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PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission at Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone youth meeting

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted:

“We accompanied @justiciapazcolombia [Justice and Peace Commission] to the first Youth Meeting of the year organized by @perlaamazonica_zrcpa [Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone] in #Putumayo.

In the event children and young people from the different communities that make up the Amazon Pearl participate to reflect on the peasant identity and the possibilities and challenges of the Peasant Reserve Zones as an organizational strengthening strategy. They also develop activities on the promotion of youth leadership and territory protection.”

The ZRC (campesino/peasant reserve zone) is located near Puerto Asis in the department of Putumayo in south-west Colombia near the border with Ecuador.

Illegal armed actors threaten human rights defenders

On March 19, Publimetro reported: “The Ombudsman’s Office identified risks in 50 municipalities and 18 non-municipalized areas of the Amazon, Caquetá, Cauca, Guainía, Guaviare, Meta, Putumayo, Vaupés and Vichada. Early Warning 007 of 2024 warns of the risks faced by human rights defenders in these territories.”

That article continues: “The Office of the Ombudsman identified eight risk scenarios faced by environmental defenders in the south of the country [including] territorial dispute over hydrocarbon exploitation, illicit crops [and] threats due to the exercise of authority and territorial governance [in Putumayo].”

It further specifies: “Human rights defenders in the Peasant Reserve Zones, such as Perla Amazónica and Río Pato – Balsilla Valley, have faced stigmatization and violence for defending their territories. There is a strong presence of the Central General Staff [Estado Mayor Central- EMC, about 3,500 fighters with a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia/FARC dissident group] and the Second Marquetalia [Segunda Marquetalia, one of the largest factions of FARC dissidents], which dispute territory mainly between Putumayo and Caquetá.”

Canadian oil companies in the Amazon

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission that in turn accompanies the Amazon Pearl Campesino Reserve Zone and Jani Silva, the president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Perla Amazónica (ADISPA).

Amnesty International has highlighted: “Jani Silva has dedicated her life to protecting the Amazon and the life that exists in it from efforts by armed groups and multinational companies to take control of her territory.”

The Guardian has also reported: “Silva says she has seen firsthand the effects of big business in Putumayo, where, she believes, oil companies ‘exploit irresponsibly’ and contaminate the environment.”

The Stand.Earth report CAPITALIZING ON COLLAPSE: How top fossil fuel banks financing Amazon oil and gas profit at the cost of forest and community health, Indigenous rights, and climate change (July 2023), has highlighted: “Canadian Banks Loaned a Billion dollars to Canadian Oil Drillers in the Amazon”.

It then explains: “Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the world’s top fossil fuel financier in 2022, leads a list of Canadian banks including Scotiabank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), as well as private investors like GMP Securities (Stiftel) that have lent an estimated 1 billion dollars to Frontera Energy and Gran Tierra between 2011 and 2019. That financing includes an estimated $300 million USD in financing that is considered direct financing for these companies’ Amazon oil drilling operations. Frontera and Gran Tierra are both Canadian firms operating in the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru.”

The report also provides this chart.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras attends PRO assembly as ASODEBICOQ defends environment from extractive projects in Santa Bárbara

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“We attended the Assembly of the Patronato Regional de Occidente (PRO) in Santa Barbara.

#ASODEBICOQ along with other civil society representatives expressed concern about the different #needs of its inhabitants and proposed projects to solve them.

We are concerned about the major problems associated with #deforestation, #water shortages and #persecution of leaders for denouncing irregularities.”

The PRO (Patronato Regional de Occidente or Western Regional Organization) represents about 200 communities in 15 municipalities in the departments of Copán and Santa Bárbara.

The Association for the Defence of Common Property in Quimistán (ASODEBICOQ) works to defend the rights to land, territory and the environment in the face of extractive projects in the department of Santa Bárbara.

Mining and hydroelectric projects

Those extractive projects including mining and hydroelectric dams.

The Center for Women’s Rights (CDM) has noted: “The department of Santa Bárbara is made up of 28 municipalities and is one of the main departments of interest for extractive projects.”

As of April 2023, the CDM says there are 75 extractive projects in Santa Barbara including 45 mining projects (extracción minera), 27 hydroelectric projects (hidroeléctricos), 2 thermal generation plants (generación térmica), and 1 solar panel project (fotovoltaica).

El Mochito mine and El Tornillito dam

Two of those extractive projects appear to be the El Mochito zinc-lead-silver mine and the El Tornillito hydroelectric dam.

Canada’s Goldcorp and the 2013 Mining Law

Criterio.hn has reported: “After passing the [mining] law in 1998, the Honduran government hemorrhagically granted mining concessions.”

That article also highlights: “Canada’s Goldcorp was one of the first companies to obtain a concession after the 1998 Mining Law was passed, exploiting the San Martin mine, located in the Siria Valley, in the department of Francisco Morazán, in open pit. Despite its closure in 2009, the San Martín mine remains one of the most controversial projects in Honduras, drying up 21 of the 24 rivers near its exploitation, where it used cyanide to separate gold from rocks. The San Martín mine showed the repercussions of the 1998 Law, which allowed companies unlimited use of water, exempting them from compliance with national environmental protection laws.”

The article further references the 2013 Mining Law.

It says: “The 2013 law, still in force, prohibits the granting of mining concessions in secret (requiring public notification), however, it qualifies certain project information as ‘confidential’. In theory, the law also bans mining in certain areas of the country. However, as discussed in the recent publication of this special, ‘mining exclusion’ areas are not respected in practice, harming the country’s watersheds and protected areas.”

From 2013 to 2021, 231 mining permits were approved.

In April 2014, MiningWatch Canada’s then Latin America program coordinator Jennifer Moore spoke to a Canadian parliamentary committee about the Honduran mining law that was passed in post-coup Honduras in January 2013.

Moore stated: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

In May 2014, CEHPRODEC contributed to the report The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada’s Responsibility that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

That report noted: “The political and economic support Canada gives Canadian companies (through mechanisms such as Export Development Canada (EDC), the Investment Board of the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian International Development Agency) is provided without adequate controls to prevent the violation of human rights in the countries where the companies that receive these benefits operate.”

Accompaniment

PBI-Honduras has accompanied ASODEBICOQ since May 2018.

We continue to follow this situation.

Government of Canada chart.

PBI-Canada talks about the CORE with University of Minnesota law school class

By
Brent Patterson
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On April 4, PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson shared an overview of concerns about the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) with students at the University of Minnesota Law School.

We began with a timeline: the civil society call for an Ombudsperson began in 2007; the Liberal Party promised an ombudsperson during the October 2015 election (they were sworn-into office in November 2015); the formal announcement that a CORE would be created came in January 2018; Sheri Meyerhoffer was appointed the CORE in April 2019; the CORE launched its complaints process in March 2021; on March 26 of this year, the CORE made its “first determination” when it stated that Vancouver-based mining company Dynasty Gold Corp. has allowed forced labour at its gold mine in the Xinjiang region of China.

We also highlighted why civil society has called for an ombudsperson: From 2000-2015, Canadian mining companies operating in Latin America were involved in 44 deaths, 30 of which were considered ‘targeted’ and 403 injuries, 363 of which occurred in during protests and confrontations, according to data from the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, a legal clinic under the direction of law professors at York University and Thompson Rivers University. The clinic also found 709 cases of ‘criminalization’, including legal complaints, arrests, detentions and charges.

The Globe and Mail has also reported that there are likely 50 instances of alleged human rights abuses by Canadian companies in 30 countries in the last five years alone, the majority in the mining sector, but also in oil and gas, manufacturing and apparel industries. (To date, the CORE has focused on the issue of several Canadian companies that are alleged to have “Uyghur forced labour in China” in their supply chains.)

And we provided an overview of what Canadian civil society advocated for and what the reality of the current situation is:

-an independent office (instead, the CORE reports to the federal Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade)

-the power to thoroughly investigate a situation caused by Canadian companies, this would include the quasi-judicial power to compel a company to produce documents and provide testimony under oath (the CORE does not have these powers)

-the ability to make recommendations to remedy the harm (the CORE has emphasized it can help “shine a light” on the practices of companies and “make recommendations” to the government and the company; the CORE also says “we may recommend that the Canadian company take actions – such as compensation, a public apology, paying wages, cleaning up the pollution – but emphasizes “we can tell a Canadian company to fix the harm, but we can NOT force them to do it”)

-make recommendations to prevent future harm; this could include the withdrawal of diplomatic support and an end to public financing as a minimum (but the emphasis appears to be more on “finding a solution together” with the company, “mediation” with the company, and the CORE emphasizes “We do NOT have the power to make people or companies take specific actions”; in its first determination re: Dynasty Gold Corp. it has recommended Canada bar Dynasty from access to trade services and financial support, services that Dynasty says it has never received; CORE now says it will issue a follow-up report in 12 months time).

We also noted concerns about the dangers faced by frontline defenders and the lack of provisions to protect them:

-the CORE should have a scope that more fully recognizes the criminalization and violence that social leaders can experience, as well as the violation of Indigenous rights (instead, the CORE highlights “unsafe conditions at work” or “unsafe water”, which are serious issues, but do not capture fully the reality of what is happening)

-the CORE says, “we take retaliation seriously” (but their website focuses on how the complainant can be careful not to be overheard, etc., rather than any protection measures or consequences for the companies).

There were also questions about Sheri Meyerhoffer, who was appointed as the CORE in April 2019. It has been highlighted that she is a former lobbyist with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

As to the questions why the CORE does not have sufficient powers, we noted that the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) has revealed that between January 2018 and April 2019, representatives from the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and Prospector & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) met government officials on no fewer than 530 separate occasions.

And we noted five additional areas where the CORE could be improved to be a more credible mechanism for human rights complaints:

-a proactive approach emphasizing human rights rather than the onus being placed on complainants (the concern remains that Export Development Canada, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the Trade Commissioner Service, and Embassies back, advocate, facilitate, write laws that support Canadian companies)

-a fuller recognition of the state and corporate violence, criminalization, repression of communities that resist megaprojects

-an end to the sense of impunity that corporations enjoy

-an expansion beyond the current limited mandate to include weapons companies that sell to repressive regimes, states committing genocide

-credibility, the onus is on the government to demonstrate it is serious and that there are consequences to human rights violations (there are binding mechanisms like the investor-state dispute settlement clause in “free trade” agreements, but no such provisions in these agreements related to human rights).

Overall, as the current situation stands, we noted as the primary obstacle: while the CORE promises confidentiality, the lack of investigative powers and the limited power of the CORE to remedy the situation (in other words the practical outcomes of the process) are not sufficient for people to take the risk of engaging in the process.

PBI-Canada presentation to UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water Pedro Arrojo-Agudo

By
Brent Patterson
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The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, is visiting Canada from April 8-19. He will share the preliminary findings of his visit on April 19 at 11:30 am ET at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa. He will then present his final report, with findings and recommendations, to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this coming September.

His call for submissions includes: “Issues related to actions of Canadian mining companies in Canada and globally relating to the rights to water and sanitation.”

At a consultation on April 8 at Carleton University in Ottawa, PBI-Canada highlighted related concerns and has submitted these brief written case studies of Canadian corporations impacting the right to water in Peace Brigades International-accompanied struggles in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.

COLOMBIA: Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management has owned the majority of shares of the Colombian power generation company Isagen since 2016. Through that purchase, Brookfield now owns the fourth largest dam in Colombia, the Sogamoso Hydroelectric Dam near Bucaramanga. Between 2009 and 2014, six community members were killed and others disappeared due to their opposition to the dam (that began operation in December 2014). More recently, the dam has been implicated in the death of fish in the San Silvestre wetlands when it has opened its floodgates. PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN, the fisher union affected by this.

*In October 2022, the Special Rapporteur was in Barrancabermeja and met with Juan Camilo Delgado (CREDHOS), Yuli Velasquez (FEDEPESAN), Ivan Madero (CREDHOS) and Marie Zeller (PBI-Colombia).

GUATEMALA: Mississauga-based Hatch Ltd. did the conceptual design and detailed design-build-engineering plan for the Oxec II hydroelectric dam on Maya Q’eqchi’ territory in Guatemala. Their Niagara Falls-based office says Hatch has been “developing hydroelectric sites in Guatemala for 20 years.” Hatch also did the conceptual design for the Oxec III dam (construction on that could start next year). PBI-Guatemala accompanies Bernardo Caal Xol of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabon who spent more than four years in prison for being a spokesperson for Maya Q’eqchi’ opposition to Oxec dams.

*In March 2024, the Special Rapporteur met with Bernardo in Geneva and expressed an interest in visiting Guatemala. PBI-Canada also met with Bernardo in Guatemala in May 2023.

HONDURAS: Montreal-based Hydrosys built a dam on the Canjel River on Lenca territory without their free, prior and informed consent. In 2015, COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres said she had received death threats related to her opposition to this dam. In January 2016, a bus headed to protest the Rio Canjel project was stopped by Honduran police searching for Caceres. She was killed on March 3, 2016, due to her opposition to another dam, the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque River. PBI-Honduras accompanies the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Photo: PBI-Honduras began accompanying COPINH shortly after its co-founder Berta Caceres was murdered.

MEXICO: The PBI-Mexico accompanied Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water-Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala (FPDTA) has stated that the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) favours Canadian mining companies such as Vancouver-based Alamos Gold. The PIM includes an aqueduct that will draw 50 million litres of water a day from the Cuautla River to cool the turbines of a nearby thermoelectric plant that will generate power for projects like mines. Náhuatl water protector Samir Flores Soberane, a member of the Peoples’ Front, was murdered on February 20, 2019, for his opposition to the PIM megaproject. In 2022, the Esperanza Gold Project was sold to Vancouver-based Zacatecas Silver.

WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORY: We would also like to mention the role of Calgary-based TC Energy in the construction – without consent – of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. PBI-Canada visited their yintah in November 2021 and met with Indigenous water protectors who had been violently assaulted by a specialized unit (called the Community-Industry Response Group/C-IRG) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). These criminalized water protectors, some of whom are now in court and facing criminal contempt charges and possible time in jail, were peacefully defending Wedzin Kwa, a salmon-bearing river they consider sacred. They see the construction of this pipeline and the potential loss of this river and salmon as part of the ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples in this country.

*The Special Rapporteur will be visiting Wet’suwet’en territory as part of this visit and meeting with Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and land and water defenders. PBI-Canada was on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021 and saw the dried blood on Logan’s ear after he was released from custody by the RCMP.

These are situations of concern for us that we continue to follow.

Indigenous communities present to UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water about the threat of Ring of Fire mining

By
Brent Patterson
-

Last night we heard powerful testimony from Indigenous communities who would be affected by the Ring of Fire mining development.

Representatives from the Neskantaga and Attawapiskat nations made presentations to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water, at a gathering at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Neskantaga is just south-west of the Ring of Fire zone, while Attawapiskat is downstream of this area.

Map by Canadian Geographic.

In November 2021, CBC reported: “Premier Doug Ford’s government [wants] to lure the big automakers to produce electric vehicles in southern Ontario. A key part of that strategy involves opening up the so-called Ring of Fire mineral deposit, located more than 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay in an area home to Indigenous people.”

The area has an abundance of the rare-earth/critical minerals touted as part of the “green energy transition” used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems, including cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel, graphite and copper.

Photo: On March 29, 2023, then-Chief-elect Chris Moonias from Neskantaga First Nation shouted “no consent” at Premier Doug Ford from the Queen’s Park provincial legislature gallery before walking out.

By December 7, 2023, CBC reported: “Mining claims staked in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire area have risen by 30 per cent since last year, according to provincial data analyzed by the Wildlands League.”

No free, prior and informed consent

That CBC article from last year highlighted: “Surrounding First Nations say there hasn’t been proper consultation about mining projects on their territories. A number of rallies have been held at Queen’s Park in Toronto this year by members of the First Nations Land Defence Alliance, calling out the province’s free entry mining system and demanding a meeting with Premier Doug Ford.”

Significantly, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay, has already stated: “[Canada should] suspend large-scale mining and other business activities in the Ring of Fire region … until the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected is secured.”

“They’re going to have to run me over”

CBC has also reported: “Outgoing Chief Wayne Moonias of Neskantaga First Nation said his people are willing to risk their lives to protect their river system. But when pushed further about what this resistance may actually look like – be it lawsuits, blockades or even violence, he didn’t specify what their future action might entail.”

Moonias has also stated: “If Premier Ford wants to get on a bulldozer, if the CEO of Ring of Fire Metals wants to get on a bulldozer, they’re going to have to run me over.”

Peace Brigades International (PBI) and 100+ organizations have signed an open letter on just energy transition concerns that notes: “Mining always comes with risks of human rights and environmental abuses. …The extractive industry is the most dangerous sector for those voicing concerns… We call on world leaders to commit [to] clear protection mechanisms for human rights and environmental defenders.”

Risk of OPP violence

With the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG, now rebranded as CRU-BC) adopted as a “national best practice”, we express our concern about potential actions by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in response to peaceful Indigenous resistance to the Ring of Fire.

We recall that it was an Ontario Provincial Police sniper who shot and killed Ojibwa land defender Dudley George during a peaceful reoccupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park on September 6-7, 1990.

We continue to follow this.

International Court of Justice to make provisional ruling on arms exports to Israel within weeks

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: The ICJ hears case on weapons exports to Israel.

Foreign Policy reports: “Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday [April 8] to order Germany to stop all arms exports to Israel. …Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms provider after Washington, with the former having sent $353.7 million in military equipment to Israel in 2023.”

“[This case] raises new questions about the liability of other countries that have supplied weapons to Israel.”

The article adds: “A preliminary decision will likely take weeks to deliver, and the case, if accepted, could last for years.”

The specific provisional measures sought would call on Germany to “immediately suspend its aid to Israel, in particular its military assistance” and to “immediately ensure that military equipment or weapons or other equipment used for military purposes already delivered by Germany and German entities to Israel are not used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of the Genocide Convention or international humanitarian law.”

The BBC also notes: “The allegations build on a separate case taken by South Africa in January, where judges in the Hague ordered Israel to take ‘every possible measure’ to avoid genocidal acts.”

Carlos Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, says: “Germany cannot but be aware that the arms and munitions it supplies to Israel are supporting attacks in Gaza, even if they’re not being immediately used for that purpose. It doesn’t matter whether an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to a tank shelling a hospital or whether it goes to replenish Israel’s stockpile. The fact is that security of supply is crucial to Israel’s prosecution of its campaign in Gaza.”

France 24 further notes: “Argüello Gómez urged the court to include U.S. supplies in its preliminary orders, known as provisional measures.”

But that article cautions: “According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany is second only to the U.S. in supplying arms to Israel – but it would be harder, if not impossible, for the U.S. to be brought before the court because Washington does not recognize the ICJ’s power to compel countries to appear before it. The U.S. also has not signed a protocol to the Genocide Convention that allows countries to bring disputes to the court.”

German lawyers and civil servants also call for an end to arms exports

The Guardian adds: “German lawyers have [also] brought a case calling for Germany to end its arms sales to Israel. Britain and other governments are facing the same pressures, while a Dutch court found a ‘clear risk’ that exported F-35 jet parts could be used in breaches of international humanitarian law.”

Additionally, Aljazeera has reported: “A group of German civil servants have written to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior ministers calling on the government to ‘cease arm deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect’.”

Their letter says: “Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in clear contradiction to international law and thus to the Constitution, which we are bound to as federal civil servants and public employees.”

Implications for Canada

Raymond Murphy, a human rights lawyer and professor of law at the University of Galway in Ireland, says: “The case has great relevance not just for Gaza but also for all the states that manufacture weapons and supply states and other parties with weapons that are ultimately used to commit violations of international law, of humanitarian law, the convention against genocide and a whole host of other international measures that seek to protect civilian and other vulnerable groups.”

The Government of Canada is likely to be attentive to the provisional ruling of the ICJ on arms sales.

While Canada has pledged “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel” it has also said that arms transfers approved prior to January 8 will go ahead. That could still mean millions of dollars of military goods.

Peace Brigades International has called on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and to show its strong support for institutions of global justice, including the International Court of Justice.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque as it protects Cerro del Quetzal ancestral lands

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“The day before yesterday [on April 6] #PBI accompanied the indigenous community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque in an investigation carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Quezaltepeque volcano. Last month the Maya Ch’orti’ authorities and neighbours of the community filed a complaint about attempts by private individuals to appropriate communal lands and thus privatise the ancestral lands of Cerro del Quetzal. 

The tour was accompanied by inhabitants of other communities of the Maya Ch’orti’ region, as well as PNC [National Civil Police] agents and officials from the municipality.”

Prensa Comunitaria explains:

“Mayan Ch’orti’ authorities from the indigenous community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque and representatives of other communities in the municipality accompanied an assistant prosecutor from the Public Ministry (MP) to a proceeding in the village of Chiramay, where the Quezaltepeque Volcano, better known as Cerro del Quetzal, is located, after filing a complaint against a community member.

The community members consider that most of the land is virgin forest, however they indicate that a neighbor, Fernando Gregorio, seeks to appropriate a part and sell it to people who are not from the municipality.

This would lead to the privatization of a part of the Cerro del Quetzal, ancestral lands that belong to the cachaceros (the nickname by which the natives of Quezaltepeque are known because of the cachaça they get from the sugar cane mills).

As a follow-up to the complaint filed on March 11, 2024, at the departmental delegation of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH) in Chiquimula, by indigenous authorities and residents of different villages in the municipality of Quezaltepeque, a visual inspection of the place was carried out.

According to Assistant Prosecutor Osvaldo Sagastume Ramírez, it was reported that a neighbor is marking the land. Now it is up to other witnesses to testify and then pass the process to the jurisdictional court to determine whether or not there is a crime to prosecute, he said.

When the investigation was about to begin, the accused, Fernando Gregorio, along with family members who did not identify themselves, began to make inappropriate conversations with the aim of provoking violence. However, members of the indigenous community called for calm and not to be provoked, but to exhaust the dialogue.

When the parties involved in the diligence arrived at the places to inspect again, tempers were upset since members of the community claim to have documents of possession and that they are community lands, while Gregorio claimed to be the owner.

The prosecutor told the community member that he has to present himself to the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office of the MP of Quezaltepeque with the documents he has to confront him in the investigation that is being carried out, to solve this process.

At the end of the proceedings, Humberto de la Cruz López, president of the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque, announced that people outside the community seek to privatize the Cerro del Quetzal, a heritage of ancestral communal lands, which they have cared for and preserved for decades.

This is the reason why we made the complaint at the Office of the PDH of Chiquimula and we have ratified it at the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office of the MP, said López, who hopes that the complaint will bear fruit and that these lands whose title dates back to colonial times will not be privatized, “that is what we defend in the present case.”

However, Marvin Arnoldo Nájera López, from the Ch’orti’ Mayan indigenous communities of Quezaltepeque who accompanied the process, opposed it, arguing that once it becomes a protected area, they will no longer allow community members to enter.

They unanimously told the councilman that at no time would they allow this, except that it is a protected area under the protection and care of the communities and ancestral indigenous authorities of the municipality.”

The full Prensa Comunitaria article can be read at Autoridades maya Ch’orti’ y MP realizan diligencia en Volcán Quezaltepeque.

PBI-Guatemala has also highlighted that the Indigenous community “is resisting a mining company working in the municipality: Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. [that] has five exploration licenses for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.” This September 2023 media release notes that the “local company Minerales Sierra del Pacifico S.A., [is] a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radius…” Radius Gold Inc. is based in Vancouver, Canada.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque.

General Dynamics has “no comment” on Canadian House of Commons vote to cease arms exports to Israel

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: A protest outside the General Dynamics arms factory in Hastings, United Kingdom; March 13, 2024.

Despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on January 26th that Israel’s acts in Gaza could amount to genocide, General Dynamics in Canada has “no comment to provide” on the motion passed in the House of Commons to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel”.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center on Corporate Accountability has documented: “General Dynamics is the only company in the U.S. that makes the metal bodies of the MK-80 bomb series, the primary weapon type Israel uses to bomb Gaza. …It is also the only company in the U.S. that makes 155mm caliber artillery shells, which have been used extensively to attack Gaza.”

While the company has “no comment” on the House of Commons vote on March 18th, Jason Aiken, chief financial officer and executive vice president at General Dynamics, did comment in late-October 2023 on “the incremental demand potential” on “the artillery side” after Israel launched its attack on Gaza.

While noting General Dynamics has increased its production of artillery rounds for Ukraine, Aiken added: “I think the Israel situation is only going to put upward pressure on that demand.” This past January, General Dynamics reported its highest quarterly earnings per share (EPS) in company history with “fourth-quarter net earnings of $1 billion”.

Photo: General Dynamics vice-president Jason Aiken.

Photo: XM133 155mm artillery shell produced by General Dynamics. Photo by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems.

Furthermore, despite the ICJ ruling and the staggering loss of life in Gaza, the Canadian Association of Defence and Securities Industries (CADSI) is only seeking clarification from the Canadian government on the ability of its members, including General Dynamics, to continue to export weapons to Israel.

Defense News reports: “The association representing Canadian defense firms says it is in the dark about the status of equipment exports to Israel after the House of Commons voted to end military sales to that nation.”

That article then quotes Christyn Cianfarani, the president of CADSI.

She says: “For companies to be able to comply with changes to those rules, they need to know what the changes are. The government has a responsibility to quickly publish the exact details of any changes to its policy surrounding exports, and that hasn’t happened yet.”

Photo: CADSI president Christyn Cianfarani.

CADSI’s “code of ethics” says that CADSI members will: “Ensure compliance with relevant Government of Canada legislation, regulations and policies when contemplating and completing any Canadian or international sale.”

It says: “This includes but is not limited to the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, the Export and Import Permits Act, the Automatic Firearms Country Control List, the Controlled Goods Program, as well as Government of Canada established anti-boycott, sanctions, special economic measures, and embargo requirements.”

Weapons companies also have responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Government of Canada says it has adopted these internationally respected guidelines and that it expects Canadian companies operating abroad to abide by them.

On February 23, UN Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and working group members highlighted: “Arms companies contributing to the production and transfer of arms to Israel and businesses investing in those companies bear their own responsibility to respect human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. They have not publicly demonstrated the heightened human rights due diligence required of them and accordingly risk complicity in violations.”

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights also notes: “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.”

Amnesty International has previously commented: “In relation to the defence sector, this means companies must assess and address human rights risks and abuses arising in all aspects of their business, including how clients such as national armies and police forces use their weaponry and related services.”

It adds: “Major industry players including Airbus, BAE Systems and Raytheon [all CADSI members] are not undertaking adequate human rights due diligence which could prevent their products from being used in potential human rights violations and war crimes.”

Numerous CADSI members, including General Dynamics, are listed in the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Responsibility article The Companies Profiting from Israel’s 2023-2024 Attacks on Gaza. These companies will also be present at the CANSEC arms show this coming May 29-30 at the EY Centre in Ottawa.

Peace Brigades International has called on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and to show its strong support for institutions of global justice, including the International Court of Justice.

We continue to follow this.

Amnesty Canada’s 2023 Human Rights Agenda (April 8, 2024) includes this recommendation:

World Beyond War tweet.

Canadian banks continue to hold shares in the weapons companies profiting from Israel’s ongoing assault against Gaza

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Sarah Abdul-Karim, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke about RBC investments in weapons companies at this rally in Ottawa on April 6.

Six months after Israel’s assault on Palestine began, Canadian banks continue to invest in the weapons companies arming the Israeli military.

The numbers are staggering: 33,137 Palestinians have been killed and more than 75,815 injured. More than 13,800 children have been killed and 17,000 are currently unaccompanied or separated from their parents. 1,000 children have lost one or both of their legs. 1.9 million Palestinians have been internally displaced and nearly the whole population of 2.3  million face starvation. Furthermore, 62 per cent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, there has been $18.5 billion in damage to public infrastructure, and 26 million tonnes of debris have been left by the destruction.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has highlighted that weapons companies are profiting from this death and destruction.

This is the situation three months after the International Court of Justice recognized (on January 26) that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide, weeks after UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese concluded (on March 26) there are reasonable grounds genocide is being committed, and days after the UN Human Rights Council voted (on April 5) to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel.

Notably, the Royal Bank of Canada holds $809 million in stock in General Dynamics, the company that manufactured F-16 fighter jets for the Israeli air force and the MK84 and MK82 bombs those planes continue to drop on Gaza.

Furthermore, other Canadian banks that hold General Dynamics stock include the Bank of Montreal (at $370 million), the Toronto Dominion Bank ($170 million), the National Bank of Canada ($95 million), TD Waterhouse Canada ($84 million), TD Asset Management Inc. ($80 million), Bank of Nova Scotia ($72 million), CIBC Asset Management Inc. ($51 million), and CIBC World Markets Inc. ($48 million).

It has also been highlighted that the Bank of Nova Scotia has held up to $500 million in stock in Elbit Systems, one of the primary suppliers of weapons systems to the Israeli military, including the Skylark and Hermes military drones used extensively in Gaza.

The Bank of Montreal, TD, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the National Bank of Canada are also implicated in holding millions of dollars in shares in the company.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights states: “The responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate.”

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights also highlight: “[This responsibility] 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.”

Peace Brigades International has called on the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and to show its strong support for institutions of global justice, including the International Court of Justice.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee and families in the call to find Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz

By
Brent Patterson
-

4-minute read.

PBI-Mexico has posted: “Yesterday [April 4], we accompanied the families of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz together with the @comitecerezo [Cerezo Committee]. We are also working with the Special Search Commission ruled by the SCJN [Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation] in 2022. #PBIaccompanies #Until We Find Them”

Video: A member of the Cerezo Committee speaks at the rally on April 4 outside the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).

Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez

The Cerezo Committee has previously explained: “On May 25, 2007, in the city of Oaxaca, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez, members of the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party-Popular Revolutionary Army (PDR) were arrested and disappeared by various police and military groups.”

Popular Revolutionary Army

NACLA has noted: “Mexico’s ‘other’ armed movement, the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), made its first public appearance [on] June 28 [1996], at a memorial service in the state of Guerrero commemorating the massacre of 17 campesinos by state police the year before. Dozens of masked men and women dressed in military uniforms and brandishing high-caliber weapons suddenly appeared at the service in the village of Aguas Blancas. After reading a manifesto in Spanish and Nahuatl in which they described their origins – ‘we come from the sadness of widows and orphans, from the absence created by our disappeared loved ones’ – the armed group called for the overthrow of the ‘unjust and illegitimate’ government. As quickly and mysteriously as they had appeared, they melted back into the mountains.”

The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) also formed a political party, the Popular Revolutionary Democratic Party (PDPR).

While founded in Guerrero, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2007: “[The EPR] now appears to be rooted in the adjacent state of Oaxaca, whose social inequities and heavy-handed governing style have fed several militant movements. Oaxaca remains one of the poorest states of Mexico: 68% of its residents live below the government’s poverty line, with monthly income less than $90. And more than one-third of the population is living in ‘extreme poverty’, according to government statistics.”

The first communique from the Popular Revolutionary Army back in 1996 had read: “Individual rights are violated every day, and the people are left out of the economic and political decisions of the country.”

The Cerezo Committee

In September 2007, the Los Angeles Times also reported: “Two of [33-year-old Francisco] Cerezo Contreras’ brothers, Hector, 27, and Antonio, 30, are in prison, [unjustly] convicted of bombing a Mexico City bank building in 2001.”

Photo: Francisco Cerezo.

Photo: Antonio, Hector and their sister Emiliana.

That article adds: “Cerezo Contreras says the charges were fabricated to make his family a ‘scapegoat’ for the EPR’s actions. Cerezo Contreras says he has never met Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez, the EPR leader who is said to be his uncle. EPR communiques say that Cruz disappeared, along with Reyes, in May [2007].”

The newspaper suggests that the parents of the Cerezo brothers, Tiburcio Cruz Sanchez, also known as Francisco Cerezo, and his wife, Emiliana Contreras, are said to be members of the Popular Revolutionary Army.

Supreme Court decision

Proceso has reported: “On May 6, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters in Mexico City issued a sentence that recognized ‘the serious violation of human rights’ against Popular Revolutionary Army members ‘by agents of the Mexican State’.” That decision was appealed by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Secretariat of National Defence (Sedena).

The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared notes: “On August 10, 2022, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued the ruling in favor of the victims, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya, detained and disappeared on May 25, 2007.”

Special Search Commission (Comisión especial de Búsqueda – CEB)

A Special Search Commission was established on November 3, 2022. A first objective was to develop a comprehensive search plan.

Update

In September 2023, La Jornada reported that relatives of Edmundo and Gabriel went to the Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de la República – FGR) and demanded that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscalía General de Justicia – FGJ) comply with the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación – SCJN) and draw up a comprehensive plan that includes the review of all military installations where Edmundo and Gabriel are presumed to have been illegally detained and then deprived of their lives.

The rally on April 4 took place during the 10th meeting of the Special Search Commission (CEB).

On April 5, NVI Noticias reported: “The Committee of Relatives of Detainees Who Disappeared Until They Are Found denounced that the inspection scheduled by the Special Search Commission (CEB) in the City of Oaxaca de Juarez in the case of guerillas Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya was carried out with delay, lack of coordination and lack of assistance from institutional personnel.”

Accompaniment

Francisco and his sister Emiliana Cerezo founded the Comité Cerezo when their brothers Alejandro, Hector and Antonio along with Pablo Alvarado Flores were arrested on August 13, 2001. The brothers and Pablo were accused of putting bombs in three offices of the National Bank of Mexico, Banamex.

Their lawyer Digna Ochoa was murdered on October 19, 2001. Mexico City prosecutors declared her death a suicide. (Almost twenty years later, in April 2021, the Mexican State admitted before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights its “partial responsibility” for her murder).

Photo: Digna Ochoa was 37 years old when she was murdered in October 2001. Then-Toronto Star journalist Linda Diebel, who knew Digna, wrote Betrayed: The Assassination Of Digna Ochoa (published September 2005).

PBI-Mexico began to accompany the Cerezo Committee in 2002.

Alejandro (who was 19 years old when he was arrested in 2001) was exonerated of all charges and released on February 28, 2005. 

Photo: Alejandro Cerezo.

Pablo completed his sentence on August 13, 2006. Antonio and Héctor were freed on February 16, 2009.

Outside the jail. Antonio yelled to those waiting for him: “Now we will keep fighting to release all the political prisoners in Mexico, and for all the disappeared from the past and the present.”

Photo: PBI-Mexico with the Cerezo Committee, February 27, 2024.

Photo: Former PBI-Canada Board member Paul Bocking along with then-PBI-Mexico advocacy representative Virry Schaafsma (who is now with PBI-Kenya) met with Antonio Cerezo in Mexico City on June 28, 2019.

PBI-Mexico interview with Elga Aguilar Guttierrez and Antonio Cerezo, August 2011.

We continue to follow this.

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