On November 4, 2026, Peace Brigades International-Canada attended the launch of the Global Witness report “Collective Power” in Bogota, Colombia.
Programa Somos Defensores had posted on social media: “For the fourth year in a row, Colombia is the country with the most attacks against environmental and territorial defenders in the world, according to Global Witness. We invite you to the launch in Colombia of Collective Power, the 2026 Annual Report of Global Witness. This year, the report focuses on collective protection experiences and the criminalization that defenders face. Join us to learn about the main findings and to hear directly from people advocating for the environment and the territory.”
Subsequent promotion for the public forum highlighted that it would feature two panels. The first was a “Global and National Panel” with Javier Garate, Policy Advisor on Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness; Yuvelis Morales, leader of the Colombia Free from Fracking Alliance; and Nathalia Romero Figueroa, Delegate for the Prevention of Risks of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Violations, and Director of the Early Warning System (SAT).
The second was a “Regional Panel: Andean-Amazon Region” with Lucía Barbosa, leader of the Guardians of the Andean-Amazon initiative; Alexander Sánchez, peasant leader from the Workers’ Unity Roundtable of Puerto Guzmán; and Javier Marín, member of the territorial team at Asociación MINGA.
Both panels were moderated by Juan Manuel Quinche with the We Are Defenders Program (Programa Somos Defensores).
Yuvelis Morales on PBI-Canada webinars
The Goldman Environmental Prize has noted: “As a young adult, Yuvelis Morales Blanco helped mobilize her community in Puerto Wilches against two key drilling projects, successfully preventing the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia. In 2022, the campaign forced the country’s largest petroleum company, Ecopetrol, to suspend its contracts for the pilot fracking projects. In August 2024—with the projects still suspended—the Colombian Constitutional Court, in response to a lawsuit by a local organization, confirmed that the projects had violated the right of the Afro-Colombian community of Puerto Wilches to free, prior, and informed consent.”
PBI-Canada has previously noted that the first death threat against Morales came in January 2021, not long after she had organized a protest against fracking in Puerto Wilches in December 2020. Morales has shared: “Some armed men came to my house and trapped me. They put a gun to my head.”
By April 2021, Morales highlighted on a PBI-Canada webinar: “When we became a problem for the oil companies, those interested in promoting fracking and its economic benefits, they started to threaten, stigmatize, and silence us. More than eight of our youth have been threatened.”
In February 2022 Morales was forced to flee Colombia for her safety.
In May 2022, Morales spoke on another PBI-Canada webinar and made this comment about Canada: “When your companies and banks are investing in mining and energy megaprojects in other countries where human rights are being violated every day, you are not an environmentalist country, you are not a green country. I’m sorry to be so blunt. This is a reality that people don’t often want to say because when you open your mouth that could mean you are shot in the forehead.”
“Collective Power”
To read the Global Witness report “Collective Power” click here.
The event took place at the Asociación MINGA Auditorium in the La Soledad neighborhood of Bogotá.
