too small and, in the Putumayo heat, impossible to wear. I was grateful, but it was a symbolic gesture – one that would not keep me safe. It was really when the National Protection Unit (NPU) gave me a travel subsidy that I felt the measures became more responsive to my needs. At this point, threats were more frequent, so the subsidy allowed me to react quickly in emergency situations and hire vehicles and boats when I needed to relocate.”
Recommendations
Global Witness highlights: “Colombian organization Programa Somos Defensores has identified the key aspects of protection mechanisms that urgently need reviewing. These include the lack of effective inter-institutional coordination, delays with implementation and the need to evaluate their effectiveness.”
Programa Somos Defensores also calls on the Colombian state to: “Urgently transform NPU’s protection model, prioritising collective protection and recognising communities’ own self-protection mechanisms.”
Other Protection Mechanisms
Peace Brigades International volunteer protection teams physically accompany threatened defenders in Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
Presently, PBI-Canada is working with PBI-Mexico and Espacio OSC to help strengthen the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico: PBI-Canada seeks to get the Protection Mechanism on the agenda of the Mexico-Canada Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (December 1, 2025).
PBI-Canada also recently highlighted that the Canadian government has called on the Government of Honduras to strengthen their Protection Mechanism: Canada calls on Honduras to strengthen its Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders at UPR intervention at the UN in Geneva (November 12, 2025).
And we are following the newly announced program in Guatemala: PBI-Guatemala attends the presentation of new public policy for the protection of human rights defenders (November 14, 2025).
Further reading
Roots of resistance: Documenting the global struggles of defenders protecting land and environmental rights (Global Witness, September 17, 2025)
‘It’s not safe to live here.’ Colombia is deadliest country for environmental defenders (Steven Grattan, Associated Press, December 8, 2025).
