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PBI-Colombia accompanies the 27th anniversary of the Peace Community days after two members were murdered

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has tweeted: “We accompanied the peaceful march and the commemorative events of the anniversary #27AñosCdP [27 years of the Community of Peace] organized by the @cdpsanjose [Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado] who claims their legitimate right to the protection of nature. We regret that the sky of commemoration has been clouded due to the murder of 2 members.”

Last week, PBI-Colombia had also posted: “We express our deep pain, rejection and indignation at the murder of Nallely and Edinson, two beloved people of the @cdpsanjose with whom we shared in solidarity only days before.”

The Peace Community

Yes! Magazine has reported: “On March 23, 1997, Brígida Gonzáles, 69, along with the others who decided to stay, founded the Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó. This ‘Peace Community’ declared itself neutral in the conflict, pledging not to get involved in any way and asked to be left in peace.”

In March 2009, Amnesty International noted: “Over 170 members of the community have been killed or forcibly disappeared since the community’s creation in 1997.”

Last week, Colombian president Gustavo Petro said that 400 members of the community have been murdered.

Some of those killed have died in massacres, such as the one in April 1999, when three of its members were killed; that of February 2000, when five members were killed; and the one on February 21, 2005, when Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the historical leaders, was assassinated along with part of his family.

Nallely Sepúlveda and Edinson David

Two more members of the community were killed last week.

El Colombiano reports: “Nallely and Edinson were murdered on Tuesday, March 19 at noon, the news reached Apartadó around 6 p.m. and the bodies were collected 24 hours later.”

That article adds: “No one really knows who the killers were for Nallely Sepulveda, 30, and her little brother-in-law Edinson David Higuita, 14. The only thing that is clear is that their bodies, which were left lying in a house in the village of La Esperanza, in San José de Apartadó, were not picked up by either the Prosecutor’s Office or the Police, it was the same members of the Peace Community who had to rescue them four hours away and return with the bodies wrapped in sheets. passing through wild rivers and trails in which they were sometimes buried up to their knees.”

Tweet: “In these 27 years of the Peace Community we have collected our dead, murdered by paramilitaries, with the complicit consent of the government. What good is a change of government, if nothing changes, if they continue killing us in the territory. Until when?”

The speculation is that the two members were killed by the Clan del Golfo (Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AGC) paramilitary.

On Sunday March 24, Pope Francis remembered the two killed and dedicated a space to pray for the community during the liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday.

Tweet: Pope Francis: “I express my closeness to the Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia, where a few days ago a young woman and a child were murdered” https://vaticannews.va/es.html

We continue to follow the situation.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since 1999.

Could the German Air Force resume low-level flight training over Indigenous lands in Newfoundland and Labrador?

By
Brent Patterson
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Video: Hunters and Bombers (1990).

CBC reports the German air force has requested that low-level flight training resume at 5 Wing Goose Bay, a Canadian Forces Base situated on the traditional territory of the Innu in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In an emailed statement to CBC/Radio Canada, Department of National Defence (DND) spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin says: “We are open to future requests, and will pursue positive engagement with Indigenous communities regarding such requests.”

Poulin adds: “The war in Ukraine has … increased the strategic importance of 5 Wing Goose Bay for Canada and NATO’s collective security, and in support of our bilateral and multilateral defence relationships.”

In September 2023, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey wrote Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair highlighting: “My government stands ready and willing to host GAF [the German Air Force].”

Photo: In December 2022, the German government announced it would be purchasing 35 F-35 warplanes. Training with the first new planes is scheduled to begin in 2026.

Premier Furey’s government has helped to facilitate consultations with potentially affected Indigenous communities — for example, the Innu Nation, the Nunatsiavut government (representing an autonomous area claimed by the Inuit in Newfoundland and Labrador) and the NunatuKavut community council (the governing body for the territory of Inuit who reside primarily in south and central Labrador).

CBC further reports: “The Innu Nation confirmed representatives outlined their ‘grave concern’ about low-level flying in a meeting with DND.”

Grand Chief Simon Pokue says: “We cannot ignore our past experience — low-level flying has affected our people, our environment and the caribou. There are elders and many other members of our community alive today who were jailed or whose family members were jailed for protesting low-level flying.”

Photo: Grand Chief Simon Pokue with Innu Elder Tshaukuesh (Elizabeth) Penashue.

In a letter dated December 18, 2023, the Innu told Defence Minister Blair: “Low-level flying makes no sense and would undermine our own efforts and further destroy surviving caribou populations.”

The full article can be read at Return of low-level flight training over Labrador on German air force’s radar (Rob Antle, Patrick Butler; CBC News; February 28, 2024). A CBC Radio Labrador Morning interview with Antle can also be heard here.

Subsequently, on March 14, 2024, SaltWire reported that Hollis Yetman Jr. is one of several residents of Happy Valley-Goose Bay who is supportive of low-level flying.

Yetman Jr. tells Saltwire: “Personally, I would think that you will see an agreement with the Indigenous people in Labrador that will allow low-level flying to go ahead because I don’t think there’s enough negatives to stop it. I think they will eventually come to some agreement. Whether that’s monetary or otherwise, I don’t know.”

That same article notes that Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor George Andrews also supports low-level flight training as does the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Labrador Affairs.

In a statement to SaltWire, the provincial government says: “The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador supports a proposal submitted by the German Air Force to the Federal Government to resume low-level flight training activities in Labrador, as long as it has the support of Indigenous communities.”

The SaltWire article adds that the Nunatsiavut Government declined to comment on this, while the NunatuKavut Community Council says it has not been approached by the Department of National Defence on this.

The full article can be read at Taking off: Happy Valley-Goose Bay residents hoping German military will bring low-level flying back to region (Sanuda Ranawke; SaltWire; March 14, 2024).

Innu opposition in the 1980s

Years ago, Innu Elder Tshaukuesh (Elizabeth) Penashue commented: “In the 40 years that the military has been in Goose Bay [the airfield was established in 1941], the Innu’s culture has collapsed. The use of our lands by others, without our being consulted, has caused stress in our family relationships and links to our family violence. The Innu did not welcome foreign domination. It happened against their will.”

Photo: A German air force Tornado fighter jet at Goose Bay in 2005.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Innu, led mainly by women, began defending their land against NATO low-level fight testing for the cruise missile. More than one hundred Innu land defenders and their supporters were arrested at re-occupations of the Goose Bay airfield and the Minipi Lake bombing range.

Photo: Elders outside a prison when Innu land defenders were being arrested for opposing fighter jets flying over their lands. Photo by Bob Bartel. 

Penashue has noted: “Innu women never used to go out to meetings, but it was time to wake up and do something to stop the destruction caused by low-level flying and weapons testing. …I went to the bombing range with other activists. We put tents on the base to protest. We were jailed many times, in Goose Bay and Stephenville. We walked from Toronto to Ottawa and they put us in jail there, too. I went to Europe twice to speak.”

Photo: A protest at the Goose Bay air force base in 1988 in opposition to NATO low level flight training over Nitassinan.

Photo: Another Innu protest against low-level flight training, 1989.

In October 1994, the Peace Brigades International-North America Project (PBI-NAP) commented: “A continuing issue for the Innu of both Labrador and Quebec is low-level flight training over their hunting territory by Canada and other NATO countries.”

PBI-NAP highlighted at that time the lack of free, prior and informed consent: “The training began without any prior consultation with the Innu.”

It wasn’t until 2005 that the 50+ years of low-level flying operations by NATO member countries over these ancestral lands finally ended.

Almost 20 years later, the issue appears to have emerged again.

We continue to follow this.

Photo: Innu Elder Tshuakuesh Elizabeth Penashue and Peace Brigades International-North America Project activist Anne Harrison in 1995.

Further reading: What impact will Canadian F-35 warplanes at CFB Goose Bay have on Innu territory in Labrador? (PBI-Canada, February 21, 2023) and Canadian and U.S. fighter jets to conduct “exercise flights” over “sparsely populated” Innu territories this week (PBI-Canada, September 20, 2020).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH law firm at sentencing of Poqomchí land defender Sofia Tot Ac for “usurpation”

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted on Facebook:

“On Tuesday and Wednesday [March 19-20] PBI accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) to the hearing of the resolution of the accusation in the Sofía Case, in Cabón (Alta Verapaz). The judge in his sentence resolved that the Poqomchí defender has been an accomplice in the usurpation of protected areas and had an advantage promoted by such occupation, sentencing her to 3 years and 4 four months in prison commutable to Q5 per day, in addition to the payment of a fine of Q2,600.67.

The BDH lawyers consider that the sentence shows contradictions and inconsistencies. The full sentence is expected to be read on April 1.”

On March 18, just prior to Sofia’s sentencing, US Senator Ed Markey tweeted: “Sofia Tot Ac has long worked to protect the rights of Indigenous people and the environment in Guatemala. I am deeply concerned by her prosecution designed to intimidate human rights defenders and I call on the judge to issue a fair verdict.”

Commenting on her sentencing, the Guatemala Solidarity Project notes:

The Guatemala Solidarity Project has also previously explained:

And we previously noted:

Ruda has explained that Sofía Tot, defender and indigenous authority of Purulhá, Baja Verapaz, is accused of aggravated usurpation.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a former UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, has written that “usurpation” is when “Indigenous peoples become [are charged with being] trespassers or illegal occupants of their own lands.”

ActionAid adds that Tot belongs to the resistance movement for the recovery of the ancestral land of the Mayan Poqomchi people.

They further note: “The activist has always worked in defense of the Sierra de las Minas, affected by mineral extraction concessions. This is despite the fact that 52% of this territory is tropical rainforest. Today, it is heavily affected by deforestation and the pollution of its rivers. According to official information, she is accused of the crime of ‘usurpation of a protected natural area’. Specifically, they point out that by accessing an area where the emblematic quetzal bird lives.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.

Photo: Sofía Tot, defender and Indigenous authority of Purulhá, Baja Verapaz. Photo by Rony Morales.

PBI-Guatemala observes evicted communities and BDH lawyers deliver alternative to Protected Areas Law

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Tuesday [March 19] PBI observes delegations from various territories of evicted communities accompanying communities of the Laguna del Tigre and Sierra de Lacandón Protected Areas that have lived decades criminalized and threatened with eviction by the current Protected Areas Law.

Together with their lawyers from the Human Rights Law Firm [BDH] they delivered a reform proposal to several congressional deputies. The proposal seeks that the communities are recognized as guardians of nature and that the state complies with their rights to education, health and decent housing.

Since 2010, via accompaniment to the BDH [Human Rights Law Firm] PBI accompanies the alternative proposal of the communities affected by the Protected Areas Law; for more information we invite you to read this article from 2018 that gives context to the life situation of the communities.”

A news report on the protest noted: “Residents from different parts of the departments of Petén, Izabal, Quiché, Zacapa, Baja Verapaz, Sololá and Alta Verapaz participated in the mobilization.”

Indigenous peoples stated: “We demand the protection, conservation and care of the natural area in the communities, because there are areas where people can enter to damage them.”

And another said with a loudspeaker: “This system of government says that there are protected areas, but they are pure lies. Protected because they don’t let us, the native peoples, in, but they do let the landowners, civil servants, the military in, they do let them in to continue exploiting what is not theirs. The territories belong to us.”

The PBI-Guatemala article hyperlinked further explains:

“The LAP Protected Areas Law, enacted in 1989 by Decree 4-89, grants the administration of PA to the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP). The largest PAs in the country are located in Petén, Laguna del Tigre and Sierra Lacandón, and several communities that inhabit them are affected, due to the lack of legal certainty regarding land ownership and permanence. The State’s response to this situation was to establish what are known as Cooperation Agreements (CAs). However, according to one of the lawyers who provides legal support to these communities, the CAs are administrative instruments, implemented unilaterally by CONAP, to tolerate the indefinite stay of the population in these areas, while eviction is achieved. Thus, the few communities that have signed CAs are not free from eviction and find themselves in the same abandonment, criminalized and subject to arbitrary detention by the combined forces.”

Alternative proposal

PBI-Guatemala also notes the alternative underlines “the collective nature that is sought in this property, requesting that the non-repetition of evictions, the resettlement of the forcibly evicted communities be guaranteed, and that the State fulfill its institutional functions through the corresponding government agencies, demilitarizing the region but guaranteeing the necessary security measures to protect peasants from crime organized. They also expressly request that the State not renew or grant licenses and contracts for industrial activities that damage the ecosystem and affect the right to a healthy environment.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.

Could Canadian-made Colt M4 and MK18 assault rifles be exported for Israeli “civilian security squads”?

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Protest at Colt Canada Corporation plant in Kitchener, Ontario; February 28, 2024. Photo by World Beyond War Canada.

On March 18, the House of Commons passed a motion that included an amendment from a Liberal Member of Parliament so that it would read Canada will “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas.”

The CBC now reports: “One arms contract that may yet cause problems for Canada is an Israeli order for 24,000 Armalite-style assault rifles that already has been the subject of a hold order from the U.S. government.”

The CBC article continues: “Three-quarters of those rifles are to be supplied by Colt. Colt’s subsidiary Colt Canada (formerly Diemaco) manufactures small arms for the Canadian Forces [and the RCMP, including the controversial C-IRG unit] and was expected to supply some of the Israeli contract.”

**UPDATE: CBC reporter Evan Dyer subsequently tweeted this thread of updates on this.**

As such, it could be the case that the weapons or components could be exported to Israel via the United States.

Image by World Beyond War Canada.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has noted: “Israel requested to purchase from Colt about 18,000 M4 and MK18 assault rifles, out of 24,000 total assault rifles from U.S. companies. Israel designates these firearms for newly-formed civilian ‘security squads’ in dozens of cities and towns, including illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. U.S. State Department officials, who have to approve the sale of automatic rifles, expressed concerns that these weapons will be used to expel Palestinian civilians from their land in the occupied West Bank.”

Video: Since October 2023, “some 800 new civilian defense squads have been set up throughout Israel.”

Timeline

In October 2023, Israel requested 24,000 rifles for civil security squads under the auspices of the Israel Police.

On November 5, 2023, The New York Times reported: “The three proposed tranches of semi-automatic and automatic rifles are valued at $34 million and are being ordered directly from U.S. gunmakers, but they require State Department approval and congressional notification. Israel says the rifles would be used by the national police force, but has also indicated that they could be given to civilians, people familiar with the weapons orders told The New York Times.”

On November 6, 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported: “The Biden administration has approved the transfer of some 24,000 rifles to the Israeli national police.”

On November 9, 2023, Colt declined to comment to Fox News about a protest outside their Connecticut plant about the sale of these rifles.

On December 13, 2023, Axios reported: “Several weeks after the deal was approved, the U.S. State Department decided to slow-walk the process and put the licenses under a new review, the U.S. officials said.”

On January 3, 2024, the AFSC called on the Office of the Secretary of Commerce to
“suspend all licenses and shipments of firearm exports to Israel”.

On March 20, 2024, following the passage of a motion in the House of Commons that references arms exports, CTV reported: “Export permits that were approved before Jan. 8 remain in effect, the office of Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in an emailed statement.”

Beyond this, the current status of the order for these assault rifles is not clear.

Colt at CANSEC, May 29-30

The AFSC has highlighted: “Colt’s Manufacturing Company makes firearms, including the M16, which was the standard-issue assault rifle used by the Israeli military from the 1990s to the early 2010s. Many older M16 rifles are still in use by the Israeli military and police.”

Photo: IDF soldiers in Jabalia, Gaza Strip.

We Are the Mighty has also noted: “The IDF maintains a large quantity of M4s and M16s that have been converted to carbines. As a result, the IDF continues to field both the Tavor and AR as its standard-issue rifles.”

Colt Canada Corporation is listed as an exhibitor (in Booth 1429) at the upcoming CANSEC arms show, this May 29-30 at the EY Centre in Ottawa.

We continue to follow this.

For more: Save the date, World Beyond War Canada webpage for protests planned against CANSEC 2024.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS on Humanitarian Mission to hear from people in La Esperanza, Cantagallo

By
Brent Patterson
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CREDHOS has posted on Facebook:

“From the territories, listening to the human rights situation of the civilian population, we build peace.

To the district/administrative subdivision of La Esperanza, in the municipality of Cantagallo, Bolivar, the Credhos corporation accompanied the Humanitarian Mission organized by the Ombudsman’s Office and the Mayor’s Office of Cantagallo, in conjunction with State entities, in order to listen carefully to the situation of serious violations of human rights of the population and breaches of international humanitarian law in the context of the conflict that continues to be latent in the territories.

This action is carried out with the Community Boards and Human Rights Committees of the municipality of Yondó, Antioquia and Cantagallo, Bolívar.”

More context on this soon.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

Global Affairs Canada Trade Commissioner Service withdraws from CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, but why?

By
Brent Patterson
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The Global Affairs Canada (GAC) Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) has withdrawn from this year’s CANSEC arms show.

It’s not yet known why.

The TCS still notes on its website: “Canada’s export-intensive defence and security sector is of critical importance to the country.”

The website for the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) organized CANSEC arms show also still highlights: “Each year, the Government of Canada and CADSI work together to engage a diverse global community at CANSEC. Contact your Canadian in-country trade commissioner to learn how you can attend the event in partnership with the Government of Canada, as well as any rules and regulations that may apply.”

And the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) has previously stated the crucial role the TCS has played at CANSEC.

In their 2017-18 Annual Report, they note: “CCC played a leadership role with the TCS at the CANSEC tradeshow by participating in the Government of Canada Pavilion and managing the foreign delegation program.”

TCS at CANSEC for 18+ years

At CANSEC 2005, they were there as “The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service/ Export Controls Division” in Booth T11.

TCS was also present in 2013.

Photo: CANSEC 2014 Show Guide.

Photo: TCS was even there in-person at CANSEC during the pandemic.

And most recently in 2023.

When and why was the decision made?

On November 23, 2023, the TCS noted under “Upcoming Sectoral Events and Activities” CANSEC with a hyperlink to the 2024 event.

And on January 25, 2024 the TCS was listed as an exhibitor at CANSEC. It had even been assigned Booth 225-S at the EY Centre, the location of the show. 

At some point by February 8, 2024, it was no longer listed.

This happened before the House of Commons vote on March 18, 2024, in which the Liberal government put forward significant amendments to an NDP motion including so that it would now read: “Cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime and increase efforts to stop the illegal trade of arms, including to Hamas.”

Video: Minister Mary Ng rises in the House to vote in favour of the revised motion.

The decision to withdraw from CANSEC also appears to have been made after January 8, 2024. That’s relevant because in a statement published by CBC News, Global Affairs Canada says: “Since Jan. 8, the government has not approved new arms export permits to Israel and this will continue until we can ensure full compliance with our export regime.”

Confirmation TCS has withdrawn

In response to an enquiry (dated February 27, 2024) from Peace Brigades International-Canada, an emailed statement (dated March 22, 2024) from the Public Affairs Branch of Global Affairs Canada says: “Since the TCS has been an exhibitor at CANSEC in the past, it’s likely we were left on the exhibitors list inadvertently by the show organizers. However, the TCS has withdrawn exhibiting at CANSEC this year.”

The question remains why.

We will be reaching out to other officials at the TCS for answers.

Sara Wilshaw is the Chief Trade Commissioner, International Business Development, Investment and Innovation. Her team is listed here. TCS is the responsibility of the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development. That Minister is Mary Ng. CADSI lists Trade Commissioners Pierre-Alexandre Carrier and Rob Hunter as the TCS contacts at CANSEC 2023.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula at media conference on IACHR request

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted on Facebook:

“PBI accompanies the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula at their press conference in which they report to the CIDH [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] that their opposition to the mining project in their region is ignored by the State. ‘We as Ch’orti’ people have the right to protect our territory.’”

The 36-minute video of that press conference can be seen here.

PBI-Guatemala has previously highlighted:

“The communities of Olopa are confronting the company American Minerals S.A., which was granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities. In 2016, when mining activities began, the communities became aware of the negative impacts of these activities on water and the environment, and demanded the closure of the project.”

PBI-Guatemala has also noted that the Indigenous [Maya Ch’orti’] Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque is also resisting Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. (a subsidiary of Vancouver, Canada-based Gold Group Management Inc.), a company has five exploration licenses for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.

San Francisco, Quezaltepeque is situated about 20 kilometres south-west of Olopa, Chiquimula.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula since June 2021.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at hearing of two former state intelligence agents

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Friday [March 15] PBI accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm in the hearing of the Military Diary case. The judge decided to accept the substitute measures of liberty requested by the defense of the two accused, José Daniel Monterroso and Edgar Virginio de León Sigüenza, consisting of: Unattended house arrest. Ban to leave the country. Prohibition to relate to persons who are in the process. There is still no date scheduled for the next hearing.”

Prensa Comunitaria explains in more detail:

“The High Risk Court ‘B’, headed by Judge Claudia Ordoñez, decided to grant conditional release to two military officers who are accused of crimes against humanity and forced disappearance in the case of the Military Diary.

The ‘Military Diary’ or ‘Death Dossier’ [is] a document that details chronologically, the way in which state security forces committed a series of crimes.

Among them: kidnapping, forced disappearance, transfer to clandestine detention centers, torture, sexual abuse and the murder of 183 [also reported as 195] people between 1983 and 1985, during the Internal Armed Conflict.

On May 27, 2021, the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office reported the capture of 11 military personnel accused [of these crimes].

This case was handled by Miguel Ángel Gálvez, but the judge resigned from the Judicial Branch (OJ), due to the harassment and criminalization of which he was a victim as a result of rulings issued in that case.

The beneficiaries of alternative measures [granted last week] were José Daniel Monterroso Villagrán and Edgar Virgilio de León Sigüenza. The judge justified her decision on ‘humanitarian grounds’ due to the health problems of the two defendants.

Intelligence officer Monterroso Villagrán was sent to trial for the crimes of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity, to the detriment of Rubén Amílcar Farfán.

[Rubén Amílcar Farfán, was captured on May 15, 1984. According to annotation no. 134 in the military logbook, Farfán was killed (denoted by the code ‘300’). At the time of his disappearance, Rubén was a student at the San Carlos University in Guatemala City.]

Photo: Rubén’s sister Aura Elena Farfan is the founder of the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA).

Meanwhile, the case of intelligence specialist sergeant De León Sigüenza was put on hold, due to the resignation of his lawyer and there was no date for the start of the intermediate stage.

[PBI-Guatemala accompanied Human Rights Law Firm] lawyer Francisco Vivar, lawyer for the victims, regretted what happened in the case, since impunity continues to be generated. ‘International conventions and treaties are not being respected. These are crimes classified as serious human rights violations that have other special treatment,’ he said.

‘We will take legal action. As a precedent, the resolutions in which measures have been granted have previously been revoked by the Chambers. In other words, these measures are illegal. It leaves a bad taste because the rights of the victims are being violated,’ he added.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) since 2013.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at highway blockade at Cholula garbage dump

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 21st, PBI-Mexico tweeted: “Today PBI accompanies the @fpdtampt [Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water] at a protest against the landfill in San Pedro Cholula. We urge state and federal agencies, such as @Segob_Puebla [the Secretary of the Interior of the State of Puebla] and @AmbientePuebla [Environment Secretary of Puebla], to sit down with the affected towns to resolve this conflict.”

Periódico Central reported: “During the morning of this Thursday, March 21, inhabitants of different indigenous peoples of Cholula blocked the Cholula-Calpan federal highway with tires and vehicles to demand the closure of the sanitary landfill. …Residents denounce that the aquifers and crops in the area are being severely contaminated, so they decided to close the federal highway to Calpan.”

Video: PBI-Mexico takes notes as State Police arrive (El Heraldo de Puebla).

La Jornada de Oriente notes: “The mobilization began with the participation of organizations such as the Guardians of the Metlapanapa River, the February 8 Movement, the Defense of Cholulteca Water, the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water of Tlaxcala, Puebla and Morelos, as well as the Rubén Jaramillo Center for Studies on Poverty.”

And El Sol de Puebla adds:

“Shouting ‘Out with the garbage dump’, a group of residents of the municipalities of San Pedro Cholula, Juan Crisóstomo Bonilla and Calpan, protested outside the Cholula dry landfill to demand its definitive closure, for being a ‘source of contamination’.

To reinforce the demand, the protesters have blocked the Cholula-Calpan state highway, in both directions, and have also hung banners and placed a blanket at the main entrance of the site, to prevent garbage collection trucks from entering or leaving the place.

Photo: Bus blocks the highway.

Photo: A banner is hung on the front gate of the garbage dump.

‘No to the garbage dump, no to the garbage dump’ is the only demand chanted by the inhabitants, who since last month, activated protests against this precinct, inaugurated in July 2015 by authorities from the three levels of government.

They also threaten to extend the protest indefinitely and maintain the sit-in, until the Ministry of the Environment, Sustainable Development and Territorial Planning of Puebla closes the place.

It is important to say that after two hours of these mobilizations, no government representative has approached the conflict zone to engage in dialogue.

Faced with the scenario, the Indigenous Peoples reported that they will not withdraw from the facilities of this urban solid waste processing plant, since they will not allow the discharge of more garbage.

Photo: The blockade at the gate of the garbage dump is reinforced. Photo by Luisa Tirzo.

Antonio Zaca Manjarrez, a resident of San Pedro Cholula, for the umpteenth time, asked for the definitive closure of the open ground landfill, as well as for the authorities to demand that the private company that operates it apply an abandonment program, that is, that with the closure, the mountains of garbage already generated are also taken away.

‘The authorities just drag our feet, they say that they are operating under official standards, but that is not possible, because here there is a lot of water in the Cholula region and the water mirrors are 27 meters away and the unfortunate thing is that they are burying the garbage at that same depth and they are contaminating the water and the land. And we want closure’, he added.

He added that they are willing to maintain the sit-in throughout this day and as long as it takes to achieve the definitive closure.

It should be noted that in the presence of the protesters, the entry and exit of collection trucks from some municipalities is suspended at the landfill in question, as they wait their turn to carry out maneuvers.

Outside, there are two units of the City Council of San Nicolás de los Ranchos, as well as three trailers, where the latter, according to the complainants, come from the State of Mexico and Oaxaca to unload their waste.

While inside the landfill, it is heard that the staff is working normally, although the employees try to convince the demonstrators to allow the exit of a dump truck and another heavy load unit.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala since early 2020. In August 2022, that accompaniment was extended for another three years.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico to observe protest demanding closure of Cholula Landfill given concerns about air and water pollution (PBI-Canada, March 21, 2024)

Update: MTP Noticias reports that the blockade was still in place more than 12 hours later (at 12:45 am on March 22).

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