“Today we were with the Humanitarian Roundtable on the first day of the Humanitarian and Institutional Commission in Catatumbo.
Together with the Bari Indigenous People, the Catatumbo Peasant Association (ASCAMCAT), the Mothers of Catatumbo, the Popular Peasant Movement (MCP), the Humanitarian Coordinating Committee, and 22 other institutions, we successfully completed the first day, carrying out activities related to institutional support, health services, and humanitarian assistance. There was massive participation from the communities, providing guidance and support regarding human rights situations amidst a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since last year.
Tomorrow we continue our work in Kilometer 25 and on Friday in Versalles. We reiterate our call for the maintenance of security conditions and guarantees so that we can continue with the mission.”
El Espectador reports: “In the midst of the war waged for more than a year by the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents in Catatumbo – which left the region plunged into the worst humanitarian crisis in the country in the last 20 years – the organization Vivamos Humanos is leading a humanitarian mission together with more than 20 state entities and organizations working in the territory.”
La Opinión also reports: “A humanitarian caravan is currently touring the most affected areas of Catatumbo with a clear objective: to verify on the ground the serious violations of human rights and to provide urgent attention to the communities hit by armed violence.”
That article adds: “The main purpose of this caravan is to verify the effects derived from the recent clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the dissidents of the FARC’s 33rd Front, as well as to activate an institutional response that allows the restoration of the rights of the civilian population.”
It further notes: “The figures reflect the seriousness of the situation. Since January 2025, when the confrontation intensified, nearly 99,000 people have been displaced, more than 600 confined and around 30,000 peasants forced to leave their lands. To this are added at least 170 homicides and multiple cases of disappearance, in addition to 4,000 emergency evacuations. In 2025 alone, Catatumbo accumulated 262 violent events, consolidating itself as one of the most affected regions in the country.”
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted this short video on social media along with text that says:
“Donny Reyes of @arcoirishn expressed concern about the risks and discrimination faced by LGBTI+ people during the session of the Human Rights Council (@onuderechoshumanos) on the adoption of the 2025 Universal Periodic Review. At PBI, we remind the international community of the need to monitor compliance with these recommendations.”
In the video, Reyes says: “The Sexual Diversity Committee of Honduras submitted 20 recommendations to the UPR [including] to decentralize and strengthen the national protection mechanism for defenders, promoting technical and financial resources for it.”
“We are not asking for Privileges”
One of the recommendations in “We are not asking for privileges: Report prepared for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Honduras, November 2025” published by the Committee for Sexual Diversity of Honduras (CDSH) and Peace Brigades International (PBI) Honduras in April 2025 is:
“Decentralize and strengthen the National Protection System (SNP), providing it with the technical and financial resources necessary for an effective protection response to human rights defenders.”
Canada’s position at the UPR
On November 7, 2025, Canada commented on the protection needs of human rights defenders in Honduras during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Honduras at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Speaking on behalf of Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, Joseph Flores Ayala stated: “Canada recommends that Honduras fully implement the National Protection Mechanism by establishing robust accountability measures for state authorities who fail to provide adequate protection to human rights defenders, including Indigenous rights defenders, environmental rights defenders, and journalists.”
Voices at Risk
Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders notes: “LGBTI HRDs are regularly subjected to harassment and intimidation, arrest, physical attack, negative portrayal in news media and social media, and interference with their lawful exercise of rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Some are killed for engaging in their work. LGBTI HRDs may also experience extreme isolation and a lack of political or social support from others, including other HRDs.”
Voices at Risk suggest several “best practices” for Canada’s embassies, consulates and missions including: “Mission staff should acquire a thorough understanding of the local context relevant to the work of LGBTI HRDs, including knowledge of national laws and policies for protecting the rights of LGBTI persons, as well as awareness of societal attitudes towards LGBTI communities.”
The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on social media:
“On Saturday [March 21], #PBI accompanied the Ch’orti’ Maya Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula at the Meeting of Guardians of the Common Home, held in Mixco. These sessions, organised by the Procladegua Foundation, aim to bring together communities from different regions affected by or at risk of extractivism in their territories. It has been a space for learning and coordination where defenders strengthen their knowledge and tools for community security and the defence of their territory.”
As noted on their website, the Procladegua Foundation “is inspired by objectives of social outreach and cooperation, solidarity and humanitarian assistance.”
Territorial defence against mining
PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa are fighting for recognition as indigenous communities, the recovery of their spirituality, the defense of their territory and the right to free, prior and informed consultation before the entry of mining projects into their territory. They also seek to minimize the negative impacts of mining activities on the health of the people in their communities, denounce illegal logging and fight against gender violence in their communities.”
They also note: “The communities of Olopa are confronting the company American Minerals S.A., which was granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities.”
Canada
The independent Canadian magazine The Walrus has reported that according to Professor Catherine Nolin (University of Northern British Columbia) and geographer Jacqui Stephens Canada’s advocacy through its embassy in Guatemala to create a pro-mining, pro-business environment included forming ties with Otto Pérez Molina, Guatemala’s president from January 2012 to September 2015.
According to the National Security Archive, Pérez Molina was allegedly involved in ‘scorched earth campaigns,’ which annihilated entire Indigenous villages during the country’s civil war.”
In December 2023, the Costa Rica-based La Ruta del Clima (the Climate Route Association) noted: “Los Manantiales corresponds to the transnational company Texas American Minerals, and to the Guatemalan company American Minerals, S.A. …According to one of the people interviewed, the strategy of multinationals is to work through subsidiaries, so that the companies appear to be local, but are linked to foreign capital, in this case Canadian.”
Accompaniment
Peace Brigades International began accompanying the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa in June 2021, following their request, which is based on the serious increase in security incidents, defamation and criminalization.
“To mark International Day for the Right to the Truth, we highlight the concerns raised by @cofadehddhh [the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras -COFADEH] regarding the Honduran government’s cancellation of the Programme for Memory, Truth, Reparation, Justice and Non-Repetition, through Executive Decree PCM-004-2026. At PBI, we value the work of COFADEH in the search for #truth and #justice for the families of #disappeared persons in Honduras, and we recall that the right to truth, to #memory and to #reparation is also a human right.
#humanrights #honduras #righttotruth”
Defensores en Linea reports: “In La Merced Park, also known as Plaza de los Desaparecidos, relatives of victims and survivors of the application of the National Security Doctrine held a sit-in on Tuesday [March 24] in the framework of the National Day for the Right to Truth, Memory and Justice.”
That article adds: “In her speech, the general coordinator of Cofadeh, Berta Oliva, pointed out that this date represents a national and international day dedicated to memory, truth and justice. ‘We are in a meeting to remember the importance of memory and to educate those who want to forget or erase the past. The memory of the people is not eliminated by decrees, and those who think so are wasting their time. It is also a day of national outrage over abuses against the justice system and what we consider strengthens the democratic rule of law.’”
It also notes: “The day, which lasted three hours, was attended by representatives of the Union of Workers of the National Agrarian Institute (Sitraina), the College of Pedagogues of Honduras (Colpedagogosh), as well as survivors, relatives of victims of the 80s, friends and international defenders, among others.”
And CHTV Honduras reports: “COFADEH coordinators protest in the lower halls of the National Congress over abuses being committed against the entire apparatus that strengthens the Rule of Law in Honduras. According to Berta Oliva, Executive Director of COFADEH, she states that for many years impunity has been experienced in Honduras, which has made Honduras a totalitarian and failed state in matters of democracy and Human Rights.”
COFADEH
COFADEH posted on social media a video with this text: “The coordinator general of COFADEH Berta Oliva, pointed out during the platoon by heart truth and justice, that Today is a day of national outrage. Outrage at the abuses that are being committed against the justice system and against all the apparatus that should strengthen our democratic State. We can’t keep quiet.”
They also posted: “On the National Day for Truth, Memory and Justice: Berta Oliva reminds those who want to erase it, that memory is not erased by decree that the perpetrators are wrong, memory is the same people.”
The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has commented on social media: “From PBI Mexico we express our deep concern over the repeated break-ins and robberies in their offices that has suffered the @cdh_fraymatias in the last days.”
The Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Centre (CDH Fray Matías de Córdova), that is located in Tapachula, Chiapas, has posted on Instagram:
“#Statement #AlertForWomenHumanRightsDefenders
We at CDH Fray Matías denounce an imminent threat to our safety due to the authorities’ failure to act. On Sunday 22 March 2026, our offices were once again breached, as we fell victim to a second raid and burglary with the clear intention of intimidating us and obstructing and dismantling our work in defence of human rights. We wish to make it clear that this second attack is the direct responsibility of the authorities’ inaction.
The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center A.C. (Center Prodh) highlights: “Fray Matías pointed out that despite having measures from the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and requesting their support, their response took several hours to arrive.”
La Jornada also reports: “The center accused that it requested the support of the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists – of which it is a beneficiary – but the response was late. …’We ask the federal government, in particular the Protection Mechanism, to promptly respond and implement adequate protection measures that guarantee the safety of the Fray Matías HRC team and allow us to continue our defense work,’ it said. The Center noted that the protection of information and the integrity of defenders is an obligation of the State.”
An Infobae reports: “The center recalled that in recent months it has faced other security incidents, already notified both to the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and to the corresponding authorities. Despite having protection measures from the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, the center’s team reported that the response of the security elements was late, as they came several hours after the warning. In this regard, they asked the Federal Government, in particular the Protection Mechanism, to implement adequate measures to guarantee the safety of the team and the continuity of its defense work.”
The work of Fray Matías de Córdova
Proceso explains: “On the southern border of Mexico, the Fray Matías de Córdova Human Rights Center A.C. is the most prominent reference for its independent work and direct accompaniment of people in contexts of mobility (migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and displaced persons).”
Advocacy to strengthen the Protection Mechanism
PBI-Canada, alongside PBI-Mexico and the Civil Society Space of Organizations (Espacio OSC), continues to highlight the importance of strengthening the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico.
It is in this context that we recall the Government of Canada has called for the strengthening of the Protection Mechanism during the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico in January 2024.
At that time, Canada recommended that Mexico: “Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation.”
Photo from the Internationalist Assembly of Madrid.
Earlier this month, La Izquierda Diario reported: “The Internationalist Assembly of Madrid began last week after a large meeting in which more than 200 people participated and which concluded with the call for a demonstration against the war on March 21, under the slogan ‘No to war’.”
That article explains: “The initiative, promoted by various political, trade union and social organisations together with activists and individuals, seeks to promote internationalist solidarity and mobilisation against war, militarism and imperialism from a position independent of the Spanish government and all capitalist regimes.”
The Assembly now notes that more than 9,000 people took part in the march on March 21 to say no to war.
Publico.es reports: “In Madrid, the spokesman for the Internationalist Assembly has ‘demanded that the militarist escalation be stopped’ and has called for ‘the arms embargo on the State of Israel’, which he has described as ‘one of the main actors in this new arms escalation’, as he has expressed in statements to the media at the beginning of the protest. ‘We believe that it is an escalation that has to stop, that only leads us to more wars, to an escalation of destruction and death that makes no sense and that only reflects the interests of a militarist minority that wants to spend the war,’ said the spokesman of the organization.”
In February 2024, Peace Brigades International, a global human rights organization headquartered in Brussels, called on “the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and the armed groups involved in the conflict.”
Canada and ReArm Europe
The lead banner in the march included the line “No al Rearme”.
Photo: The letter was announced on the steps of the Spanish Parliament in Madrid.
The letter asserts: “Militaristic contexts are also often accompanied by setbacks in rights, freedoms and social policies, causing fear and social alarm, an ideal scenario for normalising mechanisms of repression and authoritarianism.”
We also recall that the Government of Canada announced in June 2025 that it had signed a partnership with the European Union as “the intentional first step toward Canada’s participation in Security Action for Europe (SAFE), an instrument of the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030.”
On February 14, 2026, Defence Minister David McGuinty announced Canada had officially joined Europe’s (SAFE) program.
Canada at arms shows in Europe
On June 12, 2025, just after Mark Carney became the prime minister of Canada, Toronto Star national columnist Althia Raj highlighted: “Part of [their] vision [is] about a new economic plan, they want to grow the Canadian defence industry, that’s why they are joining ReArm, they want to help Canadian firms negotiate for deals in Europe, they view the economy, the way we are going to get the strongest economy in the G7 as natural resources, as critical minerals, and as the defence industry.”
Video still: Althia Raj comments on Carney’s economic strategy.
The Defence Industry Strategy proposes a new “team for export promotion” and the appointment of “new trade commissioners in the United Kingdom and key European markets” who will be at “major global defence and aerospace trade shows” so that the role of Canada’s embassies, consulates and international missions includes a prioritization of the safety and security of human rights defenders.
Photo by PBI-Canada of protest against DSEI, September 2025.
CADSI
This is likely to include continued government subsidies for the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). This past February 8-12, CADSI was “on the ground at World Defense Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to support Canadian companies in accessing new opportunities in foreign markets.”
In its report on Saudia Arabia, Amnesty International has documented: “Human rights defenders and others exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association were subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials leading to lengthy prison terms, and travel bans.”
CADSI has also highlighted: “This year’s CANSEC will come at a defining moment for Canadian industry.”
In 2024, Canada exported $2.504 billion of “military goods and technology to non-U.S. destinations”. Beyond this, Canada exports another $1 billion of military goods to the United States on an annual basis.
On March 11, 2026, the Carney government along with Members of Parliament from other parties voted down Bill C-233, the proposed No More Loopholes Act, that sought to close the “loopholes in Canada’s arms export laws allow Canadian-made weapons and components to end up in the hands of governments accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.”
Human rights defenders
From PBI-Canada we are looking specifically at the implications of military exports to countries where State actors violate human rights and where these exports directly put at risk the safety and lives of human rights defenders, land and environmental defenders, lawyers, journalists, social leaders and communities.
Between 2012 and 2024, the Philippines was the third deadliest country for land and environmental defenders, according to data from Global Witness. They note that 306 defenders were killed in the Philippines during this period, with 413 killed in Brazil and 509 killed in Colombia during these years.
Global Witness has further noted about the situation in the Philippines: “The military has been linked to the highest number of killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the last decade… A Global Witness investigation published in December 2024 found that the government’s push to expand critical minerals mining in the country is putting frontline communities, especially Indigenous Peoples, at risk of militarisation and violence.”
Despite these concerns, The Defense Post reported last month that: “Canada and the Philippines are discussing a military intelligence-sharing framework that would allow broader exchanges of classified information.”
Photo: Filipino human rights groups held a rally outside the Embassy of the Philippines in Canada in Ottawa on March 14, 2025.
Accompaniment
As part of the protective accompaniment we provide to threatened human rights defenders around the world, we will be seeking answers to these concerns and measures to ensure that Canadian-made weapons, components and technologies do not put at further risk the lives of human rights defenders.
Video still: Land defender Shaylynn Sampson arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia by the RCMP C-IRG while resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline, November 19, 2021.
Peace Brigades International-Canada expresses concern that proposed major extractive projects brings an increased risk of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people in communities near these sites, and the threat of gender-based violence against Indigenous land and environmental defenders.
The threat of man camps
The Globe and Mail now reports: “The federal government’s chief adviser on human trafficking says Ottawa’s strategy to fast-track mining and energy projects must include measures to ensure that women and girls from local communities are safe from exploitation and predation by workers in nearby ‘man camps’.”
“In an interview, the adviser, Jennifer Richardson, said the sexual exploitation of young girls and women is an issue of particular concern to Indigenous communities located near sites that employ large numbers of transient male workers.”
The article further explains: “In a bid to boost Canada’s economy, Prime Minister Mark Carney set up a new Major Projects Office to cut approval times, including for new mines, to under two years. …Ms. Richardson said Indigenous communities she has spoken to are concerned that the new major and extraction and energy projects, could ‘release violence against Indigenous women’.”
The National Inquiry
In 2019, the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (page 584) stated: “The National Inquiry heard testimony and examined evidence that suggested that resource extraction projects can exacerbate the problem of violence against Indigenous women and girls.”
“Reports submitted by witnesses substantiate their claims, as does a considerable body of literature identified by the National Inquiry. They all point to the same conclusion: federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments, as well as mining and oil and gas companies, should do a more thorough job of considering the safety of Indigenous women and children when making decisions about resource extraction on or near Indigenous territories.”
It further noted (on page 592): “The National Inquiry believes there is an urgent need to consider the safety of Indigenous women consistently in all stages of project planning, assessment, management, and monitoring of resource extraction projects.”
Among the report’s findings (on page 593): “There is substantial evidence of a serious problem demonstrated in the correlation between resource extraction and violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. Work camps, or ‘man camps,’ associated with the resource extraction industry are implicated in higher rates of violence against Indigenous women at the camps and in the neighbouring communities.”
Violence against women land defenders
In January 2020, The Guardian reported on a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and noted: “There have been numerous examples of gender-based violence [GBV] directed against environmental defenders and activists, who try to stop the destruction or degradation of their land, natural resources and communities. Sexual violence is used to suppress them, undermine their status within the community and discourage others from coming forward.”
The IUCN report says: “The violence and intimidation employed to exert control over individuals’ and local communities’ territories and natural resources can also instigate, magnify and reinforce incidences of GBV.”
The report also notes: “The GBV experienced by WEHRDs [women environmental human rights defenders] can often be exacerbated when it intersects with racial and ethnic discrimination. In Guatemala, indigenous communities, which make up 60 per cent of the national population, often find themselves in defence of their territories against extractive interests. The country has also experienced a startling rise in GBV, particularly against indigenous women.”
Major Projects
On March 20, 2026, The Globe and Mail reported: “Prime Minister Mark Carney and Energy Minister Tim Hodgson are striving to spur development of LNG in Canada, believing that exporting 50 million tonnes a year is possible by 2030.”
That article adds: “They say that longer term, the country’s total LNG exports could reach up to 100 million tonnes annually by 2040.”
In August 2025, Carney launched a Major Projects Office (MPO) “to get nation-building projects built faster … by streamlining and accelerating regulatory approval processes [and] helping to structure and co-ordinate financing of these projects as needed.”
In September 2025, Carney referred a number of projects to the MPO including the LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion (that would involve the construction of two compressor stations on Wet’suwet’en territory to increase the flow of Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline).
In November 2025, Carney referred the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal (that would be fed by the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline on Gitanyow territory).
Final Investment Decisions
While the timelines have been subject to extension, The Globe and Mail reported in January: “Industry analysts expect LNG Canada to make a final investment decision by the end of 2026 on whether to proceed with Phase 2” and that “Ksi Lisims is expected to make a final investment decision in 2026.”
Concerns
PBI-Canada notes that there is no reference to the risks of associated violence in the prime minister’s announcement about the Major Projects Office.
We also note the unreleased systemic investigation into allegations of human rights violations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) against land defenders.
APTN has reported that almost a year before the systemic investigation was launched in March 2023: “An APTN News investigation of C-IRG in June of 2022 uncovered allegations against the unit that includes ‘intimidation, torture, brutality, harassment, racism, theft, destruction of property, arbitrary detention, inhumanity, lying and deceit.’ The investigation obtained evidence of vast spying — including casual surveillance of law-abiding groups engaged in the democratic process — collusion with private security, collaboration with industry lawyers and wilful violations of RCMP policy.”
That systemic investigation cannot be released because the position of the Chairperson of the federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP has been left vacant since January 2025.
The Toronto-based United Steelworkers (USW) has expressed their “solidarity with the rubber worker’s union on strike at the Tornel tire company in Mexico, whose members suffered an armed attack on their picket line on March 18, resulting in four injuries from gunshot wounds.”
The USW has supported the union’s call for “a thorough investigation to ensure the company is held accountable under Mexican law and those responsible for the attack are prosecuted.”
The letter of solidarity from Marty Warren, the Canadian National Director of the United Steelworkers, can be read here.
Warren writes: “The USW demands security protections be provided for the more than one thousand striking workers.”
The USW’s international headquarters adds: “We also call upon the governments of the United States and Canada to demand stronger guarantees under the USMCA/CUSMA. Without respect for human rights and the right to genuine collective bargaining for Mexican workers—and as long as demands for better benefits continue to be met with gunfire—there can be no fair free trade agreement, nor will it be possible to guarantee fair competition for workers in North America.”
On March 18, La Jornada reported: “Three workers from the Hulera Tornel factory were shot and wounded by a group of armed men when they were on night duty at the Tultitlán plant, where they are on a labor strike…”
That article further notes: “The workers managed to capture two of the aggressors, who were wearing company uniforms and waited for the arrival of the authorities.”
In another article that day, La Jornada also reported: “Following the armed attack they suffered early this morning, striking workers at the Tornel tire factory in Tultitlán, in the State of Mexico, demanded justice and called for a full investigation into the incident and for the perpetrators—both those who carried out the attack and those who ordered it—to be brought to justice, ‘because someone must have ordered it’.”
The article also explains: “The four plants of this rubber company have been on strike since February 23. …Three weeks ago, 1,510 workers stopped work at facilities located in the boroughs of Azcapotzalco (two) and Miguel Hidalgo (one) in Mexico City, and in the municipality of Tultitlán (one) in the State of Mexico, resulting in a daily production shortfall of between 19,000 and 20,000 tires.”
Agencia NVM notes: “Roberto Gutiérrez Cortes, the union’s secretary for internal affairs, claimed that the company is in breach of the rubber sector’s ‘standard collective agreement’. This situation led to a labour complaint being lodged under the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labour Mechanism, following a request from the United States to investigate violations of workers’ rights.”
“Together with the international community, we stand in solidarity with the cultural resistance of young people who, in the face of the vandalism of the Casa Cultural de Potosí (Ciudad Bolívar), are affirming their commitment to peace through art and education with dignity.
In the early hours of 17 March 2026, intruders broke into this community centre and stole tools, equipment and materials essential to our work.
This incident comes amidst the escalating violence the country is experiencing and within an electoral context that puts community and organisational processes at risk.
La Casita is a space for gathering, culture and education for children, young people and the community. But it is also a movement that defends the Cerro Seco mountain, the land and life itself, in the face of mining interests, unchecked urban expansion and the dynamics of territorial control.
Let us be clear:
this is not just a theft; it is a blow to the community.
Even so, we remain standing.
They will not stop us.
We have launched a solidarity Vaki to recover what has been lost and strengthen this space:
“At the end of February, we accompanied the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace to the 17th Memorial Meeting ‘For Life and Territorial Peace’, commemorating the 29th anniversary of Operation Genesis (24–27 February 1997).
The activities took place in Turbo—the place where the displaced communities arrived—and at the Community Council of the Cacarica River Basin in Bijao, where the attack began.
During these days, a moving tribute was paid to Marino López Mena, who was murdered on 27 February 1997. In his memory, a commemorative plaque was installed in the community.
Civil society organisations such as CAVIDA, CLAMORES and the Somos Génesis Network took part in the meeting, and representatives from various state bodies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ombudsman’s Office, were in attendance.
The community and the organisations called for the implementation of the measures set out in the judgment of 20 November 2013 by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Series C, No. 270), to which the state has yet to respond.
We also accompanied the CIJyP on tours of the Curbaradó and Jiguamiandó Humanitarian and Biodiversity Zones.
