Photo: On October 14, 2023, Wet’suwet’en and Otomi land defenders marched together in Toronto in opposition to the construction of TC Energy pipelines on their territories.

This is a brief overview of what we have compiled about Indigenous opposition to Calgary-based TC Energy gas pipelines in Mexico:

The Encino-Topolobampo pipeline

When the Indigenous Raramuri forest community of San Elías Repechique opposed the construction of this pipeline in February 2014, that created sufficient pressure for a consultation.

Journalist Martha Pskowski writes that when the consultation began in November 2014, “Rarámuri communities voiced concerns that construction would impact their water sources, cause deforestation, and affect their farmlands.”

She adds: “The community of Repechike maintained that they wanted the pipeline route to be re-drawn so it would not cross their territory.”

By February 2015, the community decided to end the “dialogue” in this consultation process because TC Energy subsidiary Noreste Natural Gas Transporting corporation (TGNN) had not taken into consideration this request to redraw the pipeline route.

In a report about the consultation, CONTEC commented: “The logic of the state is to impose the project at the lowest social cost possible. That’s how the consultation is used as rhetoric, as discourse, without its real meaning.”

Pskowski notes: “[TransCanada] eventually agreed to modify the route to avoid Repechike’s territory. However, in other communities where construction started before the consultation got underway, it was impossible to turn back the clock.”

She also highlights that the murder of Raramuri land defender Julian Carrillo on October 24, 2018 “discouraged some Rarámuri people from speaking out when the energy company TransCanada began building a natural gas pipeline through the area.”

By December 2018, the pipeline was operational.

When Mariana Azucena Villarreal Frías of the Network in Defense of Indigenous Territories of Sierra Tarahumara (REDETI) was in Ottawa this past October, she highlighted that the massive pathway of the underground pipeline on Raramuri territory continues to be deforested so that the roots of the trees don’t impact the pipeline.

Photo: Mariana Azucena Villarreal Frías of REDETI, along with Manuel Jabonero of PBI-Mexico, spoke about the ongoing impacts of the Encino-Topolobampo pipeline when she visited Ottawa on October 24-27, 2023.

The Tuxpan-Tula pipeline

TC Energy is also building the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline resisted that is being resisted by Otomi, Nahua and Tepehua communities grouped together as the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo.

In March 2017, Mongabay reported that the Indigenous Otomi community of San Pablito in the state of Puebla “points out that this megaproject of the TransCanada company threatens the sacred places of the Otomi people, but also the groundwater, the collection of water from the subsoil and therefore the recovery of water sources.”

That article explains the Tula pipeline threatens the “unique ecosystem” of the Mesophilic Forest and the Cerro del Brujo in San Pablito, a hill that is a source of water that “besides being totally drinkable, is considered sacred and with healing powers.”

By January 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated: “Although we have to pay, the pipeline will not pass through the sacred hills.” But because the pipeline continues to put communities at risk, the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples said it “will maintain the demand for cancellation of the project.”

In July 2021, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng visited the TC Energy office in Mexico City and tweeted about “the community-centered business approach of TC Energy, the largest Canadian investor in the country.”

By August 2021, Reuters reported on a new pact between Mexico’s state power utility (the Federal Electricity Commission/ CFE) and TC Energy to “step up efforts to help TC Energy complete the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline after work stalled over concerns the project would cut across lands local communities consider sacred.”

In April 2023, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) confirmed the intention to complete the pipeline. As of June 2023, efforts to complete the construction of the pipeline appeared to be moving ahead despite continued opposition.

Photo: On January 19, 2022, PBI-Mexico accompanied the National Meeting of Struggles against Gas Pipelines and Death Projects where the Regional Council expressed their opposition to the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline.

The Sur de Texas pipeline

The Sur de Texas pipeline takes fracked gas from the city of Brownsville in southern Texas to the city of Tuxpan in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

This pipeline is currently in operation.

The Southeast Gateway pipeline

The Southeast Gateway (aka Puerta al Sureste) pipeline would also begin on land in Tuxpan and continue across the ocean and flow to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz and the refinery in Dos Bocas, Paraiso, Tabasco. Greenpeace Mexico confirms that “this new pipeline would be the extension of the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan gas pipeline”.

This pipeline is opposed by the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI).

This past February, La Jornada Veracruz reported that campesinas, Indigenous peoples and environmental groups protested in Sierra de Santa Marta against this pipeline “to demand an end to the criminalization and persecution of their leaders. …The activists [also expressed concern that] a great campaign has been deployed to militarize the towns that are within the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT).”

Mexico News Daily has reported: “The so-called Interoceanic Corridor will include 10 new industrial parks across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — the narrow ‘waist’ of southern Mexico between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.”

Greenpeace Mexico has also explained that the Southeast Gateway pipeline “will seek to connect this infrastructure [the Sur de Texas pipeline] with megaprojects such as the Dos Bocas refinery, the Mayan Train, two combined cycle plants in the Yucatan Peninsula, the liquefaction terminals of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos, all this with the aim of exporting liquefied gas to the Trans-Isthmus industrial corridor, as well as to Europe and Asia.”

On TC Energy beginning construction of the Southeast Gateway pipeline this past May, Carlos Beas Torres of UCIZONI commented: “We are witnessing this Canadian company threaten the Laguna del Ostion estuary, in the south of the state of Veracruz.”

Photo: Carlos Beas Torres of UCIZONI, along with Margherita Forni of PBI-Mexico, spoke about his concerns of the Southeast Gateway pipeline on a PBI-Canada-organized webinar, September 21, 2023.

We continue to follow the implications on Indigenous rights and community rights of these TC Energy pipelines in Mexico – as well as the TC Energy Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. We are particularly attentive to the deployment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) against land defenders.

Video: RCMP C-IRG officers smash down a door and arrest land defenders at gunpoint on November 19, 2021.

Still from Brandi Morin video.

Open trench construction for the Government of Canada-owned Trans Mountain pipeline near Pipsell (Jacko Lake) is underway despite the opposition of land defenders.

Global News notes: “Trans Mountain initially agreed to a costly, less-invasive method known as micro-drilling to dig under and around the lake… But in September, the company went before the Canada Energy Regulator to argue that its method was technically unfeasible and far too costly. The regulator sided with the company.”

In late-November, Carolyn Henry, an Indigenous Elder from the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation, stated: “We don’t want (anything) disturbed around that lake. It is in our territory — on unceded territory.”

At 8:29 am ET this morning, journalist Brandi Morin tweeted: “Two Land Defenders have chained themselves to scaffolding leading into Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion’s boring tunnel in a sacred Secwepemc territory called Pipsell.”

At 9:04 am she added: “The lane defenders descended to the bottom of the boring hole and threw tobacco into the pipeline tunnel.”

Then at 9:16 am: “Trans Mountain Pipeline Security now on scene. Told me police on the way and that we are all going to be arrested. I informed him we are documenting the land defence action & as journalists are allowed to follow protestors into an injunction zone. Trudeau does not want to arrest me, reporting on a publicly owned pipeline violating Indigenous rights/ not a good look.”

9:41 am: “TMX security waiting for police to arrive to arrest land defenders chained to scaffolding over the boring hole”

10:57 am: “The land defenders unchained themselves & walked back to the sacred fire. No police. Apparently on their way to arrest them for violating the injunction”

2:38 pm: “RCMP arrived to serve the injunction at the Secwepemc sacred fire. No charges pressed against anyone. Cree Land Defender Khursten Bullock then burns the injunction in the sacred fire.”

To follow Brandi Morin on Twitter and to help fund frontline journalism, click here.

Tweet by Isha Jules.

Tweet by Weasel Woman.

Background

The Trans Mountain expansion project will nearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline to 890,000 barrels a day.

The Trudeau government first approved the pipeline on November 29, 2016.

By May 29, 2018, the Trudeau government, including then-Environment Minister Cahterine McKenna, announced it would be the existing pipeline for $4.5 billion and that up to $7.4 billion could be spent on building the expansion.

The expansion costs, however, have now quadrupled to $30.9 billion and could rise further.

More than $3.6 million has also been spent between 2017 and fiscal year-end April 1, 2023, on policing (repression) by the controversial C-IRG unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of peaceful protests resisting the construction of the pipeline.

The current Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, was sworn-in into office on October 26, 2021. He is now at COP28 in Dubai.

On April 29, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Canada for a third time to stop the construction of the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline until it had secured the consent of the Secwepemc.

That call, and the previous two on December 13, 2019, and November 24, 2020, have been ignored by the Canadian government.

We continue to follow this situation.

Website of Unceded Law Response Group (ULRG).

Photo: Delegates at a plenary session of COP28. Photo by UN Climate Change/Kiara Worth.

The latest draft of the Global Stocktake (GST) – essentially the COP28 summit declaration – was released on Friday December 8.

It can be read here.

Significantly, the GST still does not include any reference to environmental defenders.

Global Witness has documented that at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders have been killed since the COP21 summit in December 2015.

At the PBI-Canada-organized webinar this past December 7 on COP28 and environmental defenders, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst noted:

“Currently, as you know, there is no clear reference to environmental human rights defenders in the current draft document on the loss and damage fund. That’s why it’s also important to have a clear reference to human rights defenders in the final outcome document of COP28. It’s also why it’s important to keep clear references to defenders and Indigenous peoples in all documents related to the protection of human rights.”

Of the 177 defenders killed in 2022, 88 per cent were killed in Latin America and 36 per cent were Indigenous peoples.

Many more have been harassed, threatened and criminalized.

On the PBI-Canada-organized webinar, Wet’suwet’en land defender Eve Saint shared her experience of being arrested at gunpoint by the C-IRG, a special unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) deployed against land defenders, for peacefully resisting the construction – without free, prior and informed consent – of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on her territory in northern British Columbia, Canada.

Colombian water protector Yuli Velasquez also shared in our webinar how she has experienced three armed attacks against her life since January 2021 for protecting the San Silvestre wetland near the city of Barrancabermeja. She recently commented in El Pais: “Governments must listen to environmental defenders and take account of their demands. We have much to contribute in terms of addressing the climate crisis. The COP28 is a good opportunity for states to show they truly value our work.”

In 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed: “Human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

And yet something as seemingly simple as including their single 42-word sentence in the draft GST/COP28 summit declaration has not happened.

The Human Rights & Climate Change Working Group has also recommended that this single 50-word sentence could be included in the COP28 text:

“Urging all Parties to commit to the enhanced protection of environmental human rights defenders, including reporting, investigating and seeking accountability and redress for reprisals against environmental human rights defenders, and public information about the actions taken to do so as well as public recognition of the importance of their work.”

As hope for inclusion in COP28 dims, attention is starting to turn to a Peoples’ Summit that could take place at the time of COP30 in Brazil.

At the PBI-Canada-organized webinar on COP28 and environmental defenders, Global Witness policy advisory Javier Garate commented:

“There are big plans for organizing a parallel COP of civil society and I think it is a huge opportunity for all of us to work together towards COP30 in Brazil with all the energy to put the issues of local communities, Indigenous communities, land and environmental defenders that need to be at the centre of this conversation and to demand as we talk about climate solutions and the fight against climate change that the work, the protection, and the struggle of local communities has to be at the center of those conversations.”

We look forward to engaging in that parallel summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil in 2025 and share the concern that it is still two years away and that on average a land and environmental defender is killed every two days.

COP28 concludes on Tuesday December 12.

For additional analysis on the most recent Global Stocktake draft, see ‘This may be our last chance’: Cop28 talks enter final phase (The Guardian, December 8).

Photo: Gitxsan members and their allies block Highway 16 on November 21, 2023, in protest of the RCMP’s C-IRG program. (Morgan Powell/Interior News).

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), an Ottawa-based independent federal agency, launched its investigation into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) nine months ago.

Their media release (dated March 9, 2023) announcing that investigation can be read here.

Two weeks ago, the CBC reported: “The RCMP’s federal review agency says ‘significant delays’ in obtaining relevant material from the Mounties will impact its investigation into the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), a special unit created to police civil disobedience against pipelines in British Columbia.”

That article was based in part on this update released by the CRCC (dated November 23, 2023).

One week ago, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) sent an open letter to CRCC Chairperson Michelaine Lahaie and other officials condemning the RCMP’s stalling of the systemic investigation and calling for the

That letter (dated November 29, 2023) can be read here.

The ongoing systemic investigation by the CRCC – which still lacks a clear timeline and publication date for their report – is focused on C-IRG activities in three areas: Wet’suwe’ten territory, the Fairy Creek watershed and the Salisbury Creek Forestry Road.

Meanwhile, members of the Gitxsan nation have mobilized on October 11, 2023 in Vancouver and on November 21, 2023, in Smithers with the call to “ban a militarized RCMP C-IRG that terrorize our people and land defenders.”

The Gitxsan are mobilizing against the C-IRG because there are three pipelines that have their environmental certificates – that could bring C-IRG violence to Gitxsan communities that will resist the construction of these gas pipelines.

Those pipelines are the TC Energy Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline, the Enbridge Pacific Trail pipeline and the Enbridge West Coast Connector pipeline.

And earlier this week, The Tyee reported that British Columbia Green Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Adam Olsen called on BC’s minister of public safety to form a special unit dedicated to investigating the suspicious deaths and disappearances of Indigenous peoples in the province. Olsen says the unit should receive as much as the C-IRG, which is $61.5 million from the time of its inception in 2017 to fiscal year-end on April 1, 2023.

Additional information:

A recent Drilled Global documentary on the C-IRG can be heard here. A CBC-TV Fifth Estate report on the C-IRG (aired on November 3, 2023) can be seen here.

Upcoming:

Sunday December 10 – Abolish C-IRG speaker panel and discussion in Victoria.

Monday December 11 – launch of Amnesty International research report on the criminalization of Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

Monday January 8 to Friday January 19, 2024 – trial of Wet’suwet’en land defenders arrested by the C-IRG in November 2021.

The Maple reports:

The federal government is refusing to say whether or not it made the decision to green-light nearly $1 million in new military exports to Peru during a period of brutal crackdowns by the country’s government against Indigenous-led protesters.

Documents obtained by Amnesty International Canada through an access to information (ATIP) request and shared with The Maple show that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) authorized new exports of military goods to Peru valued at $960,000 for a three-year period starting on February 6 this year.

Kathy Price, a campaigner with Amnesty International Canada, explained: “There’s no post-shipment controls. There’s no post-shipment monitoring. There’s no on site verification to ensure that the Canadian exports were not used in the repression.”

As explained by arms monitoring expert Kelsey Gallagher in a previous interview with The Maple, Canada’s export control categories provide only broad strokes about the kinds of military goods being sold to foreign governments and their militaries.

That concern was also shared by Brent Patterson, director of Peace Brigades International – Canada.

“One of the many troublesome aspects of this, always, is the lack of transparency,” Patterson told The Maple. “I think we’re intentionally left in the dark in terms of trying to piece things together.”

“It’s just fundamentally inappropriate and wrong that we don’t have this information as a matter of public record.”

He added that it is concerning to see no sign of there having been a pause on military exports to review such sales to Peru in light of the brutal crackdowns.

Patterson agrees that GAC’s claims about the robustness of its vetting process are dubious.

“We’re assured that there’s this kind of robust assessment beforehand that we don’t see, that surely cannot be all that robust when we see the countries or the situations in terms of where Canadian-made weapons are sold,” he explained.

To read the full article by Alex Cosh, click here.

Photo: “Palestinian citizens and rescue workers inspect the destruction caused by air strikes on December 4, in Khan Younis, Gaza. Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images.”

In his letter to José de la Gasca, the President of the United Nations Security Council, dated Wednesday December 6, UN Secretary General António Guterres reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire. Guterres also highlighted his concern about “the constant bombardment [of Gaza] by the Israel Defense Forces”.

On the same day as his letter was delivered, Israeli military Apache helicopters continued their airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Three weeks earlier, UN Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups recommended the international community “implement an arms embargo on all warring parties” and warned “the failure to urgently implement a ceasefire risks this situation spiralling towards a genocide conducted with 21st century means and methods of warfare.”

On May 22, the Jerusalem Post also reported that the Israeli Air Force would need to decide soon about the purchase of 20 new helicopters from the United States.

That article adds: “According to IDF sources, the Air Force will soon have to make decisions according to the new state budget and will have to decide between a number of possible options. The IDF will be able to buy old ‘Delta’ Apaches that were put out of order in the US and upgrade them, or buy new Apache helicopters of the ‘Echo’ model, alternatively.”

It further notes: “These [Echo] helicopters possess far greater operational capabilities than the helicopters the Air Force has now. They are faster and stronger, and their radar enables operation in greater and more precise ranges. They can also carry 16 missiles and 76 rockets, and their nose has an upgraded cannon.”

The AH-64 Apache helicopter is made by the Boeing aerospace company.

Photo: “An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile in direction of the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)”

Photo: “An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile in direction of the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)”

Photo: “An Israeli military helicopter releases flares over the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, December 4.” Chad Zwigenberg/AP

Photo: “An Israeli military Apache helicopter and a jet fly close to the Gaza strip after a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas expired, as seen from southern Israel, December 3, 2023. REUTERS”

We continue to follow this and to support the call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

We also note that Boeing is a sponsor of the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa that will take place on May 29-30, 2024.

Further reading: The Companies Profiting from Israel’s 2023 Attack on Gaza (American Friends Service Committee, December 7, 2023). That article notes: “Boeing also manufactures multiple types of unguided small diameter bombs (SDBs) and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, which convert these bombs into precision-guided munitions. Israel has been using these bombs extensively, including in a Nov. 1 bombing of Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, which killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and could amount to a war crime, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

Photo: “Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp one day after an airstrike hit the area, in northern Gaza, on Nov 1. PHOTO: EPA-EFE”

Photo: Iraida, Miguel, Oscar and Ninfa.

PBI-Canada and PBI-Colombia are working to bring two Colombian social leaders to Canada who have been criminalized for protesting a Canadian oil company, along with representatives of two human rights organizations who have been supporting them.

We plan to bring Carmen Iraida Salcedo Gutiérrez and Miguel Ángel Rincón (social leaders from San Luis de Palenque) and Oscar Ramirez (the President of the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners/CSPP) and Ninfa Cruz (the founder of the Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training/COSPACC).

Background

Following his visit to Colombia in 2019, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst wrote in this report to the Human Rights Council:

“Eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque were arrested and accused of collusion to commit an offence, violence against a public servant and obstructing a public road, and two of them with attempted homicide in connection with their participation in and leadership of the social protests between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads.”

“These human rights defenders remain deprived of their liberty, three of them in prison and five on house arrest.”

“The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation.”

“In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$ 1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities. On 4 December 2018, the army and the police accused the aforementioned leaders of being members of ‘Los Jinetes con Careta’, an illegal armed group whose existence has yet to be recognized by the competent authorities.”

Video: A Black Hawk helicopter was used in the arrest of the social leaders.

Video: They were handcuffed and transported in an armoured vehicle after their arrest.

A fuller timeline of this situation can be read at San Luis de Palenque Case: Communities, Mobilization, Oil Companies and Prosecution.

House arrest for 20 months

Iraida and Miguel were arrested in that army and police operation on November 27, 2018. It was not until August 11, 2020, that the house arrest restrictions placed on them were removed.

At that time, El Nuevo Oriente reported: “The release decision was appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office and by Frontera Energy’s lawyers.”

The other criminalized social leaders, three of whom had been sent to prison, including Iraida’s brother Ferney Salcedo, were released on September 16, 2020.

They all now still face lengthy criminal trials.

Photo: Iraida and Miguel at home.

CSPP and COSPACC support social leaders

Ninfa is the founder of the Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training (COSPACC). She decided to defend human rights more than 20 years ago after the small-scale farming movement in Casanare was attacked by the army, state security forces and paramilitary groups. Dozens of leaders were forced to flee. Ninfa has experienced five displacements and one attempt to disappear her.

Óscar is a human rights lawyer and has been the President of the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) since August 2022. He defends the human rights of those deprived of liberty, the right to protest and denounces abuses of authority, police violence, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. He has represented victims of state violence and led research on the criminalization of social leaders.

The tour

If the necessary visas can be secured, Iraida, Miguel, Ninfa and Oscar will be in Toronto and Ottawa in mid-February 2024.

They will be meeting with journalists (to broaden awareness of their situation in the media), civil society (to strengthen their network of support), Members of Parliament (to help build political support), the public (to build general awareness), and many others.

This intervention will take place just after a court hearing (February 1-2, 2024) and about three months before the Frontera shareholders meeting (around May 18, 2024) takes place in Toronto.

We will be sharing more details as the plans progress. If you want to support this advocacy intervention with a donation, please click here.

This Thursday (December 7) at 12 pm ET, Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders will be joining our webinar about the UN COP28 climate summit now happening in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

To register for this webinar, click here.

Forst will give opening comments on the importance of environmental defenders and the role COP28 should play in enhancing protections for defenders and providing means to document, report, and investigate threats and attacks.

At least 1,390 land and environmental defenders have been killed since COP21.

Following Forst, we will hear from Wet’suwet’en land defender Eve Saint, Colombian water protector Yuli Velasquez, Global Witness policy advisor Javier Garate, and Climate Action Network-Canada campaigner Emily Lowan.

To join this discussion on Thursday, click here