Photo: Canadian Ambassador David Hartman and Secretary of Defence Gilberto Teodoro signed the Philippines Canada Defence Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding in Manila (National Capital Region) on January 19, 2024.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both documented in their annual reports multiple human rights concerns in the Philippines including extrajudicial killings, attacks against political activists and journalists.

Human Rights Watch has noted: “Incidents of ‘red-tagging’ by the authorities and government supporters and pro-government media continued [in 2023]. Getting red-tagged is often a prelude to physical attack, raising fears among activists and constricting democratic space. Government actors have red-tagged activists, unionists, environment defenders, Indigenous leaders, teachers, students, and journalists.”

Amnesty International provides the example of Silvestre Fortades and Rose Maria Galias, “both members of a ‘red-tagged’ farmers’ and labour rights organization” who were shot dead on January 15, 2022. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre further notes that Fortades and Galias were “killed by suspected military agents” likely because “of their resistance against large-scale landlords and their demands of democratic reforms, better wages and working conditions, end of extortionate loans, and the right to land.”

Global Witness includes Fortades and Galias in their list of the 11 human rights defenders killed in the Philippines in 2022. The Philippines had the highest number of defenders killed that year following Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Honduras.

Now, Radio Canada International reports: “Canadian ambassador to the Philippines David Hartman and Secretary of the Philippine Department of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro signed the Philippines Canada Defence Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding” on Friday January 19 in Manila.

Interoperability in the South China Sea

That RCI article adds: “The agreement is part of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to expand its presence in the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific region.”

Reuters also provides the context likely within Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy that: “Canada has supported the Philippines in the face of China’s increased assertiveness in the South China Sea, backing a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that said China’s South China Sea claims had no legal basis. China rejects that finding.”

CNBC has previously reported: “According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, an estimated $3.37 trillion worth, or 21 per cent of all global trade, transited through the South China Sea in 2016.”

Late last year, Ambassador Hartman highlighted the possibility of broadening the scale of interoperability between the Philippine Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy.

Mining critical minerals

Rappler, the Philippines’ leading digital media company, adds: “Hartman [has also] emphasized Canada’s interest in critical minerals.”

It quotes the Ambassador saying: “One of the areas that we’re really quite keen to pursue with the government of the Philippines, the people of the Philippines, is the area of critical minerals…. The Philippines is the fifth most mineralized country on Earth. The crass reality is we cannot have a clean energy, a green energy transition without critical minerals.”

The Ambassador further explains in the Rappler article: “The candid reality is that the global community needs the Philippines. What Canada wants to be able to do is to be able to help the Philippines extract its mineral wealth responsibly, ethically, and in an environmentally sustainable and sound manner. Canada has a tremendous track record of being able to do that for ourselves back home.”

Increasing military exports to the Philippines

Canada has approved the export of just over $13.5 million in “military goods” to the Philippines over the past 10+ years: $385,000.00 (2022); $399.95 (2021); $18,100.00 (2020); $458.00 (2019); $175,497.00 (2018); $3,219.78 (2017); $6,050,640.67 (2016); $192,490 (2015); $2,190,000 (2014); $1,226,392 (2013); $3,268,594 (2012).

Several years ago, the National Post reported: “The Ottawa-based CCC [Canadian Commercial Corporation], which helps Canadian exporters get contracts with foreign governments, came under fire in February 2018 after the media learned the corporation had brokered a $234-million deal to sell 16 Bell 412 helicopters to the military of the Philippines.”

Alex Neve, then the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, commented: “When the Canadian Commercial Corporation is involved in arms deals there often seems to be a lack of rigour when it comes to human rights concerns.”

The Philippines later cancelled the planned purchase, but the Canadian government may be hoping that with the Defence Cooperation MOU in place and thoughts of interoperability that arms exports could increase.

Marcos to visit Canada this year

It is also being reported that the Canadian government is hoping to host a visit by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in late-2024.

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Philippines delegation invited to CANSEC even after President threatens to throw people out of helicopter (May 28, 2023)

Photo: Michel Forst on a PBI-Canada webinar about COP28 and environmental defenders, December 7, 2023.

Michel Forst, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, has just released this two-page report on “the increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the United Kingdom” under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 following his visit there earlier this month.

His report received coverage today in The Guardian “UN expert condemns UK crackdown on environmental protest” and CNN “United Nations report heavily critical of UK’s ‘increasingly severe crackdowns’ on environmental protesters”.

Forst notes: “Protests, which aim to express dissent and to draw attention to a particular issue, are by their nature disruptive. The fact that they cause disruption or involve civil disobedience do not mean they are not peaceful. As the UN Human Rights Committee has made clear, States have a duty to facilitate the right to protest, and private entities and broader society may be expected to accept some level of disruption as a result of the exercise of this right.”

He later highlights: “I am deeply troubled at the use of civil injunctions to ban protest in certain areas, including on public roadways.”

The use of injunctions against Indigenous land defenders in Canada

In October 2019, the Toronto-based Yellowhead Institute released a 68-page “Red Paper” report titled Land Back.

The Canadian Press reported: “A study of over 100 injunctions published by the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led think tank based at [Toronto Metropolitan University], found 76 per cent of injunctions filed by corporations against First Nations were granted, compared with 19 per cent of injunctions filed by First Nations against corporations.”

That article adds: “Irina Ceric [now an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor] who worked on the study, said the use of injunctions to dispel protests has been on the rise in Canada.”

It also notes: “Shiri Pasternak [a Toronto-based researcher, writer, and organizer] said legislators appear to be responding to recent events with more extreme measures rather than reconsidering how injunctions are used. She pointed to a law introduced in Alberta this week that would heavily fine people who block roads and rail lines and said the recent proliferation of injunctions speaks to their function as a last resort for companies when negotiations with Indigenous leaders break down.”

The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act was passed in Alberta in June 2020. The Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, that became law under Premier Doug Ford in April 2022, has raised similar concerns.

Recent conviction of three Indigenous land defenders

CBC recently reported: “A prominent Wet’suwet’en leader and two pipeline opponents were found guilty of criminal contempt of court for breaking an injunction against impeding work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen read his decision to the court in Smithers on Friday [January 12].”

Photo: Land defenders Corey Jocko (Mohawk), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan) and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham (Wet’suwet’en). Photo for The Tyee by Amanda Follett Hosgood.

The CGL pipeline was built on Wet’suwet’en territory without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and despite the repeated requests of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to halt construction.

The CBC article adds: “Sleydo’, Sampson, and Jocko have filed abuse of process applications with the court on these charges, alleging the RCMP used excessive force when they were arrested and that they were treated unfairly while in custody.”

Deeply concerning testimony emerged last week from this hearing as we have summarized in our article: Twelve concerning things we learned about the RCMP C-IRG during the first week of the abuse of process hearing (January 20, 2024).

Federal legislation in Canada?

The Guardian has reported that it “has found striking similarities in the way governments from Canada and the US to Guatemala and Chile, from India and Tanzania to the UK, Europe and Australia, are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet.”

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 was passed by the British Parliament on April 26, 2022, under the government of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

With a federal election expected in Canada this year (or at the latest that must be held by October 20, 2025), we will monitor for proposed legislation in this country.

In 2021, the Conservative Party platform (page 33) stated: “Last year’s rail blockades [in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders] demonstrated the importance – and vulnerability – of the infrastructure that ties our country together. Canada’s Conservatives will amend s. 431.2 of the Criminal Code to create an offence of interference with an infrastructure facility or a public transportation system punishable by either summary conviction or indictment, depending upon the severity of the offence.”

We continue to follow this.

The PBI-Colombia Project has tweeted:

“New threat against Yessica Hoyos, president of the @Ccajar, for her representation of victims of the massacre perpetrated by the Police. The increase in threats and defamations against the Collective in recent months is worrying.”

The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) has issued this statement denouncing “that the current president of the organization, Yessika Hoyos Morales, received today [January 22] a new threat against her life, which would be related to the case of Jenner Alfonso Mora, one of the young victims of the Mondoñedo massacre. committed by members of the National Police (DIJIN) in 1996.”

Their statement continues: “Although the lawyer no longer represents the victims before the JEP, today at 2:46 pm she received the following text message on her cell phone: “We see what continues to help that HP guerrilla in Girardot de Alfonso and this is it.” The second is that they tell her not to stick her nose in where they don’t call her because something about his son could happen to her.” The threatening content was sent from the number 3108044667.”

The CAJAR statement also notes: “It is important to remember that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) is advancing a case against the Colombian State for illegal intelligence, threats, attacks and other acts of continuous persecution against members of the CAJAR. More than 30 testimonies have been submitted to the international process by members of CAJAR and their families, including that of human rights defender Yessika Hoyos, about different aggressions and human rights violations experienced in the exercise of their legal and legitimate work. Because of this persecution, the IACHR maintains precautionary measures in favor of all the members of CAJAR.”

And in their list of demand CAJAR asks “the international community for its international solidarity in rejecting these attacks faced by the victims who demand justice and the human rights defenders who represent them. This, so that these attacks and #ParaQueNoSeRepitan [Not To Be Repeated].”

The full statement can be read at Nuevas amenazas contra la abogada Yessika Hoyos Morales, presidenta del Cajar, por el caso de Jenner Alfonso Mora, víctima de la masacre de Mondoñedo (January 23, 2024).

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) since 1995.

Photo: CAJAR lawyer Yessika Hoyos Morales in Ottawa, Canada.

City of Ottawa By-law officers continue to issue $490 tickets to people using megaphones at #CeasefireNow marches.

The Ottawa Citizen has reported the tickets are being handed out under bylaw No. 2017-255.

Key excerpts from that bylaw include:

It’s not clear the specific intent or past experiences that generated the language in Section 4, point 5 of this by-law.

Ottawa By-law has also tweeted:

It is also not clear how the bylaw on “sound reproduction” has been justified  given Section 2b of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the International Covenant or Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Charter

As noted on the Department of Justice Canada website:

The Covenant

And as noted on the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner website:

The UN Human Rights Committee has also adopted General comment No. 37 (2020) on the right of peaceful assembly (Article 21) that specifically notes megaphones:

Tickets being issued at homes

It also appears that By-law officers are choosing perhaps in at least two instances to issue the tickets at the home of someone who has used a megaphone at a protest rather than at the time of the alleged infraction.

On Instagram, we have noted this post from January 21, 2024 (the video has also been posted by Spring Magazine here).

We express our concern about this situation.

Photo: PBI-Honduras was present at the self-convened popular assembly that rejected the Ecotek/Los Pinares megaproject; December 9, 2023.

Guapinol Exige Justicia (Guapinol Demands Justice) has posted on their website: “On Saturday, December 9, 2023, the people of Tocoa were called by the Municipal Corporation to participate in an open town meeting regarding the Ecotek petroleum coke thermoelectric project, one of the seven components of an iron oxide megaproject promoted by the ‘Emco Holdings’ consortium of Ana Facusse and Lenir Perez.”

That post adds: “More than 2000 people showed up early at the Froylan Turcios Institute to ensure that their voice was heard, despite a stigmatization campaign against the human rights defenders of the Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa in the run-up to the town hall, with the intention of provoking fear in the population.”

It then notes: “Municipal staff tried to prevent voters from entering the Institute and, upon seeing the large number of people who had arrived to vote against the project, Mayor Adán Funes refused to enter the Institute to hold the open town meeting. As a result, the people self-convened a popular assembly, in which the municipal councillors were present, and voted against the petcoke thermoelectric plant and Emco’s megaproject.”

Photo of the popular assembly.

Now 100+ organizations have demanded that: “The decision of the People of Tocoa validly expressed on December 9, 2023, through a popular assembly, be respected and implemented immediately by all levels of the Honduran government.”

Their demands also call for: “The immediate and unconditional cancellation of the Emco Holdings megaproject, including the ASP and ASP2 mining concessions [100 hectares each] of Inversiones Los Pinares [where they would dig for iron oxide]; the petroleum coke thermoelectric plant and the Ecotek pelletizing plant concession; the concessions for the use of water from the Guapinol, San Pedro and La Ceibita rivers.”

The 100+ organizations include the PBI-Honduras accompanied Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) and Civil Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organisations in Honduras (COPINH).

These demands are also supported by the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA),

And the letter was signed by organizations in Canada including the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN), Canadian Jesuits International, Comité para los derechos humanos en America Latina  (CDHAL), and Caritas Canada.

To read the full list of signatories, go to 100+ organizations demand Honduran authorities respect decision of the people of Tocoa to say NO to petcoke thermoelectric plant and Emco’s mining megaproject.

Further reading: PBI-Honduras present as consultation rejects Ecotek petcoke plant that would power iron oxide pelletizing plant near the Guapinol River (December 12, 2023)

We continue to follow this.

Mongabay, the U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform (whose readership averages 9 million visitors each month), reports:

“Yuly Velásquez grew up on the banks of the Magdalena River near the Colombian city of Barrancabermeja, an area surrounded by a large network of swamps, lagoons and tropical forests. These wetlands are home to a host of migratory fish species, such as the bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae) and dorada (Brycon moorei), which riverside communities depend on for their livelihoods.

But in recent decades, the fish have become increasingly scarce as the city’s lucrative oil industry and a nearby landfill discharge oil and toxic waste into water bodies. The country’s largest oil refinery, owned by the national oil company Ecopetrol, is located in Barrancabermeja and contributes to 70% of the local economy, according to the latest estimates. It refines everything from gasoline to propane, and the industrial complex also hosts a large petrochemical plant to produce products derived from petrol, such as plastic. But although the refinery is a pillar in the local economy, researchers and locals say inadequate management and illegal discharge is impacting the health of residents and the livelihoods of fishers.

As a fisher and president of an environmental organization that focuses on protecting the region’s wetlands and waterways, Velásquez has faced violent threats and attacks, including three assassination attempts by unidentified aggressors. Despite efforts by her organization, FEDEPESAN (the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander), to monitor and report pollution and corruption in the region, Velásquez says a lot of their complaints have been ignored. Instead, attacks suffered by environmental defenders have reportedly increased.

These are the challenges Velásquez and her colleagues face on a daily basis. But her passion to protect the wetlands and guarantee access to clean water, she says, pushes her to continue her work, despite the threats to her personal safety and her family’s security.”

In the interview section of the article, Velasquez says:

“Thank God we don’t feel alone, because the international community is also supporting us, showing and making us visible. And this is a weapon that helps us say that we are not alone, there are other people who know the complaints that we are making and, if something were to happen to us, it is because of the complaints we made against the Ecopetrol refinery, due to all the types of pollution that occur here in the territory.”

“We feel that we have made a little progress, with a lot of fear, because as the network becomes stronger, we are also much more visible, and so the latent fear of being attacked is greater, it is strong. That is why we accompany ourselves with CREDHOS, also with Peace Brigades International [an international NGO that works to protect human rights and environmental defenders]. They now accompany us to carry out monitoring of the pipes in Las Ciénegas. We can have a little peace of mind to be able to carry out the work.”

“We are very grateful for the entire international community, for all the colleagues who were now at the U.N. climate and biodiversity conferences providing so much information and making visible everything that is happening here. And also showing what we do as communities to mitigate climate change.”

We add that the UN COP16 summit – the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity – will take place in Colombia (in a city to be determined) on October 21 to November 1, 2024.

To read the full interview, go to Courage & calm despite attacks: Q&A with Colombian activist Yuly Velásquez (Mongabay, January 19, 2024).

Photo: PBI-Canada and PBI-Colombia with Yuli, June 30, 2022.

Dramatic Video Shows Militarized Canadian Police Raid Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders & Journalists (Democracy Now!, November 24, 2021).

An abuse of process application was heard in a courtroom in Smithers, British Columbia this past week that alleges the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) used excessive force and violated the Charter Rights of Indigenous land defenders resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.

Land defenders Sleydo’ (Wet’suwet’en), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan) and Corey Jocko (Mohawk) were arrested by C-IRG officers on November 19, 2021.

1- “Lethal-force overwatch” Sergeant Ryan Arnold of the Emergency Response Team (ERT) testified: “We were there to provide lethal-force overwatch for the tac team to go hands-on with people who need to be arrested.”

2- No negotiator Sergeant Arnold also testified that while ERT teams normally include a negotiator, he wasn’t aware of one on site that day. C-IRG Silver Commander Superintendent James Elliott testified: “There was not going to be any negotiation.”

3- “Orcs” While Superintendent Elliott testified that C-IRG officers would have had special training on Indigenous cultural sensitivity, an officer could be heard in an audio recording saying: “They all had the fuckin’ paint like, are you an orc?” This refers to the red handprints that honour missing and murdered Indigenous women.

4- “Mohawk symbology” Superintendent Elliott testified that Mohawk flags (the Warrior/Unity flag), patches and stickers heightened his risk assessment of the situation. Defence lawyer Frances Mahon told the court that the Haudenosaunee word for warrior is Rotisken’rakéhte, meaning “he carries the burden of peace.” Despite his Indigenous cultural sensitivity training, Elliott admitted he was not aware of that context.

5- Assumption of buried weapons Superintendent Elliott also testified: “I remember one post that I was provided at the time that said something about hiding weapons under the snow, in the forest.” Mahon told the court the social media post referred to the Haudenosaunee great law of peace, in which five warring nations bury their weapons under a pine tree to unite. Elliott admitted he may have misunderstood the post.

6- Officer wanted to shoot at a security camera While C-IRG officers are apparently highly trained, Corporal Sebastien Pilote sought permission to fire his weapon to disable a security camera on the exterior of the tiny house where the land defenders were located. He was instructed instead to disable the camera by cutting its cable.

7- Officer suggested using police dog Defence lawyer Quinn Candler read a transcript from a radio transmission in which Corporal Pilote also suggested sending a police dog into the tiny house. Pilote said over the police radio that day: “We’re going to have to go in. We can use the dog or we can use people.”

8- Use of chainsaw While heavily armed with various weapons, C-IRG officers were not equipped with basic “breaching” devices to get past the locked door of the tiny house. Instead, they used axes, a sledgehammer and a chainsaw they found on the site. An officer joked that it was like the scene in the horror film The Shining in which a character breaks through a door and says: “Here’s Johnny.”

9- Launcher aimed at defenders Bronze Commander Inspector Glen Fishbook of the ERT testified it would have been common practice to shoot gas canisters into the tiny house to force the land defenders out. He then said: “Ultimately, with Superintendent Elliott, I decided not to because of the optics.” Once the door was broken down, Corporal Pilote pointed a 40mm projectile launcher at the land defenders.

10- Use of company lawyer While the RCMP presumably has its own legal counsel, Bronze Sub-Commander Staff Sergeant Sascha Baldinger testified he called the law firm that secured the injunction for Coastal GasLink to determine if a warrant was needed to enter the tiny house where the land defenders were staying.

Disturbing testimony is also coming to light with respect to the arrest of Indigenous land defenders the previous day, November 18, 2021:

11- “Ogre-looking dude” An officer can be heard in an audio recording saying: “That big fuckin’ ogre-looking dude, he’s actually like, autistic.”

12- “Beat the shit out of him” An officer also says: “Then the fucking guys just beat the shit out of him and then he started crying. I felt bad for him. Apparently the sergeant grabbed his balls and twisted. I guess he was on the ground and everyone was just grabbing limbs. He didn’t have a limb to grab, so he’s like, just grab his balls, like, ‘You done now? You done resisting?’”

The abuse of process hearing will resume June 17-21 in Smithers.

Just prior to that, March 9 will mark the one-year anniversary of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) systemic investigation of the C-IRG and April 17 will mark the 42^nd anniversary of the signing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Further reading:

Abuse of process hearing for Wet’suwet’en leader, blockade members to resume in June (CBC News, January 19, 2024)

Dogs, Snipers and Axes: Inside the RCMP’s Actions in Wet’suwet’en Territory (The Tyee, January 17, 2024)

Audio Reveals RCMP Officers Laughed about Beating a Land Defender (The Tyee)

Caught on tape: RCMP officers laugh about brutal arrests (Dogwood, January 18, 2024)

Abolish C-IRG Twitter feed.

Photo: Irene Khan, David R. Boyd, Mary Lawlor, José Francisco Cali Tzay, Marcos A. Orellana, and Damilola S. Olawuyi.

Three letters have been sent by UN Special Rapporteurs highlighting complaints of judicial harassment and criminalization of journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc Chub in relation to his reporting on the Fénix nickel mine in El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala.

All three letters were sent by five Special Rapporteurs including the rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Irene Khan); on the question of human rights obligations related to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment (David R. Boyd); on the situation of human rights defenders (Mary Lawlor); on the rights of indigenous peoples (José Francisco Cali Tzay); and on the human rights implications of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes (Marcos A. Orellana); as well as the Working Group on the Question of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises (chaired by Damilola S. Olawuyi).

The letters were sent to the Government of Guatemala; Solway Investment Group, Solway Holding, Ltd., Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel SA (CGN), Compañía Procesadora de Níquel de Izabal SA (PRONICO); the Government of Malta and the Government of Switzerland.

The three letters are referenced as AL GTM 6/2023; AL OTH 128/2023; and AL CHE 5/2023: and are dated November 6-7, 2023.

Key excerpts that explain the situation include:

– “In February 2017, a red stain appeared in Lake Izabal, near the operations of the Fénix nickel mine, operated by Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel SA (CGN). Compañía Procesadora de Níquel de Izabal SA (PRONICO) owns the mine’s nickel processing plant, although PRONICO shut down operations in 2023.”

– “Local indigenous communities demanded that the relevant state institutions conduct investigations and reviews of the mine’s waste. In official statements, the state and the CGN claimed that the coloration came from microalgae and that an analysis showed that 90% of the water contamination was not generated by the company’s operations, but by local communities along the Polochi River. However, internal company documents to which they later had access show that CGN allegedly knew from the beginning that the mine’s wastewater was severely polluting the lake.”

– “In mid-May 2017, the Artisanal Fishermen’s Guild, local indigenous Maya Q’eqchi fishermen from Izabal, filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the contamination of Lake Izabal. At the same time, they denounced the CGN’s lack of dialogue with local communities. On 27 May 2017, following the failure of roundtable negotiations with the CGN, indigenous fishermen and other affected citizens exercised their right to protest against the mine.”

– “In the course of alleged clashes during the protest, police killed an indigenous fisherman present at the protest and another protester was injured. Police reported six police officers injured.”

– “According to the analysis of samples taken from Lake Izabal on 20 August 2017, carried out by an institute of environmental hygiene and toxicology, and the department of environmental health and water protection of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the amount of nickel present in the samples considerably exceeds the maximum permitted level.”

– “On 27 May 2017, Mr. Choc reported on the protest in which local indigenous fishermen in El Estor demanded an environmental study following the appearance of a red stain in Lake Izabal, which they attributed to the Fénix mine, operated by the CGN. Mr. Choc photographed the exact moment a fisherman was shot dead by police. Police reportedly denied that he had died.”

– “In August 2017, he was charged with the crimes of threats, incitement to commit a crime, illicit association, unlawful assembly and demonstrations, and damage and illegal detention of four CGN employees. These charges were allegedly the result of a complaint filed by the CGN and PRONICO.”

The letters ask a series of key questions including: “Please explain the legal basis for the charge of ‘unlawful detention’ and the charge, now dropped, of ‘incitement to commit a crime’ against Mr. Carlos Ernesto Choc Chub and how they are compatible with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

We encourage you to read the full letters and complete list of questions at AL GTM 6/2023; AL OTH 128/2023; and AL CHE 5/2023.

We continue to follow this closely.

 For more: PBI-Canada conversation with Maya Q’eqchi’ frontline journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc (August 19, 2023).

On January 18, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón. We visited the communities of Sactá and Las Tres Cruces. We met with leaders and members of the Resistance who shared with us the risks they face in defending the rivers and the land. PBI is very concerned about the increase in criminalization in the region.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained: “The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón is made of more than 190 Q’eqchi’ communities who live in the Cahabón River basin. Since 2015 they have organized around defense of territory and against the launch of the OXEC I and OXEC II hydroelectric projects installed on the Oxec River, a tributary of the Cahabón River.”

Hatch and OXEC II

NS Energy has reported: “Hatch would be engaged to deliver the conceptual design and detailed design-build-engineering for the Oxec II Hydroelectric Project.”

Hatch was founded in Toronto, Canada, by W.S. Atkins as W.S. Atkins & Associates in 1955. It has offices around the world with its headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario.

From list of Hatch Ltd. office locations in Canada.

Commenting on OXEC II, Ian Ainslie, a Hatch project manager based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, noted: “Hatch has been active in developing hydroelectric sites in Guatemala for over 20 years.” And Hatch’s managing director of power, Jim Sarvinis, says: “Projects like Oxec II are exactly why we do the type of work we do at Hatch.”

OXEC II became operational in September 2018.

OXEC III

In April 2023, Power Technology noted: “Oxec III is a 75MW hydro power project. It is planned on Cahabon river/basin in Alta Verapaz. The project construction is likely to commence in 2025 and is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2027.”

On May 10, 2023, PBI-Canada observed a march by the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón in Guatemala City that included a banner that read: “We demand that the Oxec 3 licence be cancelled.”

Breakbulk Magazine has previously reported Hatch’s project manager for Oxec II Hooman Ghassemi “has been working on Oxec II since 2015 and finished the conceptual design for Oxec III [in 2017].”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón since July 2017.

We continue to follow the Q’eqchi’ resistance to dams on the Cahabon River.

Photo: Maya Q’eqchi environmental defender Bernardo Caal Xol spent four years in prison for his peaceful resistance to dams being built on ancestral territory without consent. He was released from prison in March 2022. PBI-Canada met with him on May 5, 2023, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

Photo: In June 2022, PBI-Mexico accompanied a meeting of Indigenous Communities in Coloradas de la Virgen, Guadalupe and Calvo, Chihuahua with the objective of exchanging experiences on the defence of territory and natural resources.

On December 19, 2023, Raichali reported: “Faced with the unstoppable wave of displacement of entire communities in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, state and national civil society organizations, accompanied by Peace Brigades International (PBI), have carried out two humanitarian caravans in August and November of this year.”

Those visits took place on August 21-22 and November 28-29, 2023.

The following day, Raichali also reported: “Around 80 people from the Ódami people of Santa Tulita, from the Mala Noche community in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, in the mountains of Chihuahua, had to flee their land for a few days to save their lives, due to the presence of a criminal group that is dedicated to illegally cutting down the forest.”

Reuters has previously noted: “An academic at UNAM [the National Autonomous University of Mexico], Leticia Merino, estimates that 70% of the wood consumed in Mexico is illegal. [A report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime] found that drug traffickers involved in illegal logging have also been associated with deforestation and land theft, which often affect marginalized indigenous groups.”

January 4-5, 2024 visit

Now, on January 17 of this year, El Puntero also reports: “The Community Technical Consultancy (CONTEC), the Center for Women’s Human Rights (CEDEHM), the Collective of Psychosocial Practices (COPPSAC), Services for Peace (SERAPAZ), Peace Brigades International (PBI) and the Parish of Baborigame, made three visits to the community of Mala Noche in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, with the aim of addressing the situation of providing humanitarian aid and preventing the forced displacement of Ódames families and communities.”

That third visit was on January 4- 5, 2024.

On January 18, El Diario also highlighted: “In January 2024, in the town of Baborigame, organized civil society documented the violent events that have occurred in the community, where more than 150 people were forced to leave their homes, due to threats and the climate of violence that exists in the area.”

That article further notes: “From 2015 to 2023, 572 people in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo have had to leave their homes, after being victims of forced displacement by organized crime, according to information provided by various civil associations that accompany this sector of the population.”

Red TDT has previously highlighted: “Indigenous peoples of the region have denounced that illegal logging intensified since 2015. Currently, there has yet to be a comprehensive action plan to prevent illegal logging in the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua.”

The El Diario article then notes: “The families and communities that live in these areas of Chihuahua have the right to live in peace and tranquility, so the organizations call on the authorities to attend to and guarantee security, by installing a safeguard with permanent security personnel in the region, so that the communities can return to their homes and thus prevent more people from continuing to be victims of displacement.”

With respect to “permanent security personnel in the region”, Raichali has provided the context and concern: “As in other cases of forced displacement of entire indigenous communities, Rarámuri and Ódami, in the same municipality, the authorities promised to provide them with protection, but they [the communities] fear that it will be temporary, as has happened, and that the violence will return with greater fury.”

The need for recognition of ancestral territory

PBI-Mexico has previously noted that the main causes of the issues faced by the Indigenous communities “are related to economic interests surrounding tourism projects, legal and illegal exploitation of forests, real estate and energy projects such as mining, pipelines and the presence of organized crime.”

The Network in Defense of Indigenous Territories of Sierra Tarahumara (REDETI) has also highlighted: “The lack of legal recognition of ancestral lands is one of the causes of the dispossession of the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Tarahumara.”

On October 24-29, 2023, PBI-Canada hosted Mariana Azucena Villarreal Frías of REDETI, along with Manuel Jabonero from PBI-Mexico, who highlighted these issues at numerous meetings with officials in Ottawa.

We continue to follow this situation with concern.