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PBI-Kenya accompanies march to Governor’s office to present petition against proposed nuclear power plant

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Kenya has posted:

“PBI Kenya is accompanying land and environmental activists from Kilifi County today as they march to the Governor’s office to present a petition. The activists are protesting the selection of Uyombo Village as the preferred site for a Nuclear Power Plant-

citing the area’s UNESCO biosphere and critical environmental sites, including Arabuko Sokoke, Watamu Marine Park, and Mida Creek Mangrove Forest. They argue that this decision poses serious economic, environmental, and moral risks for the region.

The petition calls for urgent intervention from the President of Kenya through the Governor of Kilifi.”

Late last month, AGCNewsNet reported: “Plans to construct Kenya’s first nuclear power plant in the coastal town of Kilifi have triggered resistance from local communities and environmental activists. The proposed site, located in a conservation area, has raised alarm, particularly in the small fishing village of Uyombo.”

The article adds: “The Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (Nupea) … aims to start construction on Kenya’s nuclear plant between 2027 and 2029, with operations beginning by 2034.”

Russia and the United States

Earlier this month, The Independent reported: “Kenya intends to intensify cooperation with Russia in the fields of nuclear and renewable energy, Ambassador of Kenya to Russia, Peter Muthuku, told reporters.”

News Az adds: “Kenya’s collaboration in nuclear energy is not limited to Russia. The country is also strengthening ties with the United States in this field. …This growing collaboration between Kenya and the US was further emphasized during Kenyan President William Ruto’s State visit to the US, where clean energy and resilience, including nuclear energy, were major topics of discussion between President Ruto and US President Joe Biden.”

False solution

Friends of the Earth has commented: “As the climate crisis intensifies, science and justice demand real, renewable solutions that will protect our planet and communities — not false climate solutions that sacrifice frontline communities and ignore mistakes of the past. Climate solutions should be clean and just. We cannot continue to rely on false solutions like nuclear, biomass, petrochemicals, and net zero.”

Greenpeace has also highlighted: “The multiple stages of the nuclear fuel cycle produce large volumes of radioactive waste. No government has yet resolved how to safely manage this waste.”

Nuclear power at COP29

And yet the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, the country hosting the upcoming United Nations COP29 climate conference (November 11 to 22), says: “The inclusion of facilitated and affordable nuclear technologies in the resource deliberations of the COP process is essential.”

Earlier this year, the foreign minister commented: “The inclusion of nuclear energy in the global stocktake at COP28, as a means for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, was indeed a historic milestone. …We, as the host country for COP29, are committed to spearheading efforts to produce tangible outcomes at this milestone event to be held in Baku later this year.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading:

– PBI-Kenya amplifies concerns about a proposed nuclear power plant in the coastal village of Uyombo, Kilifi (July 3, 2024)

– PBI-Kenya meets with survivors of National Police Service violence at protest against proposed nuclear power plant in Uyombo (July 4, 2024)

– PBI-Kenya expresses solidarity with Uyombo village brutalized by police for opposing a nuclear power plant (July 10, 2024)

District of Squamish Council asks local RCMP detachment to appear before council to address concerns about the C-IRG

By
Brent Patterson
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Video of presentation and debate (starting at 8:04).

The Squamish Reporter reports: “Spencer Fitschen and Maryam Adrangi of the Rising Tide Squamish appeared before the council [on September 24] to present a motion to the Squamish council, calling for a formal rejection of the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police/RCMP] Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC), formerly known as the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

The article continues: “The motion presented to the council calls for the District of Squamish to communicate to the RCMP that the CRU’s presence would not be recognized as contributing to public safety. It also requests that taxpayer funding for the unit be withdrawn and that a public accountability forum be established to ensure transparency regarding the RCMP’s response to public protests.”

Adrangi says: “This is a highly militarized arm of the RCMP, and its playbook was developed by a former U.S. military strategist in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been over 500 formal complaints against the unit, which is currently under systemic investigation by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).”

As the CBC journalist Brett Forester has previously reported: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

Adrangi adds: “The BC Civil Liberties Association and over 70 other groups have raised serious concerns about the CRU’s conduct. We don’t need this type of militarized policing here in Squamish. Their actions have been documented, including holding Indigenous women at gunpoint and engaging in acts of violence. This is not what keeps our community safe.”

The text of the motion.

Photo: District of Squamish Council (l-r): John French, Andrew Hamilton, Eric Andersen, Armand Hurford, Lauren Greenlaw, Jenna Stoner, Chris Pettingill.

The news report notes that Councillors Chris Pettingill and Lauren Greenlaw expressed some nuanced concerns about the C-IRG, while Councillor Andrew Hamilton cautioned against local government overreach.

The article concludes: “The council passed a motion asking the local Squamish RCMP detachment to appear before the council and speak on the issue.”

Excerpt from Minutes of September 24, 2024, meeting.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Commission for Justice and Peace at Young Peacebuilders gathering in Buenaventura

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted:

“We accompany the Inter-Church Commission of Justice and Peace together with ACT Swedish Church at the II Meeting of Young Peacebuilders in Buenaventura. More than 200 people gathered in the El Ruiz neighborhood in Comuna 12 to build cultural alternatives with young people from the territories.”

FICONPAZ has also posted:

“Ten collectives, made up of 250 young people from Buenaventura, strengthened their capacities in areas such as advocacy, communication, construction of life plans, conflict resolution and psychosocial skills for the construction of peace and coexistence in their communities through the PazAventura project.

Through this process of accompaniment and strengthening, PazAventura has sought to contribute to the promotion of protective environments, where young people can grow and have projects away from violence.

PazAventura is a project of @unicef_colombia in partnership with FICONPAZ and with the support of the Diocese of Buenaventura.”

PBI-Colombia has been accompanying the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission since 1994.

COFADEH warns of the dangers to the family and companeros of murdered Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Cofadeh coordinator Bertha Oliva speaks at media conference, October 9, 2024. Photo by Orlando Sierra/AFP.

The Spanish news agency EFE reports: “The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) warned on Wednesday [October 9] that the lives of the relatives of environmentalist Juan López, murdered on September 14, may be in danger, so it called on the authorities to prevent a new crime.”

The video of the Cofadeh media conference can be seen here.

López was a member of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) of Tocoa and a defender of the Guapinol River from a mining-thermoelectric plant-iron oxide pelletizing plant megaproject.

Cofadeh coordinator Bertha Oliva said: “We are calling on the mechanism for the protection of human rights to guarantee the safety of Juan López’s wife, children and his companions who accompanied him in his campaign.”

Video still: Juan Lopez.

Expansion adds: “Leonel George, Lopez’s colleague in the CMDBCP and also a councillor, told AFP that Lopez’s family already has police protection, but that other people around him are still exposed to significant risks.”

Cofadeh to call on Public Ministry

The EFE article adds: “Oliva indicated that on Thursday [October 10] Cofadeh will be present at the headquarters of the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) to demand social justice and demand security for the family of the murdered environmentalist and his colleagues.”

First hearing of suspects

EFE also notes: “So far, Honduran authorities have arrested, last week, four men involved in the crime against López, of whom three appeared before a court in San Pedro Sula, north, where they were sentenced to judicial detention and must appear this week in an initial hearing.”

Tunota.com adds: “After hearing the presentation of the prosecution and the defense, the judge determined that the three defendants will remain held in the National Penitentiary of Támara, in Francisco Morazán.”

For more on this: PBI-Honduras accompanies the Municipal Committee at initial hearing for three men accused of killing Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez (PBI-Canada article, October 9, 2024).

UN Special Rapporteurs note responsibilities of companies

United Nations Special Rapporteurs, including Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, have stated: “His murder is part of a framework of attacks, intimidation and criminalization of human rights defenders who make up the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) and who publicize the negative consequences of the activities of the mining company Inversiones los Pinares (formerly EMCO Mining Company) in a protected area and the steel company Inversiones ECOTEK.”

Their statement adds: “The two companies belong to EMCO Holdings, which would have partnered with a large overseas steel company.”

The UN Special Rapporteurs further highlighted: “As part of their responsibility to respect human rights, companies, including investors, must ensure that their actions or omissions do not result in reprisals, violence or intimidation, or the use of legal proceedings against defenders, throughout their value chain.”

U.S.-based Nucor corporation

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

Photo: Google image of Nucor headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As of June 2024, the top investors in Nucor include the Royal Bank of Canada ($70 million), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ($35 million), the Toronto-Dominion Bank ($19 million), TD Asset Management ($14 million) and the National Bank of Canada ($11 million).

Accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

PBI-Honduras accompanies the Municipal Committee at initial hearing for three men accused of killing Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Today in San Pedro Sula we accompany the Municipal Committee for Defense of Common and Public Property in the initial hearing against the defendants in the case of the murder of #defender Juan Lopez. To achieve #justice for Juan, it is essential that there is an impartial, independent and thorough investigation into what happened.”

COPINH

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has also tweeted:

“The hearing against 3 people involved in the murder of Juan López began.

From COPINH, we are alert to the resolution of the trial and we hope that it is carried out in a diligent, transparent and fair manner.

We reaffirm our demands that the trial reveal the truth behind Juan’s murder and that justice be done.

We demand that the investigation into the murder of Juan López guarantee the protection of his family, the CMDBCP and his legal team, as well as the capture of the masterminds.”

US Ambassador

The US Ambassador to Honduras Laura F. Dogu also tweeted: “We are closely following the progress of the investigation into the murder of environmental defender Juan López. We are encouraged by the progress in the case. We urge that the judicial process be transparent and fair to ensure justice and protect those who defend the environment and human rights in Honduras.”

We continue to follow the X/Twitter accounts of Ambassador-designate Ioanna Sahas Martin and the Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The arrests

Reportar Sin Miedo has reported: “The defendants, Óscar Alexis Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía, were arrested on October 4 and 5 in Tocoa. According to investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the three participated in the surveillance and planning of the attack that ended López’s life.”

Photo from Reportar Sin Miedo.

After the three were arrested, the Committee stated:

“In the wake of the vile murder of our comrade Juan López on September 14, 2024, the Committee has remained firm in its demand for justice, demanding that all possible lines of investigation be investigated and that a thorough, independent and prompt investigation be carried out with international technical assistance and advice, without the participation of corrupt operators of the local justice system.  this, to guarantee the capture and punishment of the material and intellectual authors of the crime who paid and ordered the spilling of the innocent blood of compañero Juan López.”

They also highlighted:

“As a result of our demands and those of our legal team after the murder of our colleague Juan López, we have been victims of threats and surveillance and campaigns of stigmatization and hatred have been directed against us – the same ones that Juan López and other defenders denounced before his murder without having a response from the State.”

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Video still: Juan Lopez.

Additional background on the megaproject

Image from Guapinol Resiste website.

The megaproject has seven components:

ASP and ASP2: “Inversiones Los Pinares received the rights to concessions “ASP” and “ASP2”, 100 hectares each, to dig for iron oxide.” The ASP mining concession was set to expire on January 28, 2024. On October 26, 2023, Inversiones Los Pinares asked for it to be renewed for up to 30 more years.

Thermoelectric plant: “The thermoelectric plant is based on pet coke [petroleum coke], a by-product derived from the oil refining process [that is] ‘highly polluting and harmful to health’.” The power is to be used for the pelletizing plant.

Iron oxide pelletizing plant: “A mining project by the Honduran company Los Inversiones Pinares will produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange.”

Guapinol River and Ceibita stream concessions: “[The pelletizing plant needs] one hundred gallons of water per minute, consuming 52 million five hundred and sixty thousand gallons of water in a year.”

On August 1, 2018, the community established a Camp in Defence of Water and Life when the tap water in Guapinol turned chocolate brown and thick with muddy sediment after the company started widening a road for the mine.

Arrests, criminalization and judicialization followed.

The struggle to defend the Guapinol River from this megaproject has also taken the lives of Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada and José Mario Rivera (August 28, 2019), Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo (October 13, 2020), Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), Óscar Oquelí Domínguez Ramos (June 15, 2023) and most recently Juan López (September 14, 2024).

EMCO has also specified: “After 8 years of work, Phase 1 of raw iron production as a raw material began in Los Pinares and at the end of 2021 Phase 2 will start to export semi-processed iron to the United States.” 

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

Photo: A mining company operating at the ‘Botaderos’ National Park, ‘Carlos Escaleras Mejía’, near Guapinol, Honduras. ©OHCHR/Vincent Tremeau.

Further reading: Investigative report details connections between U.S.-based steel producer Nucor and Los Pinares mine in Honduras (PBI-Canada, October 9, 2024).

Investigative report details connections between U.S.-based steel producer Nucor and Los Pinares mine in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: “Protest of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) against the Ecotek thermoelectric project in Tocoa, during an open town hall to socialize the plant. Tocoa, Colón, December 2023. Photo: CC / Fernando Destephen.”

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

The struggle to defend the Guapinol River from this megaproject has taken the lives of Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada and José Mario Rivera (August 28, 2019), Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo (October 13, 2020), Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), Óscar Oquelí Domínguez Ramos (June 15, 2023) and most recently Juan López (September 14, 2024).

Video still: Juan Lopez.

The article details:

“According to the income statements in the consolidated annual statement of the concession of Inversiones Los Pinares in 2022, until December 31 of that year the Honduran company had an account receivable from Nucor Corporation of 6,448,571 lempiras, about 260 thousand dollars, and at the same time Los Pinares had a long-term account payable in favor of the multinational for an amount of 860,923,000 lempiras, about 34.72 million dollars.

The following year, in 2023, the values in the accounts payable and receivable between Nucor Corporation and Los Pinares increased. An annual statement registered in the Los Pinares file indicates that by September 2023 Nucor’s debt with the Honduran company had risen to 6,706,134 lempiras, almost 271 thousand dollars. That is, it had increased by 11 thousand dollars. On the other hand, Los Pinares’ debt with the multinational increased to 862,466,500 lempiras, about 34.78 million dollars, rising 60 thousand dollars.”

A previous investigative report by Contracorriente, the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and Univision Investiga, found that the U.S. firm has partnered with the project since March 2015 with the Panamanian company NE Holdings Subsidiary and since August 2016 through a second Panamanian firm with a similar name, NE Holdings. A spokesperson for Nucor said in November 2020 that the company decided to sell the shares in NE Holdings in October 2019.

Photo: A mining company operating at the ‘Botaderos’ National Park, ‘Carlos Escaleras Mejía’, near Guapinol, Honduras. ©OHCHR/Vincent Tremeau.

Notably, a feature article in RadioProgreso.hn speculates on three “lines of accusation” on who could have been behind the murder of Juan Lopez. The first line suggests “the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, with whom López had permanent altercations, confrontations and disagreements”, the second line speculates “Lenir Pérez and his closest and most public partners in Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek” while the third line conjectures it was the military and its links to organized crime given “the army’s role in the security and intelligence services of Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek, but also [as] an investment partner of the company.”

Canadian connections

Photo: Google image of Nucor headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor has an office in Burlington, Ontario, as well as Vulcraft Canada locations in Leduc, Alberta; Ancaster, Ontario; Wetaskiwin, Alberta; and Montreal, Quebec.

Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The Nucor Corporate Social Responsibility 2023 report can be read here.

The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group, the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto, Ontario.

Photo: Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. is located in the Bay Adelaide Centre at 22 Adelaide Street West, Suite 2500, in Toronto.

Accompaniment

The Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) continues to demand an investigation of the murder of their comrade Juan Lopez with “international technical assistance and advice. without the participation of corrupt operators of the local justice system” in order “to guarantee the capture and punishment of the material and intellectual authors of the crime.”

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Municipal Committee demands the arrest of the intellectual authors of the murder of Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: A “Great Diocesan Walk” in Tocoa on Sunday October 6 to honour the life of environmental defender Juan Lopez.

As the Walk took place, Guapinol Exige Justicia tweeted: “True justice for our comrade and coordinator Juan Lopez will come once the murderous megaproject of Emco Holding is cancelled in its entirety and the Montana de Botaderos National Park and the Guapinol, San Pedro and Ceibita rivers are fully restored.”

La Prensa reports: “Honduran security forces arrested two men on Saturday [October 5] for their alleged involvement in the murder of environmentalist Juan López on Sept. 14, Honduran Security Secretary Gustavo Sánchez said.”

Video still: Bullet holes in the windshield of the car in which Lopez was shot to death, September 14, 2024.

That article continues: “The two suspects were detained ‘for investigative purposes’ by elements of the National Police during raids in the municipality of Tocoa, department of Colón, in the Caribbean of Honduras.”

Sánchez says: “[The detainees] belong to a criminal structure dedicated to contract killing in the area and were hired to carry out this criminal offense. We will not rest until we reach all those responsible for this unfortunate event.”

Tweet by Hondudiario.com

In response to the arrests of these men, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) continued to demand an investigation with “international technical assistance and advice. without the participation of corrupt operators of the local justice system” in order “to guarantee the capture and punishment of the material and intellectual authors of the crime.”

Their statement also highlights the ongoing concern: “As a result of our demands and those of our legal team after the murder of our colleague Juan López, we have been victims of threats and surveillance and campaigns of stigmatization and hatred have been directed against us – the same ones that Juan López and other defenders denounced before his murder without having a response from the State.”

They also clearly state their demand: “True justice for our colleague and coordinator Juan López will come once the murderous megaproject of Emco Holding, through its companies Inversiones los Pinares/Ecotek, is canceled in its entirety and the Montaña de Botaderos National Park ‘Carlos Escaleras Mejía’, and the Guapinol, San Pedro and Quebrada Ceibita rivers are fully restored. This includes the annulment of the mining concessions, the petroleum coke thermoelectric power project, the processing plant and the water concessions obtained by the company, and in turn, the comprehensive implementation of decree 18-2024 that would involve the demolition of all the structures of the mining company Inversiones los Pinares/Ecotek in Tocoa Colón.”

Photo: A mining company operating at the ‘Botaderos’ National Park, ‘Carlos Escaleras Mejía’, near Guapinol, Honduras. © OHCHR/Vincent Tremeau

Their full statement can be read at Pronunciamiento sobre las detenciones realizadas los días 4 y 5 de octubre en relación con el asesinato del defensor Juan López, coordinador de la CMDBCPT (October 5, 2024).

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Video still: Juan Lopez at home, AFP Español. The 46-year-old was married to Telma and had two young daughters.

Report says threat of free trade agreement lawsuits may have impeded action against Los Pinares and Aura Minerals mines in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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On October 3, a 136-page report was released titled The Corporate Assault on Honduras: How mafia-style investments undermine the Honduran people’s struggle for democracy and dignity (available in Spanish here).

The report authored by Luciana Ghiotto, Jen Moore, Aldo Orellana López, Karen Spring and Manuel Pérez-Rocha was published by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Transnational Institute, TerraJusta and the Honduras Solidarity Network.

Just prior to the release of the report, one of its authors, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, wrote in La Jornada (republished in English here) about meeting Guapinol River defender Juan López who was murdered on September 14 in Tocoa, Honduras.

Pérez-Rocha writes: “I met him when he came to Washington, D.C. to receive the Letelier-Moffitt human rights award on behalf of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, along with a large Honduran delegation. …The Honduran group received the Letelier-Moffitt prize for its campaign in defense of the Guapinol river against the wave of extractive industries funded by American, Canadian, and European corporations.”

Photo: Juan López and Juana Zúniga receive the Letelier-Moffitt award, 2019. IPS established the award to honour Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt who were assassinated in 1976 by the Pinochet regime for their work to defend human rights in Chile.

The report notes (on page 113): “After assuming the presidency in early 2022, Xiomara Castro declared that she would no longer issue permits for open-pit mines and that she would favor the protection of water and forests. One month later, on February 28, 2022, the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines (SERNA) issued a communiqué declaring ‘all Honduran territory free of open-pit mining’ and announcing ‘the review, suspension and cancellation of environmental licenses, permits and concessions’. However, as soon as this statement was made, it is likely that mining companies threatened to bring claims, contributing to the government diluting its commitment and delaying its fulfillment.”

The report continues (on page 115): “As for Los Pinares mining company, it is possible that since 2022 the threat of a lawsuit is contributing to delays in halting its open pit iron oxide mine and associated installations.”

The report also notes (on page 51): “Lenir Pérez and his wife Ana Facussé (daughter of Miguel Facussé, who was known as one of the richest men in Honduras), have organized their investments in the mining sector through companies registered in Panama. This is the case of NE Holdings Inc. which has operated from Panama in order to facilitate business with the US steel company Nucor, although its deal with the company was not consolidated due to conflicts in the municipality of Tocoa over the iron ore project in the community of Guapinol.”

The report describes the free trade agreement international arbitration lawsuits against Honduras as “mafia-style” because “most of them are by companies whose investments were made in an irregular manner during the period known as the narco-dictatorship in Honduras, after the 2009 coup d’état.”

The report further comments: “The 2009 coup d’état against President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, supported by the governments of the United States and Canada, was marked by the deepening of the unjust global neoliberal economic model in Honduras.”

Photo: Then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces a “free trade” agreement has been reached with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, August 2011.Harper was the first foreign political leader to visit Honduras after the June 28, 2009 coup.

Photo: CEHPRODEC coordinator Pedro Landa visited Ottawa in March 2011 and January 2012 to speak against the free trade agreement and the General Mining Law in Honduras that Canadian officials helped to write.

This past week marks the 10th anniversary of the Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement entering into force on October 1, 2014.

In a specific reference to that agreement, the report notes the case of Aura Minerals.

It states (on pages 113-114): “For years, Aura Minerals’ open pit gold mine in Copán has been the focus of conflict and questioned for the illegal excavation of the cemetery in the community of Azacualpa – including for not complying with orders from SERNA [the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines] and the Supreme Court of Justice to suspend activities. However, Aura Minerals is listed on the Canadian stock exchange and could invoke the Canada-Honduras FTA if it feels its investment is being affected.”

 Photo from Resumen Latinoamericano.

As the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project amplified: “From @Cehprodechn [the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development] they warn that if ‘mining concessions lead to territorial conflicts like @guapinolre or #Azacualpa , Honduras would be completely ungovernable’”

PBI-Honduras has also posted:

“After seven years, despite ratification in an Open Council and an injunction in their favour, the struggle of the Azacualpa community continues.
The exploitation of the hill has not stopped, and with it the dispossession of the land, the displacement of its inhabitants, exhumations and environmental pollution.
We at PBI express our concern for the complex situation experienced by the Maya-Chortí people, who in exercising their right to defend their ancestral lands suffer constant threats. We are also concerned about the intimidation and threats against Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad, who have been closely following the case.”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) since May 2014 and Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Indigenous land defenders from Ecuador face the risk of reprisal after speaking against Canadian mining companies

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Ivonne Ramos, Hortencia Zhagüi, Rachel Lim (Amnesty International), Louise Casselman (Public Service Alliance of Canada/PSAC), Zenaida Yasacama and Fanny Kaekat at public forum in Ottawa, October 3, 2024. Photo by Laura Avalos (PSAC).

CBC News reports: “Indigenous women from Ecuador are in Ottawa this week raising concerns a proposed free trade agreement could enable human rights abuses by Canadian mining companies operating on their ancestral lands.”

The article highlights the risks faced by Zenaida Yasacama, Fanny Kaekat, Hortencia Zhagüi and Ivonne Ramos for speaking out.

Kaekat tells CBC News: “We are being threatened and our territory is being expropriated. Speaking out here puts my safety at risk.” Yasacama adds: “Women are threatened. They are judicialized. They are subjected to violence.” Yasacama also tells The Globe and Mail: “If necessary, we will give our lives to defend our land because we want to preserve the land for future generations. We are here as protectors of the jungle, and we are here to reject the destruction of our environment.”

On CBC Radio’s As It Happens, Amnesty International Canada secretary-general Ketty Nivyabandi also noted: “One of [these defenders] told us very clearly, she said, I do not know whether I will stay alive once I go back to Ecuador. People know that I have come here. They will hear about it and people have died while doing exactly what she’s doing. And she told us, well, I will hold. I want everybody to know that I will hold my government, Ecuadorian government, the Canadian mining companies responsible for anything that happens to me. So, the risks are extremely high. But at the same time, what they’ve told us is we had to come all the way to Canada to ensure that our voices are heard.”

Video still: Ivonne Ramos from Acción Ecológica works for the protection of nature defenders and accompanies territorial defense processes.

Canadian mining companies in Ecuador

CBC News also highlights: “There are 15 Canadian mining companies operating in Ecuador, with some facing allegations of abuses and working in ecologically sensitive areas, according to Mining Watch Canada.”

Amnesty International notes: “Solaris Resources is among the Canadian companies facing allegations of abuse as it attempts to advance its Warintza open-pit copper-gold project in Shuar Arutam territory.”

Video still: Fanny Kaekat, a leader with the Shuar Arutam People.

Amnesty International also note that an independent review found that Dundee Precious Metals and its proposed Loma Larga gold mine is a “ticking time bomb” for arsenic contamination in an important watershed.

Video still: Hortencia Zhagüi is a defender of the páramo (wetland) of Kimsakocha.

IPS has reported that a popular referendum in August 2023 rejected oil production in Yasuni National Park, but implementation of that result remains a challenge.

Years before, the National Audubon Society noted that ChevronTexaco “had dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in the rainforest north of Yasuní” and references “a joint venture led by Spain’s Repsol” in Block 16, while Amazon Watch noted this past August that state-run Petroecuador is “nowhere close to meeting the deadline” of one-year after the referendum to end its oil activities and restore the area.

While in Canada, Yasacama told The Globe and Mail: “Canadian companies cause a lot of trouble for us because our organizations are there to defend the land and we will continue to defend the land.”

Video still: Zenaida Yasacama participated in the campaign to protect the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve that culminated in the referendum win on August 20, 2023.

Free trade talks

In November 2022, Canada and Ecuador announced the launch of exploratory discussions toward a potential Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement. On May 8, 2024, Ecuador and Canada concluded the first round of negotiations. On September 24 of this year, MiningWatch Canada noted: “Canada and Ecuador are in their fourth round of negotiations…” MiningWatch has further noted that the governments of Canada and Ecuador hope to conclude these negotiations in 2025, perhaps as early as January or February.

Risk of retaliation

This past July, The Globe and Mail reported that the office of United Nations Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor “has registered 15 cases, between June, 2019, and March, 2022, of retaliation against human-rights advocates that she alleges can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining abroad.”

That article further noted that: “[Lawlor] singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad.”

Photo: UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor in Toronto, June 2024.

The context of risk is serious.

Global Witness has documented the murders of land and environmental defenders in Ecuador including Eduardo Mendúa (in 2023), Alba Bermeo Puin (in 2022) and Andrés Durazno, Nange Yeti and Víctor Enrique Guaillas Gutama (in 2021). They all opposed either oil or mining extractivism on Indigenous lands.

We continue to follow this situation.

Photo: Public forum in Ottawa, October 3, 2024. Photo by Laura Avalos.

100+ organizations call for rigorous investigation into the masterminds behind the murder of Juan López

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo of Juan Lopez from Criterio.hn.

Criterio.hn now reports: “More than 100 civil society organizations have raised their voices in an urgent appeal to the President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, following the murder of environmental defender Juan López on September 14 in Tocoa.”

That letter (dated September 27 and posted September 30), signed by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), CoDevelopment Canada, University of Guelph, COPINH, Plataforma Agraria, the Latin American Working Group (LAWG), NISGUA, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team, and many others can be read in full here.

The Criterio.hn article adds: “Juan López, an environmental defender and municipal councilor of Tocoa, had constantly denounced death threats from political and economic actors, including Mayor Adán Fúnez and companies linked to extractive activities such as Inversiones los Pinares, Grupo EMCO and Inversiones Ecotek. His work in defense of the Guapinol River and his opposition to open-pit mining had made him a target of reprisals.”

The letter also calls on Honduran President Castro to seek international support to “launch a rigorous, impartial, and effective investigation to identify both the perpetrators and masterminds behind this crime.”

Speculation

A feature article by Ismael Moreno in RadioProgreso.hn speculates on three “lines of accusation” on who could have been behind the murder of Lopez.

The first line suggests “the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, with whom Juan López had permanent altercations, confrontations and disagreements”, the second line speculates “Lenir Pérez and his closest and most public partners in Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek” while the third line conjectures it was the military and its links to organized crime given “the army’s role in the security and intelligence services of Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek, but also [as] an investment partner of the company.”

The corporate structure behind the megaproject

Researcher Elvin Fernaly Hernández Rivera at ERIC & Radio Progreso (ERIC-RP) has noted: “Both [mining] licenses were awarded to Inversiones Los Pinares, belonging to the EMCO Group, whose main partners are the married couple Lenir Pérez and Ana Facussé, who belong to one of the wealthiest families in the country. Among their holdings is the Corporación Dinant, with over 12 thousand hectares of oil palm in the Aguán valley.”

Their research adds: “The mining licenses were preceded by the installation of the iron oxide pelletizing plant. To carry out the iron processing, the EMCO Group created Inversiones ECOTEK S.A. because the licenses granted to Inversiones Los Pinares are for non-metallic mining, so they cannot be involved in the processing stage.”

A collaboration between Contracorriente, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) and the Univision Investigative Unit has also highlighted: “The plant, which will melt iron with carbon or coke to form compound pellets — part of the steelmaking process — is 99.6% owned by Inversiones Ecotek S.A. de C.V., a company created in 2017 in Honduras by Pérez and Facussé. The plant’s remaining .4% of shares belong to another mining firm owned by Pérez and engulfed in conflict, Empresa Minera La Victoria, S.A.”

That investigative report further notes that Nucor Corporation, the chief steel producer in the United States, partnered with Pérez and Facussé starting in March 2015 but then sold its shares in NE Holdings in October 2019, though there are reportedly still some outstanding questions about these transactions including the shares being sold to a company named Aluminios y Techos de Guatemala (Alutech).

The period in which Nucor owned shares in the megaproject (March 2015 to October 2019) saw the killing of three water defenders and the beginning of the arbitrary detention of eight other water defenders.

Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The Vanguard Group, that has been the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto, Canada.

The role of Canada and the U.S.

We further note that the letter states: “We also recognize and lament the role of the United States with its failed policies towards Honduras (the tacit support to the 2009 coup d’état and the following 12 years of narco-governments) that helped and embed the very structures of organized crime and corruption that resulted in the murder of Juan López.”

It has been highlighted that Canadian foreign policy mirrored US policies including the tacit support of the 2009 coup. In May 2010, NACLA published this article by Vancouver-based Canadian academics Maxwell A. Cameron and Jason Tockman that states: “Throughout the Honduran crisis, Canada moved in lockstep with the United States, even as U.S. policy diverged from the hemispheric consensus.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras tweet: “Today we are accompanying the press conference of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods. The Committee demands that justice be done and that those responsible for the vile murder of the defender Juan Lopez be punished. From PBI we make an urgent call for justice to be done.”

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