Nearly a decade after Colombia’s landmark 2016 Peace Accord, the country’s grassroots activists working to build peace continue to face deadly violence – and deep-rooted stigma is making it easier for society to look the other way. That is the central message of a new peer-reviewed study published through Dejusticia and the Kellogg Institute by Keough School researchers Isabel Güiza Gómez and Abby Córdova, which warns that unless stigma is addressed, the cycle of killings will persist.
The study, conducted as part of the Kellogg Institute Eliminating Violence Against Women (EVAW) research lab, examines citizen attitudes toward the assassinations of grassroots activists in post-accord Colombia. Between 2016 and 2023, 1,804 social leaders – community organizers, human rights advocates, rural activists – and 351 former FARC combatants who signed the accord have been assassinated. These are people working on issues central to the peace accord, especially land rights. Yet, mass protests or widespread outcry remain rare. “Numbers like these should shake a democracy,” Córdova told reporters. “But stigma narrows empathy – and without empathy, the violence continues.”
The study drew upon observational and experimental data collected through a two-wave survey fielded in late 2023, and is part of a larger ongoing research project by Córdova and Güiza Gómez that seeks to examine how to counteract stigma and violence justification toward social activists in the aftermath of war.
It reveals that identity matters less than cause. Advocacy for land redistribution, a key promise of the peace deal, triggers some of the strongest hostility – regardless of whether activists stayed unarmed or once fought in the insurgency during the war. For many Colombians, land reform remains rooted in the national imagination to political upheaval and the armed conflict. As a result, both social leaders and demobilized ex-combatants who push these reforms are often viewed as destabilizing threats – and in some cases, as deserving targets of violence. The data show that while just over half of respondents expressed positive feelings toward social leaders, fewer than one in four felt that way about peace signatories. Feelings of insecurity and victim-blaming attitudes were high for both groups.
Importantly, stigma, low empathic concern, and victim-blaming are closely tied to support for land redistribution in both cases. When respondents were told that either assassinated social leaders or former guerrillas had mobilized for land redistribution, they were more likely to exhibit strong stigma, reduced empathy, and greater victim-blaming. This associative framing helps explain why these groups face parallel prejudice. In Colombia, public opinion remains sharply divided on land redistribution – a core issue that fueled decades of armed confrontation. Only 49% of respondents agreed that land reform is necessary to reduce rural inequality.
The research also finds a “spillover effect” – stigma toward ex-combatants bleeds into perceptions of social leaders. When survey participants were primed to think about former guerrillas before being asked about perceptions toward community activists, their support for the latter dropped significantly. “People carry over the stigma from one group to the other,” Güiza Gómez explained. “That linkage erodes solidarity, even toward those who have never taken up arms.”
Researchers say breaking this cycle requires a two-pronged approach: changing the narrative and delivering on peace commitments. They recommend evidence-based public awareness campaigns to humanize both leaders and ex-combatants, strengthening security guarantees for activists, and accelerating the land reform promises of the peace accord. Fulfilling those promises, they argue, would help portray land justice as a legitimate, democratic cause – not a violent threat.
“Changing the narrative around land rights is not just about justice for rural communities,” Güiza Gómez said. “It’s about removing the social license for violence and securing Colombia’s democracy.”
Dejusticia and the Kellogg Institute have published the findings in Spanish and plan to publish an English version in October 2025.