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2,000+ students arrested at protests calling for divestment from companies implicated in human rights violations

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still of University of Ottawa encampment by CTV.

Encampments are being organized on campuses across the United States and Canada in response to the Israeli military assault in which at least 34,596 Palestinians have been killed and 77,816 more injured.

The encampments have highlighted divestment as a demand.

The Columbia University Apartheid Divest group wrote in its list of five demands: “Divest all of Columbia’s finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine.”

The Associated Press also notes “the demands vary from campus to campus [but] among them: Stop doing business with military weapons manufacturers that are supplying arms to Israel.”

More specifically, students at the University of Texas at Dallas are calling on the university administration to divest from five companies: Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Corp and Raytheon Technologies.

And The Yale Daily News notes that while only 0.3 percent of Yale’s $40.7 billion endowment fund is publicly disclosed, “within the known 0.3 percent, there is evidence that Yale invests more than $110,000 in military weapons manufacturers, including companies that directly contract with the Israeli government and military.”

Similar demands are being made by students in Canada.

McGill University, Montreal

CBC has reported: “Some of McGill’s investments that have drawn the ire of students and others for years, well before the latest Israel-Hamas war, include Lockheed Martin, a weapons manufacturer with direct ties to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Safran, a French air defence company.” The Gazette further specifies: “Lockheed Martin, in which McGill has invested just under $520,000, as well as Thales SA ($1.3 million) and Safran ($1.5 million), all defence contractors.”

University of Ottawa

The Ottawa Citizen has reported: “Activists who addressed the crowd on Monday [April 29] said the group would be on campus every day from noon to nighttime to protest several issues, including the university’s relationship with Scotiabank. Scotiabank has been targeted by protesters in Canada since the start of the Israel-Hamas war for its investments in Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli arms firm.”

University of Toronto

A petition on the University of Toronto Divest website notes: “We, the undersigned call upon U of T to appropriately respond to the violations of international law, human rights abuses, and war crimes committed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by immediately divesting from Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard, and Lockheed Martin. Furthermore, we call upon the U of T to refrain from investing in all companies involved in violations of international law around the world.”

Criminal liability for universities

Common Dreams now reports: “As U.S. campus protests and the aggressive police response galvanized a growing number of British students to set up their own encampments at universities across the country on Wednesday [May 1], a legal group informed dozens of higher education institutions in the U.K. that their investments in weapons manufacturers could leave them open to criminal liability stemming from human rights violations by Israel.”

That article adds: “The International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) warned officers at 82 universities that if they have profited from investments in companies including Elbit Systems, Caterpillar, and BAE Systems, their financial holdings may be linked to weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces in its current escalation against Gaza.”

Citing Article 25 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICJP director Tayab Ali says: “Aiding, abetting and in any other way assisting in the commission of a war crime including ‘providing the means for its commission’ is a war crime.”

While universities are being cautioned about their criminal liability, it is students who are being criminalized. More than 2,000 students have been arrested over the past two weeks at encampments on US campuses.

CADSI and CANSEC

A similar caution could be made to universities in Canada, including in relation to the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) organized CANSEC weapons show this coming May 29-30 in Ottawa.

The CANSEC weapons show is sponsored by the same arms companies that are being identified by the students encampments including: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Thales, BAE Systems, and Hewlett Packard. And while one now has to register with CADSI to access its list of exhibitors, it has included: Israel Representatives, Elbit Systems Ltd., General Dynamics, Raytheon and Safran.

Notably, members of CADSI include 17 colleges and universities: Algonquin College, College of the North Atlantic, Dalhousie University, Durham College, Fanshawe College, Georgian College, Lakehead University, Nova Scotia Community College, Ontario Tech University – ACE, Queen’s University, Red River College, Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, The Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, The University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, and the University of Waterloo.

The CADSI Board of Directors also includes Peter Devlin, the President of Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.

We continue to follow this.

Image: ILPS Canada Instagram post.

Peace Brigades International supports the demand for an immediate ceasefire and continues to call “on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and the armed groups involved in the conflict.”

Further reading: More than 800 human rights defenders killed in Palestine over the past six months (PBI-Canada, April 26, 2024).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Famdegua at #CasoDiarioMilitar hearing on alternative measures, next date set for May 7

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Last Friday [April 26], #PBI accompanied Famdegua [the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala] to the hearing of revocation of alternative measures of Jacobo Salán Sánchez and Malfred Pérez Lorenzo, both accused in the #MilitaryDiaryCase, for which they should return to pre-trial detention.

Malfred Pérez Lorenzo’s lawyer did not show up at the hearing, nor did Jacobo Salán Sánchez and his lawyer.

The plaintiffs pointed to a prolonged delay in the case, which is part of a pattern of impunity and malicious litigation.

Finally, the judge decided to reschedule the hearing for 7 May at 9am. He noted that, in case of absence of the lawyers, he would proceed with the abandonment of the defence.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained:

“Defendants Jacobo Esdras Salán Sánchez, former Army colonel, and Malfred Orlando Pérez Lorenzo, former member of the disbanded National Police (PN) have been accused of crimes of forced disappearance, murder, attempted murder and crimes against humanity. Judge Rudy Eleazar Bautista Fuentes recognized that these crimes should not be granted alternative measures but accepted the petition anyway, and granted the measures on the basis of the defense’s arguments that pre-trial detention could worsen the health of the defendants. The two will have to pay a bail of Q6000 and present themselves every month at the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office to sign a registration book. The judge’s decision caused much indignation among the relatives of the detained and disappeared and their lawyers expressed bewilderment.”

Photo: Former Army Colonel Jacobo Esdras Salán Sánchez and former National Police officer Malfred Orlando Pérez Lorenzo.

The Military Diary Case

The Military Diary gives an account of more than 195 victims of state security violence between 1983 and 1985. Those seen as “internal enemies” were disappeared. Of 183, it contains specific files, with details of their capture, the place where they were captured and what happened to each of them afterwards.

The code “300” at the end of entries is understood to mean they were executed.

On May 27, 2021, 11 retired military and former police officers were arrested for the disappearances detailed in Military Diary.

Two of the arrested died without facing trial.

In May 2022 nine of them were sent to trial by Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez for their alleged participation in kidnappings, disappearances, torture and executions. The Associated Press has reported: “A Guatemalan judge who ordered nine former police and military officers to stand trial for alleged crimes during that country’s civil war, said [on May 11, 2022] that death threats against him had increased since announcing his decision.” Judge Gálvez said: “They send me messages, they call me on the phone, there’s vehicles following; all of that is happening.” For his own safety, he left Guatemala on November 4, 2022.

Accompaniment

PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying the #CasoDiarioMilitar court hearing process that began in May-June 2021.

FAMDEGUA was first accompanied by PBI-Guatemala from 1992 until 1999. PBI-Guatemala began accompanying FAMDEGUA again in April 2023. PBI-Guatemala was accompanying the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at the previous #CasoDiarioMilitar court hearings.

For more, CBC has reported the stories of three women – Wendy Mendez, Maria Consueleo Pérez, and Annabella Jiménez – who now live in Canada, but who lost loved ones who are listed in the Military Diary. That article can be read here.

Photo: Wendy Mendez holds a photo of her mother who was forcibly disappeared in 1984. Her mother worked for a university newspaper and promoted organized labour.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and ACVC on humanitarian mission in Cerro Azul and Alto San Juan

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted: “We accompanied @Credhos_Paz [Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights] on a humanitarian mission with @ACVCRAN [Small-Scale Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley] and government institutions to listen to the needs and stories of violations of their rights expressed by the community of Cerro Azul, San Pablo, in #South Bolivar.”

CREDHOS has also posted: “We participated in the Humanitarian Mission in the communities of the villages of Cerro Azul and Alto San Juan, municipality of San Pablo, Bolivar. An Action, in which civil society organizations, the international community and State institutions participated in the defence and promotion of Human Rights and respect for International Humanitarian Law.”

Photos from the humanitarian mission.

 

Current context

On April 29, El Universal explained: “Although in recent days the situation in southern Bolívar has taken on more prominence, the truth is that this population has been living with violence for years. A report carried out in 2023 by the International Institute of Caribbean Studies of the University of Cartagena and the Social Pastoral of the Diocese of Magangué, shows the picture in more detail.”

“The study highlights that this cycle of violence began after the signing of the 2016 Peace Accords, which included the demobilization of the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] Magdalena Medio Bloc. Their withdrawal sparked a dispute between the ELN [National Liberation Army] and the Gulf Clan [paramilitary] for territorial control, leading to increased armed clashes. The situation worsened when in 2022 the Central General Staff (EMC) [founded by former members of the FARC] joined this conflict.”

It then notes: “According to the study, the repositioning of armed groups in southern Bolívar is due to the limited capacity of the security forces to control territory, failures in security policies, and delays in the implementation of the Peace Agreement.”

Reuters has also noted: “The EMC, ELN, Segunda Marqutalia [one of the largest factions of FARC dissidents] and armed groups like the Clan del Golfo [the Gulf Clan] often fight each other for control of illicit income streams like drug trafficking and illegal mining. Violence in many parts of Colombia has continued despite ongoing bilateral government ceasefires with the EMC and the ELN.”

Origins of this situation

In brief, Justice for Colombia has explained:

“The Colombian armed conflict was a direct result of a deep rooted social and political conflict. In spite of huge natural wealth, a large number of Colombians live in poverty. This poverty is particularly concentrated in rural areas.

Guerrilla organisations emerged in response to this situation and the armed conflict was therefore a direct result of an unanswered social and political conflict.

The armed conflict in Colombia officially began in 1964 with the formation of two separate guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN. The violence in Colombia however had started long before.

After a number of civil wars between Colombian elites in the second half of the 19th Century, the murder of the anti-establishment Liberal Party presidential candidate, Jorge Gaitan, in 1948 initiated a decade of violence which became known as la Violencia. During this period more than 200,000 Colombians, principally peasant farmers, were killed.

Although it had begun as a popular uprising, la Violencia was being orchestrated by the Liberal and Conservative landowning elite to further their own political and economic interests and in 1958 the two parties came to an agreement to bring an end to the fighting. The agreement ensured the exclusion of all other political parties from the political system.

Whilst paramilitary-type structures were first used by the Conservative Party in the 1950s during La Violencia, the origins of the modern day paramilitaries emerged in the 1980s. These groups saw the coming together of large landholders and business leaders, drug cartels, and the Colombian Army with the objectives of advancing economic interests and combating the threat posed by the different guerrilla groups. From the outset the paramilitary structures enjoyed deep rooted support from the Colombian state and targeted much of their violence against political activists.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994 and ACVC since 2004.

PBI-Honduras concerned by arbitrary detention of CNTC El Progreso general secretary Lilian Borjas

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Lilian Borjas.

PBI-Honduras has posted: “From PBI, we show concern about the arrest of Lilian Borjas, general secretary of the CNTC in El Progreso. We recommend that the international community speak out in solidarity with her. At PBI, we are very aware of your safety and well-being.”

           

Criterio.hn reports: “On the morning of Tuesday, April 30, members of the National Police detained human rights defender Lilian Borjas at a police checkpoint in Pico Bonito, La Ceiba, Atlántida, as a result of a criminalization process of which she was a victim in 2013 for her work as an ombudsman, for which she should have been released for four years. In this sense, the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, denounced the ‘incompetence’ of the judicial system, because the system has not been updated, which has led to revictimization and continuous stigmatization against land defenders.”

That article further explains: “The criminalization campaign against Lilian Borjas began in 2013 because of her struggle in defense of land and territories and for denouncing the actions of agro-industrial companies against peasants, and the acts of corruption and abuses by judges to carry out violent evictions.”

It also notes: “Borjas, because of the defense of land and human rights, has been prosecuted three times, accused of ‘usurpation of land’. Over the past two years, she has faced death threats and other forms of intimidation to stop her activism for access to land and food sovereignty.”

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 National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) since May 2018.

PBI-Canada visits University of Ottawa encampment that calls for divestment from weapons companies

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: PBI-Canada visits the encampment at the University of Ottawa, May 1, 2024.

The Ottawa Citizen reports: “Protesters at the University of Ottawa [uOttawa] began their second day of pro-Palestinian sit-ins Tuesday [April 30] on the rain-soaked lawn outside Tabaret Hall. The goal is to get the university to ‘disclose and divest’, said co-organizer Ayham Hakimi, a third-year student.”

The article continues: “[The university students ] are demanding uOttawa divest from Scotiabank, which has attracted media attention because of its investment in an Israeli arms firm known as Elbit Systems Ltd.”

Demands of the encampment at the University of Ottawa.

The Fulcrum also reports: “Organized by INSAF [Integrity Not Spite Against Falastin] uOttawa and the Palestinian Students Association (PSA), with support from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Carleton, the goal of the encampment is for the University of Ottawa administration to fully divest from ‘any and all corporations involved directly and indirectly’ involved in the genocide in Gaza, disclose their direct and indirect investments, and adopt the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association definition of Anti-Palestinian racism. They are also asking the university to sever ties with Israeli institutions, such as ending the exchange program with Tel Aviv University.”

Video by CTV.

In this statement posted on the University of Ottawa website, Éric Bercier, Associate Vice-President, Student Affairs, writes: “While peaceful protest is permitted in appropriate public spaces on campus according to our policies and regulations, encampments and occupations will not be tolerated.”

Encampment co-organizer Hakimi has responded to Bercier by saying: “I find it very ironic that talking about occupations won’t be tolerated. But that’s exactly what we’re protesting here — an occupation that’s happening in Palestine.”

CTV further reports: “The Ottawa Police Service says Tabaret Lawn is on private property and is not engaged on the campus at this time. ‘We continue to liaise with uOttawa Protection Services. We are also in communication with other post-secondary institutions,’ an Ottawa police spokesperson said in an email.”

Encampments at 6+ universities in Canada

World Beyond War Canada has noted that the University of Ottawa encampment is one of six currently happening in Canada (the others are at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, McGill University in Montreal, the University of Victoria, Western University in London, and Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo).

NBC News also notes that there is an encampment at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

And an encampment began at the University of Toronto this morning.

Campus-based protests in the United States

NBC also lists protests at 54 other campuses. That list shows there have been arrests made by police at 27 of those locations.

The Associated Press has reported that in the United States: “Police have arrested hundreds nationwide since detainments at Columbia [University in New York] on April 18.” By April 30, the BBC further noted: “More than 1,000 students have been arrested in less than two weeks during these protests.”

Divestment from weapons companies

The Guardian has highlighted that at Columbia “students are demanding the university drop its direct investments in companies doing business in or with Israel, including Amazon and Google, which are part of a $1.2bn cloud-computing contract with Israel’s government; Microsoft, whose services are used by Israel’s ministry of defense and Israeli civil administration; and defense contractors profiting from the war such as Lockheed Martin, which on Tuesday reported its earnings were up 14%.”

That article adds: “Yale University’s Endowment Justice Coalition and student groups at Cornell University, are [also] pushing administrators to drop investments in weapons manufacturers specifically.”

The United Nations comments

On April 30, Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, commented: “We are troubled by a series of heavy-handed steps taken to disperse and dismantle protests across university campuses in the United States of America. Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society, particularly when there is a sharp disagreement on major issues, as there are in relation to the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.”

Peace Brigades International supports the demand for an immediate ceasefire and continues to call “on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and the armed groups involved in the conflict.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: More than 800 human rights defenders killed in Palestine over the past six months (PBI-Canada, April 26, 2024).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies FAMDEGUA and survivors at commemoration of the Los Josefinos massacre

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Today and tomorrow (April 29 and 30) #PBI accompanies the annual commemoration of the massacre that occurred in the village Los Josefinos, Petén, Guatemala on April 29 and 30, 1982 during the internal armed conflict (CAI).

We accompanied the members of the Famdegua [the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala] and survivors of the massacre in the commemoration act, which included several talks, a presentation of photos of community people made by anthropologist Alejandro Flores and a walk to the Los Josefinos cemetery.

Although there has been a sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights holding the State responsible for enforced disappearance and forced displacement and for violations of rights to the family, childhood and judicial guarantees, the survivors are still waiting for the reparations considered by the sentence.”

The massacre

FAMDEGUA has explained: “On April 29 and 30, 1982, at the beginning of the de facto government of General Efraín Ríos Montt,  a unit of the Guatemalan Army massacred at least 42 people, including 28 adults and 14 minors, in the village of Los Josefinos,  La Libertad, in the department of Petén. During the time that members of the army were in the village they tortured and murdered several community members; later, the bodies were buried in a mass grave. Several survivors were forced to flee to the mountains, while others managed to escape. Nevertheless, some members of the community were pursued in their attempts to save their lives, and during their escape several minors were separated from their parents and to this day are still missing.”

The Associated Press adds that the massacre took place when the Guatemalan army was “conducting a scorched-earth campaign to wipe out any support for leftist rebels.”

The armed conflict

The Center for Justice & Accountability notes: “Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Guatemala’s military rulers continued to liquidate their political opponents, and with the reform movements defeated, the Left grew increasingly militarized and launched a full-scale civil war against the government. The new leftist guerilla movements initially obtained the support of some indigenous Maya, who viewed the guerillas as the last hope for redressing the economic and political marginalization of the indigenous communities. However, this link between the Maya and the guerillas eventually became an idée fixe for the government, who promulgated an ideology that perceived all Maya as natural allies of the insurrection, and thus as enemies of the state. The natural extension of this belief was the deliberate targeting of  the civilian population, in order to ‘starve’ guerilla forces of their popular support.  This essential tenet of counterinsurgency strategy found fertile ground in Guatemala, which soon became a laboratory for ‘dirty war’ tactics.”

They add: “In 1982, General Efraín Ríos Montt replaced Lucas García as head of state. Ríos Montt enjoyed close ties with the Reagan administration and with Christian conservatives in the United States. His reign from March 1982 to August 1983 was the bloodiest period in Guatemala’s history. During that time, the Guatemalan government led a campaign to wipe out large portions of the country’s indigenous populations: an estimated 70,000 were killed or disappeared.”

Inter-American Court ruling

On December 22, 2021, the Associated Press reported: “The court said criminal investigations into the massacre didn’t start until nearly 14 years after the events. The court said Guatemala should pay indemnities and court costs and speed up legal proceedings, as well as building a monument in the area where victims were buried in a mass grave and create an audiovisual documentary of the massacre.”

Edgar Perez, the director of the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) has previously commented about this massacre: “The State must reflect because there are more than 600 massacres that were committed during the internal armed conflict. We hope that the State assumes its responsibility and does not leave this type of atrocities unpunished.”

Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH)

In 1999, the Commission for Historical Clarification found that more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the conflict (1960 to 1996) and attributed 93% of the violations to state forces and related paramilitary groups.

The commission noted that during the conflict the distinction between combatant and non-combatant was not respected. The commission also found that 83% of “fully identified” victims were Mayan and 17% Ladino (persons of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent). 93% of the violations were attributed to state forces and related paramilitary groups and 3% to insurgency groups.

Accompaniment

FAMDEGUA was accompanied by PBI from 1992 until 1999, when PBI’s Guatemala Project was temporarily closed. After receiving a renewed request from the organization, PBI began accompanying FAMDEGUA again in April 2023.

Reflections on the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa and community organizing to stop global human rights violations

By
Brent Patterson
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News clipping from ARMX ’89.

The international weapons trade has been implicated for many years in multiple violations of human rights and in aggressions against human rights defenders. Amnesty International recently highlighted their concern about Canadian arms exports and the implications on human rights in Saudi Arabia/Yemen, Peru and Israel/Palestine.

With the CANSEC arms show coming to the EY Centre in Ottawa on May 29-30, we look at past and present community opposition to this gathering.

35th anniversary of mobilization against ARMX ‘89

The Ottawa-based Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) campaign against ARMX ’89, the precursor to CANSEC, “marked the first time in Canadian history that the peace movement had organized a large protest effort against a weapons bazaar.”

Their effort sparked a debate in the House of Commons, extensive media coverage, and a City of Ottawa by-law to ban all subsequent arms shows from City property (a ban that remained in place for almost 20 years).

That historic municipal resolution stated: “the arms trade has little or no consideration of moral or humanitarian issues in that weapons have been used against civilians” and further highlighted that “exports of Canadian military equipment and components end up in countries which persistently violate human rights.”

Following this, the organizers of what would have been “ARMX ‘91” first looked at relocating their biennial show from Lansdowne Park  to Carp (a community about 38 kilometres away), but ended up canceling that planned convention.

Two years after that, ARMX rebranded itself as “Peacekeeping ‘93” at the provincial government-owned downtown Ottawa Congress Centre. Despite repeated pleas, Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae refused to stop this gathering.

After 1993, “Peacekeeping” relocated to Washington, DC where it fizzled out. A relatively small military-trade show was then mounted in 1997 and 1998, but didn’t last. But significantly that year CANSEC appeared as an annual arms show. Still, the success of previous organizing was evident. For its first year, CANSEC had 52 exhibiting companies, one-tenth the size of ARMX ’89 almost ten years earlier.

Success stories

We can look at other success stories for inspiration.

Along with the City of Ottawa in 1989 prohibiting ARMX from taking place in City-owned buildings, we have also seen:

– the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom ruling that four activists did not act unlawfully when they blocked the road to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms show in 2017

– the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan calling on the organizers of DSEI to “reconsider” their event in 2021 highlighting for London “to be used as a marketplace for those who wish to trade in weapons to some countries that contribute to human rights abuses goes completely against our values”

– the Chilean government of  barring Israeli companies from participating in the FIDAE arms show in April 2024 in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Other potential measures of success could include the withdrawal of government funding (notably, Global Affairs Canada funding), the withdrawal of government agencies (including the Trade Commissioner Service that did temporarily withdraw from CANSEC this year), restrictions/sanctions on the companies that violate the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and federal legislation that would first strictly regulate them then eventually prohibit them from taking place.

Calls for a public inquiry

A public inquiry could be a starting point for all of this.

This year, multiple groups, including the International League for Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), are calling on the Government of Canada to hold “an independent and in-depth inquiry into CADSI and its direct involvement in human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

This harkens back to the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) organizing a “Public Inquiry into the Arms Trade and Human Rights” in 1989 that was chaired by former city councillor and Member of Parliament Marion Dewar.

That inquiry took place at Saint Paul’s University included testimony from people who had experienced state repression in El Salvador and Pakistan, and called on Canada “to cease all arms exports” and to “take over arms manufacturing, switch as many weapons factories as possible over to civilian production and support an international arms trade registry to discourage arms sales to repressive regimes.”

Compliance with ICJ ruling

Other demands that could be made this year might include independent monitoring of the exhibits, meetings and transactions at CANSEC to ensure that they are compliant with the International Court of Justice ruling of January 26, 2024.

Legal scholars in Canada have argued that “because the ICJ found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada’s obligation to prevent genocide, and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.”

This concern also extends to the House of Commons resolution of March 18, 2024 that pledges Canada will “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime.”

This could also be extended to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights that places responsibilities on transnational weapons companies. It says: “The responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate. It exists independently of States’ abilities and/or willingness to fulfil their own human rights obligations, and does not diminish those obligations. And it exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations protecting human rights.”

What mechanisms/protocols are in place to ensure these international human rights norms are respected at CANSEC? Will the Canadian government agencies promoting arms sales at CANSEC being doing this?

With Elbit Systems, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and some of the biggest suppliers of weapons enabling the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, serious questions remain about adherence to these human rights norms.

Challenging systems of oppression beyond CANSEC

There is also increasing reflection among some local organizers who see CANSEC as a focal point, but not the crucial concern that needs to be confronted.

In May 1911, Rosa Luxemburg wrote: “Militarism in both its forms – as war and as armed peace – is a legitimate child, a logical result of capitalism, which can only be overcome with the destruction of capitalism, and hence whoever honestly desires world peace and liberation from the tremendous burden of armaments must also desire socialism.”

As such, the local anti-imperialist movement, while continuing to organize to challenge CANSEC, has brought forward the analysis that it is the system that must be challenged, not just its manifestation as a trade show.

And just as capital is highly mobile across international borders, they raise the point that CANSEC could relocate to another city if mobilizations in Ottawa reached the point that the arms show could be shut down here (though the history of ARMX tells us that this is not so easily done and can be a significant, if temporary, setback).

Challenges to stop CANSEC

The challenges for local organizers to stop CANSEC are much greater now:

-it takes place at a privately-run convention centre, so the leverage to mobilize the City or province is less than before

-the City of Ottawa welcomes CANSEC each year, while the Canadian government provides funding to its organizers ($450,352.00 over the past two years)

-it takes place near the airport, so there are more logistical challenges than being able to mobilize people downtown

-it is much larger (exhibitors this year) and much more established

-the peace movement has largely dissipated in Canada (relative to its strength 35 years ago when ARMX ’89 was challenged) and the anti-militarist movement is still nascent and finding its strength.

Challenges and next steps

As such, we are left with many questions: How can the arms trade that has continually violated human rights be effectively challenged at a local level? How can CANSEC be confronted while recognizing the systemic analysis that it is just one manifestation of a larger concern? How can the traditional peace movement/pacifist analysis work in conjunction with the anti-imperialist movement and associated national liberation struggles? How can sufficient capacity be built in Ottawa to attain some of the political success of 35 years ago given a new political moment and new challenges?

Still, there is hope and the necessity to challenge the arms trade that imperils human rights and human rights defenders.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Famdegua at hearing on Inter-American Court ruling and acquittal of three soldiers in Dos Erres massacre

By
Brent Patterson
-

Update

On May 4, PBI-Guatemala posted:
“#PBI accompanies relatives of Famdegua Guatemala and the Human Rights Law Firm [BDH] to the hearing on the appeal of the #CasoDosErres.
Last November, three Kaibiles accused of crimes against the duties of humanity and murder in the 1982 massacre were acquitted. The hearing was adjourned without prior notice.
In a few days the decision will be notified in writing to the plaintiffs, which must comply with the judgement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.”

**

On April 18, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday #PBI accompanied Famdegua [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala] to the public hearing for the special appeal filed by the plaintiffs of #CasoDosErres

In November last year the High Risk Court acquitted three defendants of the crimes of duty against humanity and murders of more than 200 people in the massacre perpetrated by Kaibiles military commandoes in 1982.

In the coming days a chamber will have to analyze the sentence/judgement in the case on the basis on the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the grounds of appeal presented by the plaintiffs.

The resolution hearing is scheduled for April 30 at 3pm.”

The Massacre

The BBC has reported:

“More than 200 people were killed in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, one of the most violent episodes in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year conflict.

The Kaibiles [were] a US-trained counter-insurgency force fighting left-wing guerrillas. …The special unit of the Guatemalan army stormed the village in the north of the country on 6 December 1982.

The Kaibiles suspected the villagers of sympathizing with left-wing guerrillas who had two months earlier carried out an ambush on a nearby army patrol, leaving 21 soldiers dead. Even though the soldiers’ search of the village did not uncover any of the weapons the guerrillas had seized during the ambush, the Kaibiles proceeded to kill the village’s inhabitants.

Over several days, the soldiers systematically shot or bludgeoned to death hundreds of men, women and children. They disposed of most of the bodies by throwing them down a well.”

Israel’s role in the Dos Erres massacre

Mark Lewis Taylor, a Maxwell Upson Professor of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written in CounterPunch:

“Investigative journalist George Black, writing for NACLA [in 2007], reported that Israel eagerly stepped in for the US [after the Carter Administration suspended arms sales in 1977 due to human rights violations], ‘becoming Guatemala’s principal supplier. In 1980, the Army was fully re-equipped with Galil rifles [Israeli manufactured] at a cost of $6 million.’

In an infamous massacre, one of many, the Israeli connection was clearly present. At the village of Dos Erres on December 6, 1982. Israeli-trained commandos left the village completely burned down, after shooting, torturing and/or raping over 200 villagers.

A UN investigative team reported: ‘All the ballistic evidence recovered corresponded to bullet fragments from firearms and pods of Galil rifles made in Israel’… This was just in the one village of Dos Erres. The same 12-volume investigation reports that Israeli made Galil rifles were used throughout the highlands…”

Aljazeera has also reported: “Investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood, who as a photojournalist covered Latin American civil wars in the 1980s and 1990s, confirmed that the Israelis were ‘up to their ears in the genocide’ in Guatemala. He said the Israelis had supplied the military with Arava STOL planes and armoured personnel carriers, and established an ammunition factory in the city of Coban.”

And Spring magazine has noted: “The US suspended military aid to Guatemala in 1977—their human rights abuses were a bad look, so Israel stepped in for them. Israeli president Ephrain Katzir signed an agreement supplying the Guatemalan military with $38 million worth of arms during the civil war period, including rifles, helicopters, equipment for surveillance, and training.”

Trial and acquittal

The Center for Justice & Accountability has noted:

“The [Dos Erres] case was eventually brought to the attention of the Inter-American Human Rights system. In 2008, the Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), which returned a landmark judgment in 2009, holding that Guatemala had violated the rights to a fair trial and judicial protection under the American Convention on Human Rights by failing to fully investigate the massacre.

In 2010, the Guatemalan Supreme Court ordered a lower court to execute the IACtHR’s decision by enforcing long-outstanding arrest warrants and by re-opening the criminal proceedings. Guatemala issued warrants for the arrest of 17 ex-Kaibiles, many of which are still at large overseas.”

By November 2018, six soldiers had been convicted for their role in this massacre.

On November 7, 2023,  a court acquitted thee former Kaibiles accused in the Dos Erres massacre case. Gilberto Jordán, José Mardoqueo Ortiz and Alfonso Bulux Vicente had stood accused of their participation in the massacre.

Accompaniment

FAMDEGUA was accompanied by PBI from 1992 until 1999, when PBI’s Guatemala Project was temporarily closed. In 2023, after receiving a renewed request from the organisation, PBI began accompanying FAMDEGUA again in April.

We continue to follow this case.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the trial of General Benedicto Lucas accused of genocide against the Maya Ixil people

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo by PBI-Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala is accompanying the trial of General Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia who is accused of committing genocide against the Maya Ixil people between August 1981 and March 1982 during the Internal Armed Conflict.

He stands accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances and sexual violence.

Now 91 years old, Lucas Garcia is directly accused of being responsible for the deaths of 844 people. As the Chief of Staff of the Army, he identified the Ixil peoples of Santa María Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal, and San Gaspar Chajul as “the enemy within.” In this region, 32 massacres were carried out in more than 20 communities.

More than 50 Indigenous families impacted by the massacres are part of the criminal process against Lucas García through the non-governmental organization Justice and Reconciliation Association (AJR).

The trial is expected to continue into June.

An estimated 200,000 people were killed during the internal armed conflict, that took place from 1960 to 1996. More than 80 per cent of those killed were Indigenous Maya. The final report of the United Nations-backed Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) released in February 1999 found that the military committed acts of genocide against five of the country’s 22 different Maya peoples, including the Ixil, between 1981 and 1983.

Image by FGER.

UPDATED

May 3: “Yesterday #PBI accompanied the oral and public debate against the former general Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia for the case #GenocideIxil. Testimonies of survivors of the massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan army between 1981 and 1982 against the Mayan people Ixil in the Quiché continued to be heard.”

April 26: “PBI accompanies the case #GenocidioIxil. During the hearing, expert testimony was heard about the consequences of the massacres against the civilian population.”

April 25: “PBI accompanies the Association for Justice and Reconciliation -AJR- to a hearing of the #CaseGenocidioIxil, in which they and the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented four witnesses who suffered serious human rights violations that occurred in 1982 by the army during the internal armed conflict (CAI). The next hearings will take place on 26, 29 and 30 April.”

April 23: “PBI accompanies the trial against Benedicto Lucas García for the #GenocidioIxil case. Today the testimonies of 3 Ixil women survivors of sexual violence suffered during the war continued.  Indigenous women from different territories of the country, among others from the Ixcán region and the Achís women, were at the hearing to show solidarity with the witnesses. The trial will continue Thursday 25 April at 8.30am on the 15th level of the Court Tower.”

April 22: “PBI accompanies the #GenocidioIxil case hearings. Before entering the hearing, the Ixil women, accompanied by solidarity organizations, recited an invocation to ask for strength for this week, in which women survivors will testify about the sexual violence suffered during the war in the Ixil area.”

Additional context

Prensa Comunitaria has reported:

“The trial against the former chief of staff of the army, Benedicto Lucas, began this Friday [April 5] in the High Risk Court ‘A’, presided over by Judge Gervi Sical. The facts on trial are the deaths of 844 people of the Mayan Ixil ethnic group between 1981 and 1982, when Lucas was chief of staff of the army.

According to the prosecutor’s office, when the general held the position of chief of staff of the army, between August 16, 1981, and March 23, 1982, the attack against the Mayan Ixil population, north of Quiché, in the municipalities of Nebaj, Cotzal and Chajul, intensified.

This area was declared red by the Chief of Staff with the intention of destroying this population because they were considered to support the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), one of the four guerrilla groups during the internal armed conflict.

Lucas is accused of being the mastermind behind the deaths of the 844 people who have been identified by witnesses and expert witnesses. In addition, there are 71 victims of individual deaths, 12 communities displaced by the army, looting and destruction of 18 communities, 16 victims of sexual violence and 42 victims of enforced disappearance.

In this trial, the prosecution will seek to prove genocide. In addition, it has the testimony of 152 witnesses who will attend the hearing and narrate how they experienced the massacres in their communities and who suffered displacement to the mountains. The army burned their houses and crops, seeking the death of the survivors. A total of 81 experts will also be heard.”

Regeneracion adds: “In May 2018, Lucas García was sentenced along with [retired General Manuel Callejas y Callejas, who was the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate] and two other military officers to 58 years in prison. This is due to the forced disappearance of the teenager Marco Antonio Molina Theissen and the rape and torture of his sister Emma Guadalupe in 1981.”

Photo: Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen and her mother who is holding a photograph of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen.

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Israel and Genocide: Not Only In Gaza by Mark Lewis Taylor, CounterPunch, December 22, 2023.

#CasoGenocidioIxil #GenocidioIxil

Photo: General Benedicto Lucas Garcia points at a map, January 19, 1982. Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Archive Photos/Getty Images.

Photo.

Photo: At the proceedings via video link.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at march against San Pedro Cholula landfill

By
Brent Patterson
-

On April 22, PBI-Mexico posted:

“Today, on International Mother Earth Day, we are accompanying the FPDTA-MPT [Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water- Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala] in the March for Water and against the San Pedro Cholula landfill. At PBI Mexico we recognise the fundamental role that communities play in the non-violent resolution of conflicts, we express our concern for the possible environmental and health impacts that could result from the activity of this landfill, and we call for the necessary spaces for dialogue to be created, in good faith, between the communities and the institutions of Puebla to resolve this conflict.”

La Jornada de Oriente has explained:

“…There is evidence that the San Pedro intermunicipal landfill contaminates the region, nothing has been done to remedy the situation by the authorities.

[The landfill] is located just 300 meters from the Casas Garza housing complex and 600 meters from the Polytechnic University of Puebla (UPP).

The main point of contention [between affected residents and municipal authorities] centers on the expansion of the solid waste landfill, a proposal that has generated resistance and protests from local residents and environmental groups. It is argued by the villages that the expansion of the landfill could have significant negative impacts on the natural environment and the quality of life of nearby inhabitants.

Among the concerns raised by opponents of expansion are increased air and water pollution, as well as the potential risk of diseases associated with waste accumulation. In addition, it is pointed out that the expansion of the landfill could involve the expropriation of land and negatively affect the biodiversity of the area.

Environmental engineers who participated in a forum held at the Polytechnic University of Puebla on March 4 said that the San Pedro Cholula landfill violates federal restrictions and puts the health of thousands of residents at risk, because it was built near a populated area and on groundwater.

For her part, Nayeli Carreón Carmona, a specialist in sanitary landfills, said that at first glance the Cholula landfill does not comply with environmental standards, so it represents a ‘time bomb’ for the region.”

Esto es Cholula has also reported: “In an interview, Juan Carlos Flores [has] explained that the landfill in question provides service to 23 municipalities, several of which are the most populous in the state. He warned that it has exceeded its storage capacity and has begun to contaminate the wells that supply water to the communities of Calpan, Juan C. Bonilla and Cholula.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Peoples’ Front since early 2020. In August 2022, that accompaniment was extended for another three years.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanies Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at highway blockade at Cholula garbage dump (March 22, 2024)

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