AL JAZEERA: Environmental defenders killed in record numbers in 2020: Report →

Colombia is the world’s most dangerous country for environmental defenders, a report published on Monday by Global Witness, an international human rights group, highlighted.

For the second year in a row, the Andean nation saw the highest number of killings in 2020, with 65 land and environmental defenders murdered, the report said.

A funeral service for indigenous leader Edwin Dagua in Caloto, Colombia. Dagua was killed for his work in protecting the Huellas ecological reserve. LUIS ROBAYO / AFP

REUTERS: U.S.-bound migrants fill Colombia town as COVID-19 border closures lifted →

After traveling for more than a year by ship, bus and car from Africa in hope of reaching the United States, Simon Gyamfi found himself stuck in a remote tourist resort on the coast of Colombia with thousands of other migrants.

The 42-year-old carpenter, a Christian, fled his home in Ghana because of a dispute with his late wife's Muslim family, he said, and took a month-long ocean voyage to Brazil. The closure of borders due to the coronavirus pandemic left him stranded there for months.

A migrant and his daughter are seen next to a boat as they wait to cross into Panama to continue their journey toward the U.S., in Necocli, Colombia August 5, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Esquivel

THE GUARDIAN: ‘I didn’t eat for days’: hunger stalks Venezuelan refugees →

A seemingly endless lake of cardboard and tin shacks surrounds the perimeter of a former airport runway in Colombia’s desert-like city of Maicao. Known locally as La Pista, the area is home to more than 2,000 families, and is one of 44 informal settlements to have emerged around the city in the past two years.

Elaine Rojas, 27, and her four children in the shack in La Pista where they live with her husband and 2,000 other Venezuelan families. The pale hair of Kevin, her youngest child, is a sign of malnutrition. Photograph: Nadège Mazars/Guardian

AL JAZEERA: ‘Egregious’ police abuse against Colombian protesters: Report →

Colombian police have committed “egregious” abuses against “mostly peaceful demonstrators” during protests that began in late April against the tax reform but have expanded to include a host of social inequities, a new report has said. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Colombia’s government to “take urgent measures to protect human rights, initiate a comprehensive police reform effort” to teach officers to respect protesters and bring to justice those responsible for abuses.

A member of ESMAD throws a tear gas grenade by hand at protesters on May 28, 2021 in Bogota, Colombia. © 2021 Ovidio Gonzalez/Getty Images.

AL JAZEERA: A month on, Colombia continues to grapple with protest violence →

Friday marks a month since the beginning of protests that have roiled Colombia, causing fuel and food supply shortages, unemployment, infrastructure damage, forcing businesses to close and hurting local economies.

Negotiations between the government and demonstrators have made little progress and protester demands are growing.

Miguel Angel Chavez, 22, in Bogotá, Colombia's main square Plaza Bolivar, wants President Ivan Duque to step down [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: ‘Time to do something’: Colombia protests now a family affair →

For the first time in his life, 63-year-old Carlos Camargo took to the streets in protest this month.

On May 1, alongside his wife, two adult children, and son-in-law, the recently retired plastics factory worker decided it was his time to raise his voice for the government to hear.

“I’ve always supported these types of protests – I think they are necessary – but I’ve never gone out myself,” says Mr. Camargo. He has noted an uptick in poverty in the mountainous capital, Bogotá, and is concerned only wealthy people will emerge from the pandemic’s struggles above water. The protesters’ loud chants and the fluttering of Colombian flags he witnessed during the demonstration have stayed with him.

THE WASHINGTON POST: Killed by police in Colombia →

Joan Nicolás García Guerrero was mourning the fallen from Colombia’s worst bout of civil unrest in years.

Then, the candlelight vigil that the 26-year-old artist and father was attending in the city of Cali descended into chaos — a scene captured, like so much of the Colombian violence, by amateur video.

García Guerrero, a front-line protester, had expressed a willingness to give his life for the cause. “Mother,” he had written in a text to his family on April 28, the day the demonstrations erupted. “We have to have a civil war, it’s painfully sad, but true.”

Marcelo Agredo Inchima was killed amid protests in Colombia on April 28.. Photo: Steven Grattan

AL JAZEERA: Cali emerges as epicentre of unrest in ongoing Colombia protests →

The southwestern Colombian city of Cali, the nation’s third-largest, has become the focal point of anti-government demonstrations amid an uptick in violence between protesters, security forces and armed civilians.

A riot police officer fires tear gas at demonstrators during clashes in Cali, Colombia, on May 3, 2021. Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty

AL JAZEERA: Demands grow as Colombians hold eighth day of mass protests

Anti-government protests have taken place across Colombia for the eighth straight day, as rights groups continue to raise concerns about excessive violence by security forces.

Riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators from the main public square in the capital, Bogota, at around 3pm (20:00 GMT) on Wednesday, as well as in other parts of the city where people had assembled.

A demonstrator prepares to throw a stone at a police vehicle during a protest in Bogota on April 28, 2021. Luisa Gonzalez / Reuters

THE WASHINGTON POST: Violence in Colombia protests escalates amid allegations of police excess →

Hundreds of protesters had gathered in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali late Monday, pushing for economic justice on the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations. Then, Ana Maria Burgos said, police suddenly opened fire, moving in on the crowd with riot shields and batons.

The 43-year-old teacher said she saw blood pouring from the heads of protesters.

Demonstrators clash with members of security forces during a protest in Bogota on April 28, 2021. Luisa Gonzalez / Reuters