PBI-Honduras shares report by CEHPRODEC on mining concessions that notes Canadian companies

On March 13, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on their Facebook page, “According to the latest report on mining in Honduras by CEHRPODEC, in September 2019 there were 471 concessions for mining projects in the country.”

PBI-Honduras adds, “With this document, CEHPRODEC wants to reach the communities and leaderships that defend natural assets, ‘those people who every day try to take care of their livelihoods against extractive projects and who have felt compelled to resist until death’.”

The 54-page report The State of Mining in Honduras can be read here (in Spanish via Dropbox).

Among the charts and graphs in the report is a listing of foreign companies or natural persons that held concessions in the departments of Olancho, Choluteca and Valle in 2019.

That list includes:

First Point Honduras S.A. (the report lists four names associated with the company who are Canadian and who live in British Columbia), page 44

Cobra Oro de Honduras S.A. (linked in the report with Glen Eagle Resources Inc., Quebec; Sociedad Mercantil Santa Barbara Mining Inc, Vancouver, British Columbia; Breakwater Resources Inc., Canada), pages 49-50

American Pacific S.A. (linked in the report with Morumbi Resources Inc. and Ascendant Resources in Toronto, Ontario), page 50

In May 2014, CEHPRODEC contributed to the report The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada’s Responsibility that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. That report noted:

“The political and economic support Canada gives Canadian companies (through mechanisms such as Export Development Canada (EDC), the Investment Board of the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian International Development Agency) is provided without adequate controls to prevent the violation of human rights in the countries where the companies that receive these benefits operate.”

“Trade agreements usually contain clauses on human rights and environmental protection. However, they lack the legal bases to force the parties — and, fundamentally, Canada — to comply with the obligation to respect and guarantee the human rights that are violated in the host countries by the actions of Canadian mining companies.”

The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement and parallel agreements on labour and environmental cooperation entered into force on October 1, 2014.

The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project report The Canada Brand: Violence and Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America found that between 2000-2015 there was 1 death related to a Canadian mine in Honduras, 10 injuries, and 85 instances of “criminalization”, including arrests, detentions and charges.

And in April 2014, MiningWatch Canada’s then Latin America program coordinator Jennifer Moore expressed concern to a Canadian parliamentary committee about the Canadian-backed mining law that was passed in Honduras in January 2013.

Moore stated, “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

PBI-Honduras began accompanying CEHPRODEC in May 2014.

Photo: PBI accompanies CEHPRODEC at a mass protest against the International Mining Congress, July 2015.