In what Colombian authorities have described as a hitman-style attack, or sicariato, Venezuelan human rights and LGBTQ+ activist Yendri Velásquez and political consultant Luis Peche were shot multiple times from a vehicle on Monday in Bogotá at 3:00 pm. The two men, both exiled for their activism against the Nicolás Maduro regime, were leaving a building when gunmen opened fire. Velásquez was shot eight times and Peche six; both survived. Velásquez underwent three surgeries and Peche one, and both are currently in stable condition.

Velásquez and Peche have been in Colombia since September 2024, forced to flee Venezuela after the electoral fraud that triggered unprecedented political persecution.

Since 2012, Yendri Velásquez (32) has been one of the most visible defenders of LGBTQ+ rights in Venezuela. As director of the Observatory of LGBTQ+ Violence, he has documented cases of hate crimes and gender-based violence often linked to Maduro’s security forces and government institutions.

His work came at a high cost: in 2024, while traveling to Geneva for a UN convention, he was detained, disappeared, and psychologically tortured by Venezuelan security forces. After days of uncertainty and an online campaign demanding his release, he was freed—but forced into exile soon after. With his passport seized by Venezuelan authorities, Velásquez now lives in Colombia, unable to leave the country legally. With help from Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office, Velásquez submitted an asylum application that remains unanswered, UN Special Rapporteur Gina Romero said on X.

The Bogotá attack sends a chilling signal to Venezuelan exiles and the international community: political repression in Venezuela has continued to evolve into a cross-border threat.

Luis Peche Arteaga is a political consultant and international affairs specialist who graduated from the Central University of Venezuela. He holds Colombian nationality and leads the political analysis firm Sala 58. In Venezuela, Peche served as an advisor to the National Assembly between 2017 and 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also worked with organizations such as Voto Joven, which promotes electoral participation among young Venezuelans abroad, and La Mejor Venezuela.

After the kidnapping and arbitrary detention of journalist and close friend Carlos Marcano in May 2025 by Venezuela’s National Bolivarian Police, Peche decided to leave Venezuela and settle in Colombia.

According to police, at least three individuals took part in the attack. The assailants used a vehicle that had left the same building as Velásquez and Peche just moments before opening fire, leading investigators to believe they had been closely monitoring the victims. The car was later found in Suba, a neighborhood in northwestern Bogotá, with two pistols inside. “There were many shots,” said Usaquén district police commander Ricardo Chaves. Police say they have no record of either man receiving threats this year in Colombia.

Hunted Across Borders

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism, condemned the attack on social media, asserting that the Venezuelan government had targeted the two: “This attack constitutes a serious aggression not only against them but against all the work of protecting and promoting human rights in the region,” Machado said.

While this is the first time two civilians have been directly targeted by Maduro’s regime, it isn’t the first attack against Venezuelan refugees abroad. Over the past decade, Venezuela’s overlapping political and economic crises have forced millions to flee, including activists, journalists, and opposition figures. Among the most chilling cases was that of former military dissident Ronald Ojeda, who escaped custody in Venezuela and sought refuge in Chile—only to be kidnapped and murdered there a year later.

International human rights organizations, including the UN, have condemned the targeting of Venezuelan exiles, emphasizing that persecution cannot follow them beyond Venezuela’s borders.

President Gustavo Petro, who did not condemn the attack, reiterated that Colombia remains open to Venezuelans seeking asylum, regardless of political views, and outlined intentions to strengthen protections for human rights defenders.

Yet the National Police (UNP) has not formally announced any upgrades to its security protocols for those under protection. Human rights advocates insist on a rapid and transparent investigation, warning that without concrete measures, Venezuelan exiles and activists will remain vulnerable.

After the attack, Peche posted on social media a moving message about both their wellbeing, and the dangers of being part of Venezuelan politics and the defense of human rights: “Doing politics in Venezuela can get you killed, even outside the country”.

The Bogotá attack sends a chilling signal to Venezuelan exiles and the international community: political repression in Venezuela has continued to evolve into a cross-border threat.

While Colombia’s government pledges protection, the lack of concrete security guarantees leaves activists exposed. If the attack was ordered by the chavista regime, the incident demonstrates that the Maduro regime’s intimidation strategy extends far beyond its borders, challenging both host nations and global human rights organizations to respond decisively to protect those who continue to speak out.

The attack against Peche and Velasquez opens a new pattern, or confirms the one already exposed by the killing of Ojeda in Chile: irregular armed actors can punish Venezuelan dissidents in Latin America. This pattern resembles many antecedents of transnational repression from the left and the right. In the 1970s and 1980s, Operacion Condor, the alliance between the military regimes of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, perpetrated the assassinations of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier, among others. In our days, the regimes of Vladimir Putin in Russia, and of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, have resorted to the same kind of international operations. 

This case brings the spotlight on Colombia, where the government of Gustavo Petro -a former member of the M19 guerrillas and the leader of the Colombian far left- has removed protection to members of the Venezuelan opposition who moved to that country during the government of Ivan Duque. As a result, some of them, like Julio Borges, left Colombia. However, the country is also home to around 2 million Venezuelans, among which there are many who fled persecution, as well as to political allies of Nicolas Maduro, gangs linked to Tren de Aragua, and guerrillas linked to the chavista regime, such as ELN and FARC dissidents. Colombian media outlets like Caracol have been documenting something worse than Petro’s negligence when it comes to refugees from Venezuela: that Colombia is a hunting ground. The killing attempt against these two young and well known activists seems to reinforce this alarming trend.