Emberá People of Resguardo of Colonial Origin Cañamomo Lomaprieta in Colombia denounce killing of leader defending territorial rights: leaders call for immediate State actions to uphold human rights of communities and territorial defenders

The Indigenous Government the Indigenous Resguardo of Colonial Origin Cañamomo Lomaprieta (RCMLP) in Caldas (Colombia) has issued a public statement denouncing the murder of José Albino Cañas Ramírez on 16 February 2026. 

The murdered indigenous leader was an active and courageous member of the Resguardo's governing council (cabildo) and Indigenous authority from the community of Portachuelo.  Mr. Cañas Ramírez was shot dead at his home by unknown assailants on the evening of 16 February 2026.

The statement emphasises that this latest killing of a territorial defender in the RCMLP Indigenous territory is not a one- off incident and did not occur in a vacuum. The Resguardo Cañamomo Lomaprieta, home to more than 23,000 Embera Chamí people across 32 communities in the department of Caldas, Colombia, has long faced threats and violence linked to illegal gold mining and the presence of illegal armed actors in their territory. The members of the Resguardo have been beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2002 in recognition of the grave and structural risk faced by its communities, leaders and authorities from illegal armed actors.

The murder of José Albino Cañas Ramírez is the latest in a long pattern of structural violence against indigenous authorities and territorial defenders in the Resguardo that stems from the lack of effective legal protection of their territory and collective customary rights by the Colobian government. In 2015, Indigenous authority Fernando Salazar Calvo was shot dead outside his home in connection with his work monitoring compliance with the Resguardo's own laws regulating artisanal gold mining in their territory. At the same time, death threats are received by RCMLP leaders and community members on a regular basis and many have official protection schemes as their lives are in grave danger. Despite more than a decade of persistent advocacy by the Resguardo and its authorities, including repeated appeals to the Colombian State and to international bodies, the intellectual authors of Mr. Salazar Calvo’s murder have never been identified or brought to justice, a situation that underscores the entrenched impunity that continues to cast a shadow over the Resguardo's efforts to defend their territory and protect their leaders and way of life (see FPP's 10th anniversary statement and earlier reporting).

FPP calls on the Colombian State to fulfil its heightened obligations of protection towards the Resguardo, its authorities and the collective rights of the Resguardo's Indigenous inhabitants, and urges the competent authorities to act swiftly on the demands set out in the statement below. Crucially, the indigenous government demands that relevant State authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, provide immediate assistance to enable rapid implementation of a human rights action plan compiled by indigenous authorities to strengthen collective protection of human rights, reinforce Indigenous Ranger teams (Guardia Indígena); and to ensure measures are put in place quickly to ramp up protection for territorial defenders in the RCMLP territory.

Read the statement issued by the authorities of the Indigenous Resguardo of Colonial Origin Cañamomo Lomaprieta in English and Spanish