Colombia and Brazil deadliest countries for environmental activists, report says

Members of indigenous guards are often targeted by illegal armed groups looking to expand their territory to plant coca - the raw material used to make cocaine - or to engage in illegal mining. Last week, Jacob Guachetá Zambrano, who was part of the indigenous guard in Colombia's Cauca region, was found tortured and killed.While the possible motive behind his murder is still under investigation and the search for the perpetrator is ongoing, indigenous leaders said that murders, threats and forced disappearances in the area were common as illegal armed groups battled for territory. Global Witness warned that Brazil had seen a doubling of killings of environmental defenders in 2025 compared to 2024. As in Colombia, in Brazil most of the cases the group documented were primarily driven by conflict over land, Global Witness's researchers found. Outside of Latin America, 12% of the murders occurred in Asia, with Philippines top of the list with 12 documented murders. The group warned that while globally the number of documented killings had gone down from 146 in 2024 to 128 in 2025, its numbers were probably an underestimate as many cases went unreported.