IACHR grants precautionary measures in favor of rights defender Wendy Quintero in Colombia

July 28, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Resolution 50/2025 on July 24, 2025, to grant precautionary measures in favor of Wendy Vanessa Quintero Guerrero, her son, and her mother in Colombia, in the belief that they face a serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their rights to life and personal integrity.

The party who requested these precautionary measures noted that Quintero is a social leader from the Red Mujeres de Norte foundation in the Catatumbo region and coordinates a refugee shelter in Ocaña. On January 22, 2025, she was allegedly briefly captured and declared a military target by the National Liberation Army (ELN). Since then, she has allegedly been subjected to death threats and persistent surveillance, even though she is constantly on the move to preserve her own integrity.

As a recent example, the request for these precautionary measures mentioned that several alleged members of the ELN stormed into Quintero's family home on July 13, 2025, in an attempt to kidnap her, and caused her injuries. Currently, she is allegedly displaced and in hiding. The request for these precautionary measures alleged that institutional responses to these events had proved inappropriate to protect Quintero, that no progress had been made in the relevant investigations, and that no changes had been introduced in arrangements adopted to keep her safe. 

The State said that, in February 2025, given serious public order issues caused by armed raids against civilians in the Catatumbo region that were linked to the ELN, the national government had declared a State of Internal Commotion and launched its Extraordinary Emergency Mechanism to protect affected individuals.

The State noted that, in the context of that mechanism, the risks faced by Quintero had been assessed in March and April 2025, and that she had been assigned a protection scheme. The State further reported on the state of its own investigations into the allegations made in the request for these precautionary measures, and on various requests for urgent protection measures made in April and June 2025 in favor of Quintero by the Office of Colombia's Attorney General.

After assessing the legal and factual allegations, the IACHR considers that the beneficiaries are at risk. The IACHR noted that the risks faced by these individuals might become increasingly harmful for their rights in the current context of violence in the Catatumbo region. In its decision, the IACHR took into consideration the death threats, harassment, family home raids, and assault that Quintero had allegedly suffered at the hands of members of the ELN.

The IACHR noted that the measures adopted by the State had proved ineffective to mitigate the risks, since those risks persisted and had escalated over time despite the fact that the beneficiary had been on the move, that she had filed complaints about these events, and that a security scheme had been put in place to protect her.

Consequently, in keeping with Article 25 of its Rules of Procedure, the IACHR asked the State of Colombia to take the following action:

1. Adopt any measures necessary to protect the beneficiaries' rights to life and personal integrity
2. Take any measures necessary, with a gender perspective, to enable Quintero to do her work as a social leader without being subjected to threats, harassment, intimidation, or any other forms of violence for doing such work
3. Come to an agreement with the beneficiaries and their representatives concerning any measures that need to be taken
4. Report on any actions adopted to investigate the events that gave rise to the adoption of these precautionary measures, in order to prevent such events from happening again in the future

The fact that these precautionary measures have been granted and their adoption by the State do not entail a prejudgment on a potential petition that may be filed before the inter-American system to allege violations of rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights and other applicable instruments.

The IACHR is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) whose mandate is based on the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. Its mission is to promote and defend human rights throughout the Americas and to serve as an advisory body to the OAS in this area. The IACHR consists of seven independent members elected by the OAS General Assembly who serve in a personal capacity and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 149/25

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