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PBI-Kenya demands release of at least 210 peaceful protestors arrested at the Occupy Parliament protest

By
Brent Patterson
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Africa Uncensored video: Wanjira Wanjiru, co-founder of the PBI-Kenya partner Mathare Social Justice Centre, explains today’s protests.

PBI-Kenya has posted:

VOCAL Africa has also tweeted:

The Kenya Star reports: “Human Rights groups have called on the government to release protesters, observers and journalists arrested on Tuesday during demonstrations. According to the lobby groups, at least 210 peaceful protestors, journalists and observers were arrested during the protests dubbed ‘Occupy Parliament’.”

That article continues: “In a statement, 21 human rights and governance organisations under the Police Reforms Working Group Kenya (PRWG-Kenya) said they are alarmed and outraged by the Tuesday arrests.”

PBI-Kenya is a member of the PRWG-Kenya along with the Social Justice Centres Working Group (SJCW), the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya), HAKI Africa, Amnesty International Kenya and others.

The statement can be read in full here.

The Standard adds: “[Defenders Coalition Executive Director Kamau] Ngugi said the constitution guarantees Kenyans rights to assemble, picket and present petitions to public authorities and that they should not be harassed for expressing their discontent over the tax increase proposals in Finance Bill 2024.”

Government scraps part of Finance Bill

And the BBC now reports: “Kenya’s government has scrapped some proposed taxes in this year’s controversial finance bill, including a 16% levy on bread, after a public outcry. The announcement by MPs came as police fired tear gas and used water cannon to try to disperse angry protesters in the capital, Nairobi. Dozens of people have been arrested, and lawyers earlier joined chanting crowds at the city’s main police station to demand that detainees be freed.”

We continue to follow this.

#OccupyParliament #RejectFinanceBill2024

PBI in Kenya

PBI-Kenya’s partners include “networks of civil society organisations that work together to enhance police accountability and justice, such as Missing Voices and the Police Reforms Working Group – Kenya.”

Last month, on the 10th anniversary of the project, PBI-Kenya country director Alberto Fait commented: “Comrades, today we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of our journey. A journey that we have made together. A journey to advance equality and justice. A journey of courage. A journey of which you all are the protagonists because exposing inequality, corruption, violence requires courage. Standing against intimidation and violence requires courage. Marching against tear gases to exercise our constitutional rights requires courage. Making changes requires courage.”

For more on the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project, see their website, Facebook page, Instagram page, and X feed.

Video of Wanjira Wanjiru from 2020.

Court ruling against Chiquita and the possible prosecution of other transnationals with alleged ties to paramilitaries in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The paramilitary AUC. Image by Image: EFE/dpa/picture alliance.

On June 11, The Guardian reported: “A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad [the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia/AUC], after the American banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997-2004.”

The article adds: “[The ruling] marks the first time a major US corporation has been held liable for such rights abuses in another country and could lead to a series of similar lawsuits involving rights violations across the world.”

Terry Collingsworth, the Executive Director of International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), the law firm that filed the civil case against Chiquita, stated: “In my experience, corporations operating in the global economy will do whatever they can get away with. We just showed them that there are real consequences for corporate outlaws.”

Drummond

Now, Deutsche Welle reports: “The mining company Drummond has faced two civil lawsuits in the United States for allegedly financing paramilitary groups to protect its mining operations, which would have resulted in the intimidation and murder of union and community leaders. Although the U.S. Justice rejected the claims, in January 2024 the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office announced that it will call 72 businessmen of the firm to trial.”

Coca-Cola

The Deutsche Welle article also notes: “In a similar case, Coca-Cola was accused of various human rights violations, including alleged links with paramilitary groups to suppress trade union activity, which resulted in the murder of more than ten trade unionists. The complaint, filed in 2002 before a judge of the District Court of Miami (Florida), was filed in 2009, but it remains an emblematic case.”

Ecopetrol

In May 2022, Aljazeera reported: “[Santander’s Magdalena Medio region] comprises the heart of Colombia’s petroleum industry, and the local town of Puerto Wilches has been selected for the country’s first fracking project, meeting strong resistance from locals and environmental groups. This opposition, in turn, has drawn threats from local armed groups. …Local environmental defenders and a representative of the JEP [Special Jurisdiction for Peace] told Al Jazeera that they suspected a connection between the paramilitary groups intimidating them and the state-owned Ecopetrol, which is behind the fracking project. The company has been accused of having ties with the Gulf Clan [also known as the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia/AGC]  specifically. For its part, Ecopetrol has denied all such allegations and publicly denounced any violence towards environmental defenders.”

GCM (Gran Colombia Gold)

And in October 2022, The Breach reported that Toronto-based mining company GCM (aka Gran Colombia Gold) operates in Segovia, Antioqua, a “town belonging to the most powerful criminal armed group in Colombia, the Gaitanista Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AGC by its initials in Spanish.”

Journalist Joshua Collins further notes in that article: “Faced with labour disputes, criminal armed groups and a local community in rebellion, Gran Colombia … hired Colombian sub-contractors to mine their gold, as a way of dealing with escalating security, legal and social issues. Using subcontractors gave Gran Colombia a key advantage: plausible deniability. The company could put distance between their operations and the problems that come with working in a region effectively controlled by criminal armed groups. Gran Colombia has in the past claimed that it has no knowledge of any of the subcontractors in their employ making payments to armed groups. The company did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Breach.”

Concerns about “cooperation agreements”

In July 2019, the Rutas del Conflicto [Routes of Conflict] and La Liga Contra el Silencio [League Against Silence] reviewed 200 cooperation agreements between companies and the Military Forces and the Police.

They found that “more than 70 national and international companies, mainly in the mining-energy sector, enter into cooperation agreements with public institutions such as the Ministry of Defense… These agreements have existed since 1996, but were only regulated by the Ministry of Defense in 2014, through resolution 5342.”

And they report: “Senator Iván Cepeda; the lawyer of the José Alvear Restrepo Collective, Rosa María Mateus; and the director of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), Camilo González, are concerned about aspects of these agreements that can lead to the violation of human rights.”

Photo: PBI meets with Rosa Maria Mateus in Bogota.

Frontera Energy

In a December 2019 report to the Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst highlighted: “The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation [in which] eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque were arrested and accused of collusion to commit an offence, violence against a public servant and obstructing a public road, and two of them with attempted homicide in connection with their participation in and leadership of the social protests between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads.”

Photo: PBI in San Luis de Palenque, July 2022.

“Companies, an actor sometimes hidden behind the scenes”

Tweet by Alirio Uribe Muñoz:

“In Colombia, attacks on human rights defenders, social leaders, defenders of the environment and the territory continue by different armed, illegal, state actors, but also by companies, an actor sometimes hidden behind the scenes.

For this reason, legislation that incorporates the responsibility of companies in respecting human rights is important.

Oscar Ramírez, Solidarity Committee”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Maya Ch’orti’ communities in Olopa Chiquimula and San Francisco Quezaltepeque at meetings

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 13, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies the Indigenous Council of Maya Ch’orti’ de Olopa Chiquimula and the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque at a meeting in the San Francisco Conquistador community, where they updated us on the latest news, which despite the various threats, have been positive:

They have opened spaces with the government addressing three priority issues:

(1) land tenure

(2) the environment: care for the rivers and the fight against logging

(3) the right to free, prior and informed consultation.

We also accompanied them to a community assembly in the Piedra community.“

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

American Minerals S.A.

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.”

Photo: On May 9, 2023, PBI-Canada met with Ubaldino García Canan of the Maya Ch’orti Indigenous Council of Olopa.

Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. (Gold Group)

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

Mila Gold, Motagua Norte (Tulipán, Garnalda, Cirilo I and Cirilo II)

The Gold Group Management Inc. website has noted that with respect to Radius Gold “in February 2024, a maiden drilling campaign commenced at the Mila Gold Discovery, Motagua Norte project in Guatemala” and similarly that Volcanic Gold “commenced a maiden drilling campaign at the Mila Gold Discovery, Motagua Norte project through an Option Agreement with Radius Gold.”

The Extractive Industries Observatory (OIE) has further noted the “Motagua Norte (San Agustín and San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán, El Progreso) [project that] consists of 4 mining exploration requests: Tulipán, Garnalda, Cirilo I and Cirilo II.”

And in October 2023, the Asociación El Observador explained: “Among [the metallic mineral projects] already authorized [by the Ministry of Energy and Mines – MEM] is Cirilo I, located in the foothills of the Sierra de las Minas in the municipality of San Agustín Acasaguastlán, El Progreso. The granting of the license was announced by the Canadian mining group Radius Gold, on September 26, 2023, and is to explore for gold. The license is identified as SEXR-017-10, that is, since 2010 it was requested in the name of Minerales Sierra Pacífico, S.A., one of Radius Gold’s subsidiaries in Guatemala. One of the directors of Minerales Sierra Pacífico is geologist Alfredo Gálvez Sinibaldi, who has a long history of ties with the MEM and well-known mining companies in Guatemala, as well as being a current director of the Guatemalan Association of Natural Resources, Mines and Quarries (GRENAT).”

Radius Gold on the Arevalo government

On May 23, 2024, Radius Gold posted: “A new Minister of the Environment (MARN) was appointed on April 12, 2024 and initial public comments from the new Minister were not positive for mineral exploration and development in the country. Before committing further funds to Guatemala, Volcanic will monitor the two significant precious metal deposits where developments are on hold: the multi-million ounce gold deposit at Cerro Blanco and the large high grade silver-lead-zinc deposit at Escobal. These mines could employ thousands of people, providing jobs to Guatemalans so they can thrive in their own communities.”

Connections

The Gold Group website also highlights: “Led by Simon Ridgway, companies under Gold Group Management have made several significant gold and silver discoveries and completed the successful sale of deposits in North America and Central America, including the Cerro Blanco deposit in Guatemala (Bluestone Resources), Natividad deposit in Nicaragua (Calibre Mining Corp), the San Martin deposit in Honduras (Glamis Gold), and the San Jose deposit in Mexico (Fortuna Silver Mines).”

Video still: Simon Ridgway in June 2023.

The Extractive Industries Observatory (OIE) has also noted: “In Guatemala, since 1996, [Ridgway] has led the exploration of the Progreso VII Derivada mine (La Puya) and the Marlin Mine.”

PBI-Guatemala has posted about the Cerro Blanco mine, accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya in opposition to the Progreso VII Derivada mine and would be familiar with community opposition to the Marlin mine; the PBI-Honduras accompanied ASODEBICOQ and CEHPRODEC would be familiar with the San Martin mine; and the PBI-Mexico accompanied EDUCA Oaxaca has supported community opposition to Fortuna Silver and its San Jose del Progreso mine.

Gold Group in Canada

Gold Group Management has also noted that another member of its group of companies, Rackla Metals, has gold exploration “projects located in the eastern Yukon and western Northwest Territories, Canada.”

In May 2018, the Whitehorse Daily Star reported: “The [Yukon] territory’s assessment board has recommended approval of a 65-kilometre, all-season road through virgin wilderness to the Rackla Gold Property. Serious concerns have been raised [about the proposed road] by the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Indigenous Council of Maya Ch’orti’ de Olopa Chiquimula and the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque.

PBI-Guatemala visits Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Lajeb Kej and hears about life under the threat of forced eviction

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

In early April we visited the Lajeb Kej community in Tucuru, Alta Verapaz. The inhabitants of the Q’eqchi’ Peoples shared their experiences with us.

“We lived here before, our grandparents died here, but the bosses came to take us out. Four years ago, we returned because there was nothing here and the Land Fund said it was wasteland. Since then, we have encountered many problems, they threaten to remove us, to evict us, in fact they already tried.”

“On April 7, 2021, at 6 in the morning a group of 25 men, teachers from the neighboring community, tried to evict us, they came to shoot. They wounded 3 companeros. They could not go out to see a doctor because they have an arrest warrant for usurpation and aggravated robbery. We filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the capital but there was no investigation. And the threats continue.”

“The children are left in their minds, when they hear a rocket they get scared, they say that the teachers are coming. We can’t make a work plan, nor a study plan for the children because we are always waiting for the eviction. What are we going to do? Where are we going to go with the children, the elderly?”

“We are 29 families, 182 people between 6 tables and 70 years old. We take some corn and beans, but it is little, because of the sun. Nothing to sell, just for ourselves. There is no income in the community, because of the arrest warrants we can’t go out to work. Quite a few companeros have migrated to earn something to support their families.”

To see the full post, go to Instagram or Facebook.

Further reading: PBI-Guatemala accompanies media conference denouncing attacks and evictions of Maya Q’eqchi’ communities (PBI-Canada, June 13, 2024).

Constitutional Chamber accepts admission of appeal from the Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras has posted: “On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed a writ of amparo [injunction] against the open town meeting called for today [June 13].”

Now, Crtierio.hn reports: “The effects of the resolution of the questioned open town hall held in Tocoa, Colón, were suspended, after the Constitutional Chamber notified the admission of the appeal for amparo filed by the members of the Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa.”

“The decision of the Constitutional Chamber was made on Wednesday, June 12, one day before the celebration of the town hall, and notified until this Friday, June 14, that is, one day after the controversial consultation in which only four people chosen by the mayor participated.”

The article adds: “Until there is a final sentence, it will be known whether or not the Supreme Court of Justice validates the decision made at the town hall, which was carried out when it was notified belatedly of the Supreme Court’s decision.”

The full article can be read at Corte Suprema suspende efecto de ilegal cabildo realizado en Tocoa por Adán Fúnez (Criterio.hn, June 14, 2024).

The megaproject

The EMCO Holding Group megaproject appears to include an open-pit iron oxide mine and a petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant to provide the electricity to power a pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted would be processed to convert it into pellets (semi-processed iron) to be exported to the United States.

Criterio.hn adds: “The Ecotek thermoelectric project is one of the seven components of the mining megaproject installed in the Montaña de Botaderos National Park, Carlos Escaleras Mejía. The license for the ASP mining component expired in 2024, while ASP2 was never granted a permit.”

On October 26, 2023, Inversiones Los Pinares asked for a renewal of its ASP mining concession for up to 30 more years.

Opposition and criminalization

Criterio.hn also notes: “Eight water defenders in Tocoa were criminalized and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for more than 900 days, for opposing the mining megaproject in the nature reserve. …In 2023, defenders Jairo Bonilla, Alí and Oquelí Domínguez, the latter two brothers of fellow defender Reynaldo Domínguez, were murdered.”

We continue to follow this.

Selected dates

August 1, 2018: The community establishes a Camp in Defence of Water and Life that blocks the construction of the access road for the mine.

August 11, 2021: PBI-Honduras visits with the criminalized water defenders at Olanchito prison where they had been held since September 1, 2019.

February 9, 2022: Six of the eight water defenders are found guilty in a Honduran courtroom.

February 10, 2022: The Constitutional Chamber annuls the trial and orders the release of the water defenders from prison.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Municipal Committee filing injunction against town hall meeting for thermoelectric plant

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted:

“On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed a writ of amparo [injunction] against the open town meeting called for today [June 13].

On repeated occasions, the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods and the affected communities of the area have opposed the installation of the ECOTEK thermoelectric plant.

From PBI, today we are very attentive to the security situation of the people of the community.”

Criterio.hn reports:

 “On Tuesday, June 11, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa filed an amparo action before the Constitutional Chamber against the third municipal call to open town hall, invoking the protection of the right to a healthy environment, water, health and life.

The letter pointed out that the council was convened by “instructions from the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), Lucky Medina, with the aim of accrediting in the file SLAS-0000076-2020/Ecotek Electric Plant a socialization and community approval of a project for the generation of electricity based on petroleum coke.”

[Despite this, on Thursday June 13, Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez proceeded with a town hall meeting that] allowed the participation only of people related to the interests of the mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek, both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez.

At the end of the event, which began more than three hours late and lasted less than half an hour, the National Police proceeded to repress the population that complained to Fúnez about the absence of real participation by the communities in a decision that has implications beyond the municipality of Tocoa.

[Following this] Adilia Castro [of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa] demanded that the Supreme Court of Justice immediately rule on the appeal filed on Tuesday, June 11 by the Committee in Defense of Public Goods of Tocoa against the third municipal call to open town hall.”

The full article can be read at Adán Fúnez impone proyecto termoeléctrico en ilegal y arbitrario cabildo (Criterio.hn, June 13, 2024).

About the megaproject

The megaproject appears to include an open-pit iron oxide mine and a petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant to provide the electricity to power a pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted would be processed to convert it into pellets (semi-processed iron) to be exported to the United States.

Criterio.hn notes:

“The petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant is one of the seven components of the controversial mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek [both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez], installed in the Montaña de Botaderos National Park, Carlos Escaleras Mejía.

Its original purpose was to provide electricity to the pelletizing plant for iron oxide, a mineral extracted from the natural reserve, but now it is justified by the ruling party as the answer to the energy problem that Tocoa is experiencing.”

In October 2022, NCR also explained:

“About a decade ago, Inversiones Los Pinares, formerly the Honduran EMCO Mining Company and based in Tocoa, applied for a concession to build an iron oxide mine in the protected Carlos Escaleras National Park. Then-President Juan Orlando Hernández authorized the request in 2013, a decision locals said was made without following protocol of consulting residents of the area.

The open-pit mining project was upstream of the Río Guapinol, a channel that stems from the larger Río Aguan, a river that flows through tropical mountains from the Atlantic on the northern side of the Central American country.

When the Río Guapinol in 2018 started to turn a chocolate brown, locals took that as a cue to act against Inversiones Los Pinares.”

EMCO Holding Group has also explained:

“In the Steel Division, the group operates the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, which is responsible for the extraction of iron oxide in Tocoa, Colón, complying with high quality standards, responsible mining and environmentally responsible processes.

Also in the Steel Division, there is a company Inversiones Ecotek that is developing the construction of a modern pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted in Tocoa will be processed to convert it into pellets. This process will allow the export of the material with a great added value. This plant will be unique in Central America. In the Energy Division, the group is developing an important power generation project with the company Puente Alto Energy, located in the community of Puente Alto, in Puerto Cortés, which plans to produce more than 100 megawatts (MW) in its initial stage.”

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.”

In January 2023, Bloomberg Linea further reported:

“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.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras aware of security situation as protests take place against controversial thermoelectric plant

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras has posted:

“On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied @guapinolre [Guapinol Resists – Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods] to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed an appeal for protection against the open town meeting convened for today [Thursday June 13].

On several occasions, the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods and the affected communities in the area have opposed the installation of ECOTEK’s thermoelectric plant.

At PBI, today [at 12:08 pm in Honduras] we are very aware of the security situation of the people of the community.”

That situation refers to a highway blockade this morning followed by a protest.

This morning Noticias 24/7 reported: “The inhabitants of the Aguán Valley took the CA-13 highway at the height of the La Ceibita community, in a protest against the call for an open town hall scheduled for this day. With burning tires and banners in hand, the demonstrators expressed their opposition to the installation of a thermoelectric plant in the region.”

Photo of protest on highway.

That article adds: “The Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, together with the communities of Lempira and Guapinol, have mobilized to Tegucigalpa to express their rejection. According to community leaders, the instruction to carry out the open town hall came from the Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), Lucky Medina.”

By the afternoon, La Tribuna reported: “Residents protesting against a thermoelectric project in the community of Ceibita, Tocoa, Colón, threw stones at Mayor Adán Fúnez, in an open town hall. Preliminary information highlights that the mayor of Tocoa was arriving at the Basic Education Center of the community of Ceibita, to talk with the locals about the project. However, tempers flared and the demonstrators threw stones at the Mayor, however, the Honduran National Police managed to protect the mayor. The social organizations of Tocoa have organized a protest in rejection of the installation of a thermoelectric plant that they consider polluting.”

Video clip.

Contracorriente further explains in a tweet: “Amid claims and aggressions to journalists, the mayor of the municipality of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, declared approved the Ecotek thermoelectric plant, which will operate based on petcoke. The mayor left the establishment after declaring the project approved, accompanied by a contingent of police. The communities complained that the Guapinol board of trustees was prohibited from participating in the open meeting.”

We note that lawyer Edy Tabora tweeted: “Adán Funez and Lenir Perez’s Ecotek company say they approved a thermoelectric project in Tocoa, without having been put to a vote. The communities reject the project and the Executive Branch reacts by protecting Lenir P. The town hall was illegal! The population said no!”

Video still.

And the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has tweeted: “We express our solidarity with the community of Tocoa, Colón, which is being militarized as an act of intimidation and violence after a peaceful mobilization against the open town hall of the thermoelectric plant. Tocoa has already rejected this highly polluting thermoelectric megaproject on 6 occasions, owned by the mayor of the Libre party, Adán Fúnez, but the sovereign decision of the people has not been respected by the authorities. We denounce the arbitrary actions, violence and intimidation by the National Police and the military to impose this illegal open meeting that tries to approve the Ecotek petroleum coke thermoelectric plant, part of the EMCO mining megaproject.”

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Honduras visits with National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) that sees little change in unequal land ownership

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted: “[On June 3] we met with Melany Chavarria, general secretary of the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] in La Paz. From the CNTC they shared their concerns with us about the little progress regarding land titling and obtaining legal status for peasant bases.”

Unequal land ownership

In their report Breaking Down in Order to Rebuild: The Human Rights Situation in Honduras (published in May 2022), PBI-Honduras noted: “As is common to almost all of Latin America, the question of unequal land ownership is an historic and persistent problem in the Republic of Honduras. Approximately 80% of land held in private hands does not have a corresponding or accurate land title.”

Additionally, fewer than 5% of landowners control 60% of the fertile terrain.

“Legal uncertainty in land tenure, property rights, and land use; private land titles granted over ancestral lands; and authorities’ limited capacity to prevent and resolve land conflicts and guarantee peasant and indigenous communities’ rights to land and territory are some of the most alarming aspects of this issue.”

Notably, the CNTC in Yoro department has reported that “90% of the small-scale farming companies that are members of the organization face criminal prosecutions.”

The report adds: “The agrarian reform approved under the administration of Manuel Zelaya is just one example [of a sign of hope] pointed to by peasant organisations. However, this wide-reaching decree was one of the victims of the 2009 coup d’état, when it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the National Congress.”

The promise of Castro

In December 2021, Reuters reported: “Last month, after more than a decade of conservative governments roiled by corruption and drug-trafficking scandals, Hondurans elected Xiomara Castro, a leftist, to assume the presidency next year.”

That article continues: “A former first lady of a president toppled in a 2009 coup, Castro has promised to revive land reform programs that fueled anger among property owners before her husband’s ouster. The coup was led by the military but supported at the time by many of the country’s moneyed class.”

More than two years after Castro was sworn into office on January 27, 2022, Melany Chavarria of the CNTC, as noted above, sees little progress.

Accompaniment

The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for the distribution of land.

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying the CNTC since May 2018.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Peace Community of San José de Apartadó as paramilitary threat intensifies

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Colombia has posted on Instagram:

“We will continue to seek development that respects life and rights” – Germán Graciano, Legal Representative of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó.

Last June 5, we accompanied @sanjoapartado in a meeting with diplomatic body and government to follow up on their social and environmental justice processes.

On June 12, El Espectador reported in an article titled Apartadó Peace Community Denounces Paramilitaries Starting “Extermination Plan”:

“This week, new threats against leaders of the population [of the Peace Community] located in the rural area of Urabá in Antioquia have once again set off alarms about the growing control in the area of the Clan del Golfo, which has also revived the paramilitary ghost that has plagued that area of the country.

It is paradoxical, and a symptom of recycling violence in that region, that these violent acts occur in the same week that a Florida court found the multinational Chiquita Brands guilty of financing paramilitary groups in Colombia, in the 90s, precisely in that part of Urabá.

Although the harassment against the residents began almost at the end of December, the highest peak of the conflict was evident a few months ago after the murder on March 19 of Nallely Sepúlveda and her brother-in-law Édinson David, 14, wife and brother of the humanitarian coordinator of that community.

A person close to the community, who for security reasons did not want to reveal his name, told Colombia+20 that, although there is a risk for several of the leaders of that population, in particular Germán Graciano, their legal representative, he is in the sights of the Clan del Golfo.

On its website, the Peace Community of San José has published two statements with the details of the violent events that have occurred between April and May. Among them are phone calls with death threats against Graciano, illegal retentions, theft of machinery, death of animals, alleged acts of espionage carried out by people who identify themselves as paramilitaries. Also, complaints of alleged illegal registrations and bad actions by the Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the inhabitants’ complaints, in mid-April a meeting was held by paramilitaries with leaders of community action boards in the township of San José de Apartadó. The community affirms that in that encounter a man who identified himself as Mateo said that the community would be exterminated.

For Graciano, some of the reasons for these events seem to be copied from what happened when the banana company Chiquita Brands was there. “Things have changed, but many not so much. The only thing the Community does is protect the territory and life in it, and that is why it wants to finish us off and kill us. That ruling uncovered that rotten pot of Urabá with the banana plantation, and you know that those businessmen are still there. This has some political and economic interests of this port of Antioquia. What we do here is exercise authority and autonomy in favor of our rights to our land, but that does not serve many people, the armed forces, some authorities, so they want to kill us,” he said.

The Clan del Golfo, which emerged after the demobilization of the paramilitary groups of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), is today one of the largest criminal groups in the country. In addition, it controls various illegal economies in several rural areas in several regions of the north of the country, including Urabá.””

The full article can be read at Comunidad de Paz de Apartadó denuncia que paramilitares empezaron “plan de exterminio” (El Espectador, June 12, 2024).

There is also this short video clip with PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) lawyer Sebastian Escobar.

For more on the Chiquita ruling, you can read US banana giant ordered to pay $38m to families of Colombian men killed by death squads (The Guardian, June 11, 2024).

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

PBI-Guatemala accompanies media conference denouncing attacks and evictions of Maya Q’eqchi’ communities

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 11, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies UVOC and the Campesino/Peasant Council, formed by CCDA, CUC, New Day and UVOC, at their press conference in which they denounced the complicity of the authorities of Alta Verapaz with the farmers to evict Indigenous and peasant communities.”

Factor 4 further explains: “The Peasant Council – the Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC), the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC), the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) and the Nuevo Dia Ch’orti Indigenous Association (Nuevo Dia) — condemns the evictions and threats against rural communities that fight for their right to land and a dignified life. …They regret the loss of lawyer José Alberto Domingo Montejo on June 5 and Marcelo Yaxon, both activists of the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC).”

Photo of UVOC coordinator Carlos Morales by Rony Morales.

Killings of CUC lawyer and activist

Grassroots International also provides this context: “Tragically, on June 5, armed paramilitaries assassinated José Alberto Domingo Montejo, human rights lawyer and legal counsel for our partner the Comité de Unidad Campesina/Peasant Unity Committee (CUC), and fatally wounded CUC activist Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, who died on June 10. They also severely wounded CUC activist Gustavo Yaxón.”

The Associated Press has also reported: “A Guatemalan lawyer who worked closely with organizations representing farmworkers and Indigenous groups was killed in an apparent ambush. José Domingo was with two members of the United Farmworkers Committee [CUC] when they were shot by a group of men Wednesday [June 5] south of the capital, said Daniel Pascual, a leader of that organization. …Domingo was helping to legalize a land title in the area… The Council of the Wuxhtaj Peoples also condemned the attack and said Domingo was of the Popti or Jakalteko people and a ‘defender of Mother Earth.’”

Photo: José Domingo.

Still from video clip.

Eviction of two Maya Q’eqchi’ communities

Grassroots International adds: “The brutal attack on these peasant rights defenders took place on the very same day that members of Guatemala’s National Civil Police (PNC) — which acts at the behest of local judicial authorities and their private interests — forcibly displaced 35 families of the Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ living in the community of San José el Tesoro in the Alta Verapaz department. Weeks prior, on May 22nd, the PNC also expelled dozens of Indigenous Mayas Q’eqchi’ from traditional territories in the community of Buena Vista in the Izabal department.”

Still from video:” Burning of houses in violent eviction in the community of San Jose el Tesoro, Coban, Alta Verapaz.”

Prensa Comunitaria has also reported on the two forced evictions:

“Homes turned to ashes, burned crops and displaced Q’eqchi’ families is the scenario that remains in the community of San José El Tesoro, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, after an eviction involving more than a thousand agents of the National Civil Police (PNC). On Wednesday, June 5, some 1,500 PNC agents mobilized to Cobán to evict the families who live on the farm known as “El Tesoro,” located at the entrance to the villages of Las Pacayas and Chitocán.

This is the second eviction reported during the government of Bernardo Arévalo, since, last May in Buena Vista, in El Estor, Izabal, women who were accompanied by their daughters and sons were evicted from the Tz’inté farm. Simultaneously with the state security forces, Arriaza Migoya’s crews and private security agents from the company VIP Security SA participated, who could have destroyed the houses and crops of the families. The families who lived in the Buena Vista community sought refuge during the night in the Santa Rosita community, others spend the night on the side of the road.”

Grassroots International comments: “This violence follows conflicts in late 2023 and early 2024 during which social movements mobilized against the ruling elite as it attempted to cling to power after being ousted from the presidency through democratic elections. While the current presidency represents a break from the Corrupt Pact (Pacto de Corruptos), the right-wing regime continues to hold on to power in parts of the government, including the legislative and judicial branches, the latter of which can decide on PNC [National Civil Police] actions. According to CUC [Committee for Peasant Unity], the ‘Covenant of the Corrupt’ is doing everything in its power to force a rupture between the recently-elected Semilla Party and progressive forces nationwide.”

Accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces since July 2018 and the Union of Campesino Organizations for the Verapaces (UVOC) since 2005.

We continue to follow this situation.

Tweet: “The Peasant Unity Committee -CUC- With deep regret and sadness, we unite to mourn the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion José Alberto Domingo Montejo.”

Tweet: “With deep regret, sadness, and indignation, for the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion: Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, community leader and member of the CUC structures.”

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