PBI-Canada attentive to Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life as it travels to the UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil
Video still from Trochando Sin Fronteras.
The Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life has travelled more than 4,000 kilometres from Mexico to Brazil in the context of the United Nations COP30 climate summit that begins on Monday November 10.
On October 31, Deutsche Welle reported: “Indigenous leaders, land defenders and activists are traveling thousands of kilometers in the so-called Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life, on a long journey that crosses Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Its objective is to denounce the impacts of the climate crisis in Mesoamerica.”
That article adds: “The initiative, which is being carried out within the framework of the next United Nations climate change summit (COP30), began on October 12 in Mexico and will end in Brazil on November 6, 2025, days before the start of COP30.”
Dianx Cantarey, one of the coordinators of the Caravan, has provided this context: “We know that no solution will come from spaces like the COP. This caravan is a space for denunciation, but also for building connections among communities that defend life and resist green capitalism.”
Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
In Mexico, the Caravan met with representatives of the autonomous territories that make up the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán on the Purépecha lands of Huáncito, Michoacán; in Guatemala they visited community members in the city of Jutiapa opposed to the Canadian Aura Minerals Era Dorada mine (formerly known as the Cerro Blanco mine); and in Honduras they met with the PBI accompanied Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
Nicaragua
The Caravan was denied passage through Nicaragua.
Mexican environmentalist Mario Quintero, a member of the coordination and organization of the caravan, told EFE: “In Nicaragua we were denied passage, they held us for four hours, they took away our passports without giving us any explanation, and then they told us that we could not (pass) and we should leave immediately.”
Costa Rica
When the Caravana was in San José, Costa Rica, Nota al Pie reported it went to “the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where they denounced impunity for human rights violations in the territories.”
Colombia
On October 28, Trochando Sin Fronteras posted on social media: “The Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life arrived in Bogota raising the voice of the peoples.”
Their fuller article reports: “The Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life arrived last Friday [October 31] at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia to highlight the complaints of communities and groups defending their territory, water, and life against the advance of extractive megaprojects, wind farms, mining projects, hydroelectric dams, and gas pipelines in Indigenous, peasant, and Afro-descendant territories throughout North America.”
And Noticias Hoy reports: “The arrival of the Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life in Bogotá made visible the rejection of communities from the Global South to extractive megaprojects and ‘green capitalism’, demanding climate justice that prioritizes territorial sovereignty. These conflicts are clearly reflected in the Andean páramos, strategic [high-altitude] ecosystems for water and climate.”
That Noticias Hoy article then notes: “Areas like Tota–Bijagual–Mamapacha, Chilí–Barragán and Los Nevados are the scene of disputes between conservation policies, pressures from mining and tourism, and the rights of the peasant and Indigenous communities that have historically inhabited them.”
In Los Nevados, the article notes: “The complex faces a landmark legal conflict: a lawsuit filed by AngloGold Ashanti against the Colombian government, arguing that the 2016 boundary demarcation affected its mining titles, particularly those related to the La Colosa project. This litigation, still without a final resolution, represents a clash between two development models: the extractive model, centered on large-scale metallic mining, and the model that prioritizes the protection of natural resources.”
Accompaniment
The Deutsche Welle article notes that the participants on the Caravan include Bettina Cruz Velázquez, a member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico; Ana Lucía Morales, a Kaqchikel Mayan from the Asociación Grupo Integral de Mujeres Sanjuaneras – AGIMS, from Guatemala; and Alí Trinidad, Dianx Cantarey and Mario Quintero, coordinators of the Caravan.
The Caravan also includes delegations from the Yaqui Tribe of Sonora, the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán, the Maya people of Quintana Roo, the Binnizá people of Oaxaca, the Tz’unun Ya’ Collective and Guardians of the Land of San Pedro de la Laguna, Guatemala, and the Integral Group of Women of San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala.
The Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT) has called “on civil society throughout the region and the world to remain attentive to the route of this caravan. …We call on human rights organizations to observe, denounce and document the abuses and violations we face at the border crossing and in every community criminalized for defending life.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada has responded to that call and is attentive to the Mesoamerican Caravan’s journey.
