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PBI-Colombia accompanies Justice and Peace as the remains of social leader Isaac Tuberquia are returned to his family

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 6, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We accompany @Justiciaypazcol in the dignified delivery of the remains of Isaac Tuberquia, assassinated in 1997 by paramilitaries and the Public Force #Curvaradó

In 2020, the Tuberquia family, who had been displaced, returned to the region and began searching for their loved one.”

They add:

“In 2020 the Tuberquia accompanied by @Justiciaypazcol located where the leader was buried. This March 2, Isaac’s body was delivered to his loved ones, who remember him as a peasant leader who believed in the defense of #tierra and preservation of #life.”

El Tiempo further reports:

“Isaac Tuberquia, social leader of Carmen del Darién (Chocó), was murdered along with Julio Mendoza on August 24, 1997 in Curbaradó, in events related to the armed conflict.

At that time, the bodies had to be buried by the community in a hurry, to avoid repression by the armed and their families did not know where they were.

Over the years came the development to the region, construction of roads, companies, and lost track of the place where the bodies could be found.

Almost three decades later, the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), together with the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP), the Unit for Attention and Integral Reparation to Victims and the National Institute of Legal Medicine, gave Isaac Tuberquia’s body to his relatives with dignity.

Claudia Isabel Niño Izquierdo of the UBPD, said that the dignified delivery of Tuberquia is a fundamental step in the reparation and vindication of the rights not only of the family, but also of the community affected by displacements, land dispossessions, disappearances and murders perpetrated by actors of the armed conflict in Curbaradó.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace since 1994.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Q’eqchi’ river defender Bernardo Caal Xol to court, next hearing scheduled for March 20

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 6, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies Bernardo Caal Xol to the debate of the Maestro case in which he is accused of misappropriation of salary during a union leave. The hearing was scheduled at the request of the MP [Public Ministry] and the plaintiff PGN [the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation] to provide new evidence. However, when asked by the judge, both prosecuting entities acknowledged that they had no new evidence. According to the technical defence, this is a strategy to delay the trial against the Q’eqchi’ defender because the presentation of the conclusions could have begun today. Organizations are invited to attend the next hearing on 20 March at 8:30 am.”

Prensa Comunitaria has previously explained:

“Caal regained his freedom on March 24 [2022], after spending more than four years in prison, for a sentence of seven years and four months in prison, issued by the Sentencing Court of Cobán for defending the rivers in Santa María Cahabón.

Caal is [now] accused of the crime of improper retention.

The events of which the Mayan Q’eqchi’ professor … is accused, occurred in 2013. In the accusation against him … they point out that between January 2012 and August 2013 he did not show up for work.

Caal served as a teacher and in 2012 was Deputy General Secretary of the Union of Education Workers of Guatemala (STEG). …The law empowers trade union leaders to have eight working days a month to do the work that corresponds to them; in the collective agreement of 2008 this situation was changed and the days were increased.

Caal is surprised by the accusation, because the law says that, if a worker is absent three days in a row, the fourth his salary should be suspended, so when he [first] voluntarily appeared before the judge on June 21, he said that at no time had he defrauded the State.

[Caal says STEG leader] Joviel Acevedo and the former Minister of Education Cynthia del Águila, were the ones who initiated the conditions for his criminalization from his union work that coincided with the defense of the Cahabón River.

[PBI has also noted: “Caal maintains his innocence in the matter. An administrative procedure by the Ministry of Education, in any case, should have preceded any criminal complaint. Caal and his attorneys argue that the charges were lodged against him in reprisal for his work to defend land, territory, and the environment.”]

In this process, until the intermediate stage, MINEDUC [the Ministry of Education] and the Attorney General’s Office (PGN) participated as complainants in the case; at the beginning of the trial on September 7 [2022], only the PGN and the MP [Public Ministry] were present.

Although [Caal] is clear about what can happen in the trial, he does not lose hope of the resistance and mobilizations at the national level for the defense of natural assets and justice.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied Bernardo Caal and the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón since August 2017.

Activistas por la justicia minera interrumpen la convención de la PDAC en Toronto con el mensaje “¡El agua es vida!”

By
Brent Patterson
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Fotografía de la Red de Solidaridad con la Injusticia Minera (MISN).

Este comunicado de prensa señala: “Utilizando largos trozos de tela azul, los activistas interrumpieron ayer [domingo 5 de marzo] la mayor convención minera del mundo en Toronto para llamar la atención sobre el historial de la industria de dañar importantes cuencas hidrográficas y denunciar los esfuerzos para seguir expandiendo la minería en zonas ecológicamente sensibles”.

“Organizadores de la Red de Solidaridad con la Injusticia Minera (MISN) y aliados utilizaron largas franjas de tela azul pintada con peces para bloquear las entradas a los stands de la feria y obstruir las escaleras mecánicas”.

Foto de MISN.

Merle Davis, organizadora de la Red de Solidaridad con la Injusticia Minera (MISN), afirma: “Debemos organizarnos para proteger los lugares ecológicamente sensibles y culturalmente significativos”. Viviana Herrera, Coordinadora del Programa para América Latina de MiningWatch Canada, añade: “Personas de todo el mundo están luchando por proteger sus fuentes vitales fundamentales -el agua- para mantener a esta generación y a las venideras. Debemos acabar con la presión extractiva”.

La industria minera en el PDAC

Decenas de miles de representantes de la industria minera se encuentran en Toronto con motivo de la conferencia anual de la Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC).

Veinte empresas que explotan minas en Colombia (entre ellas B2Gold Corp., MCC Mining Corporation y Newmont Corporation) están presentes este año en la PDAC.

Treinta y tres empresas que explotan minas en México (entre ellas Alamos Gold Inc., First Majestic Silver Corp., Orogen Royalties, Inc. y Sonoro Gold Corp.) también están allí.

Y también están presentes Gold Group Management Inc. que explota minas en Guatemala y Sandstorm Gold Royalties que explota minas en Honduras.

El directorio completo de empresas mineras está aquí.

Empresas mineras canadienses

The Observer ha informado : “Las corporaciones mineras canadienses han seguido expandiendo con éxito sus operaciones en el extranjero con el apoyo de los gobiernos canadienses. Esto es especialmente cierto en América Latina, donde entre el 50 y el 70 por ciento de la actividad minera implica a empresas canadienses, una cifra que demuestra el peso que tienen en la zona”.

Ese artículo añade: “Un informe de 2016 del Justice & Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) analizó la violencia y la criminalización asociadas a las empresas mineras canadienses en América Latina entre 2000 y 2015. Sus hallazgos revelaron que 28 empresas canadienses habían estado involucradas en asuntos que incluían 44 muertes, 30 de las cuales fueron clasificadas como selectivas; 403 heridos, 363 de los cuales ocurrieron durante protestas y enfrentamientos; y 709 casos de criminalización, incluyendo denuncias legales, arrestos, detenciones y acusaciones.”

Foto de MISN.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies 11th anniversary of blockade that began against Vancouver-based Radius Gold owned mine

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 5, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies the Peaceful Resistance La Puya on its eleventh anniversary (02 March 2023) for the struggle against mining exploitation that affects the territory and the health of the inhabitants, under the slogan “Taking care of the environment we take care of the lives of all”.

The event began with a commemorative mass to reaffirm the commitment to life with mother earth and with each of the communities in peaceful resistance and concluded with cultural and artistic acts.

More urban collectives and people in solidarity have joined this celebration of resistance.”

Background

Prensa Comunitaria has explained: “In 2011, the MEM [Ministry of Energy and Mines] issued an exploitation license to the entity Exploraciones Mineras de Guatemala [the Guatemalan subsidiary of Vancouver-based Radius Gold], called Progreso VII Derivada, for the exploitation of gold and silver in an area located between the municipalities of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, without consulting the communities. There are Kaqchikel and Xinka indigenous people in the area, who opposed the project from the beginning.”

On March 2, 2012, residents from San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc – an area known as La Puya, about 30 kilometres north of Guatemala City – set up a 24-hour a day blockade at the entrance of the Radius Gold Inc. owned El Tambor mine also known as the Progreso VII Derivada mine.

By August 2012, the Canadian company sold El Tambor to US-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates, but retained an economic interest in the mine (including quarterly royalty payments on the gold production from the mine).

More specifically, Radius Gold says of this sale: “KCA agreed to repay approximately US$400,000 owing to the Company (US$100,000 paid upon signing and approximately US$300,000 to be paid once KCA has commenced shipment of gold produced from the property). Also upon commercial production, KCA agreed to make quarterly payments to the Company based on the then price of gold and the number of ounces produced from the property.”

On May 23, 2014, the communities in resistance to the mine were violently evicted by the police. Despite this, they resumed a 24-hour presence at the entrance to the mine.

In February 2016, the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya won a Guatemalan Supreme Court ruling that provisionally suspended the mining license because there had not been prior consultation with affected communities, as is required under Guatemalan and international law, in particular the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169.

In December 2018, Kappes, Cassiday & Associates filed a $300 million claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank arbitration mechanism, claiming its investor rights under the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) had been violated.

On May 21, 2021, the court suspension on the mine imposed in 2016 was lifted, but authorization for the mine to begin operation has not been granted.

Current situation

In June 2022, Prensa Latina reported: “The Minister of Energy and Mines, Alberto Pimentel … stated that the Government will soon issue regulations for carrying out community consultations stipulated in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on indigenous and tribal peoples.”

“In addition, the pre-consultation stage is being prepared for the Progreso VII Derivada Mining project, also known as El Tambor or La Puya.”

The article also noted: “[Pimentel] also announced that the National Mining Policy is being prepared [and] would be finished in 2023, since he wants to finish it before the change of government.”

General elections will be held on June 25 this year.

In July 2022, a group of Congressmen wrote U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and highlighted: “Like the land defenders in El Estor, members of the Peaceful Resistance La Puya have suffered intimidation, criminalization, and aggression for years. Being aware that the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala is paying close attention to this and other mining projects in the country, we call on the State Department to ensure that the Embassy advocates for communities’ free participation in the consultation process and speaks out against any aggression or repression targeting land defenders.”

On December 21, 2022, PBI-Guatemala posted on Facebook: “Yesterday, #PBI accompanied the La Puya Peaceful Resistance to the Ministry of Energy and Mines to present the delegates for the pre-consultation stage on the El Tambor mining project.”

And on February 27, 2023, Prensa Comunitaria reported: “A representation from San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, in the department of Guatemala, delivered a letter to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) signed by approximately 2,500 people and 200 organizations from 16 countries in which they ask to guarantee the full participation of the communities affected by the Progreso VII Derivada mine, in the consultation that will take place around the project.”

That article adds: “Álvaro Sandoval, who is part of the communities involved in the consultation process ordered by the Constitutional Court (CC), pointed out that the Ministry is already beginning to exclude representatives from the areas of influence of the mine.”

And it further notes: “By delivering the letter to the MEM, Sandoval said they want to show that there are people who are watching the process at the international level.”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya since November 2012.

Canadian unions write Colombian President Gustavo Petro about the killing of union members at the University del Valle

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) have written to Colombian President Gustavo Petro about the recent killing of two members of the National Union of Workers and University Employees of Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL) at the University del Valle in the city of Cali.

Their joint letter says:

“On behalf of five Canadian labour organizations, representing over four million workers, we are writing to express our outrage following the recent violence and murder of two trade unionists at the University del Valle. Maria Elena Mendoza and Gloria Mendoza Puliche, were shot and killed on the morning of February 22, 2023, just before starting their workday. Both women, active members of SINTRAUNICOL, had previously reported to authorities that they had received death threats.

As members of the Canada Colombia Frontlines Initiative, we have visited Colombia on numerous occasions, and have developed long term relations with unions in Colombia, including the National Union of Workers and University Employees of Colombia (SINTRAUNICOL). Most recently, we were hosted by SINTRAUNICOL, at the University del Valle campus in Cali in July 2022.

The recent killings of Maria Elena Mendoza and Gloria Mendoza Puliche occurred on the heels of a “peoples’ hearing” on November 24, 2022, that highlighted previous acts of violence at the University del Valle since the National Strike in 2021. Nine incidents of homicide have been documented against members of the University community, four of whom were support workers affiliated to SINTRAUNICOL, killed within the last nine months.

We regret that no government, municipal, or national authority has responded to the invitation to participate in these public hearings. However, we support the requests of SINTRAUNICOL Cali, the student representatives at the University del Valle, NOMADESC, the Intercultural University of the People, the urban movement known as ‘Ciudad en Movimiento’, and the Indigenous Council of the University del Valle, among other social organizations and defenders of human rights in the city of Cali, who call on the government to respond to the findings.

According to leaders in the region, there is an escalation of violence and an ongoing armed conflict in the city that must be taken seriously. We are concerned that these systematic attacks are happening with total impunity and without the necessary prevention and protection measures being taken by all levels of government. Particularly concerning is the postponement of the January 25, 2023 court hearings against several members of the National Police and civilians who stand accused of perpetrating acts that threatened the university community and the citizens of Cali on May 28, 2022. Among the victims was a student at the University of del Valle.

We respectfully request the following actions be taken by your government to ensure the safety and security of union leaders and human rights defenders:

  • Provide guarantees for the life and physical integrity of members of the university community, guarantee their right to social protest, and prioritize the prevention of risks already identified and denounced by the university community;
  • take immediate action for the protection and accompaniment of leaders, and prevention of further violence;
  • provide guarantees for the exercise of labour rights by SINTRAUNICOL affiliates and the university community in general;
  • ensure that the offices of the Inspector General and Public Ministry provide immediate response to complaints; and
  • carry out an investigation of those responsible for these events and take prompt legal action.

    We continue to provide support and solidarity to our partners in Colombia and we trust you will take our concerns seriously.”

    The letter is signed as follows:

    To read the Peace Brigades International-Colombia accompanied Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc) statement requesting urgent action on the murder María Elena Mendoza and Gloria Mendoza Puliche, click here.

    Nomadesc has posted on social media:

    “#We demand Justicia!! | The social organizations, trade unions and human rights defenders of Valle del Cauca REJECT the murder of Maria Elena Mendoza and Gloria Mendoza Puliche, workers of various services, who were murdered outside the University of Valle Melendez on 22 February 2023.”

    For more, please see: Mujeres asesinadas en Cali eran del sindicato de la Univalle; ya van cuatro crímenes contra esa organización en menos de un año (Semana, February 22, 2023).

    Peace Brigades International in Canada and Colombia is following this closely.

    240,000 military and civilian casualties and 13.4 million people displaced as Russia’s war on Ukraine continues into second year

    By
    Brent Patterson
    -

    Photo: A team of investigators on Wednesday catalogued the bodies of people reportedly killed by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine. Photo by Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times.

    February 24th marked the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    CBC now reports: “A team of journalists from the independent media outlet Mediazona, along with journalists from BBC’s Russian service and the help of volunteers, have created a database and confirmed more than 15,000 Russian military deaths since the war began.”

    The article adds: “In December, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, estimated that as many as 13,000 of its troops died.”

    At that time, the BBC reported: “Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said between 10,000 and 13,000 troops had died. In June he said between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were dying daily.”

    The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has also verified that 8,006 civilian have been killed in Ukraine.

    And in November 2022, US General Mark Milley suggested that around 100,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured and that around 40,000 civilians had died during the war in Ukraine.

    The International Organization for Migration (IOM) further notes that 13.4 million people have been displaced by the war and that an estimated 15 million Ukrainians are struggling with deteriorating mental health.

    Photo: An anti-war protest in St. Petersburg on February 24, 2022. Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters.

    No peace talks

    On the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) stated: “Russia started this war and Russia can end this war. We call on Russia to stop its ongoing aggression and to immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from the entire internationally recognized territory of Ukraine.”

    Last month, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also said of Canada’s support for Ukraine: “Right now, it’s not time to talk about peace, it is time to arm them.” And Defence Minister Anita Anand has seemingly ruled out a ceasefire and peace talks. She says: “Putin started this war. He can end it by withdrawing.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also rejected negotiations. Last month, he stated: “Our right to live in our land needs to be respected. Leave our territory and withdraw and stop killing civilians and stop air strikes, stop killing dogs, cats and animals. Only after that we will tell you what form diplomacy might take.”

    Taking a contrary view, Cesar Jaramillo of the Canadian peace research institute Project Ploughshares recently commented in The Globe and Mail newspaper: “A negotiated settlement would not be capitulation, nor a sign of weakness, and agreeing to negotiations would not bind any party to a particular outcome. Rather, negotiations would be a first step in finding common ground and possible solutions.”

    He concludes: “A negotiated settlement is a sensible and realistic approach to ending the war. Efforts to stop the carnage would not constitute a surrendering of principles, but a triumph for humanity, diplomacy and pragmatism. It is high time to end the war in Ukraine.”

    Photo: More than 13,000 people rallied in Berlin last month in opposition to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and in support of peace talks. Photo by Christian Mang/Reuters.

    Arms companies profit

    Meanwhile, the arms industry is booming.

    The Hill recently reported that US weapons sales to other countries increased from $34.8 billion in sales in 2021 to $51.9 billion, “largely due to Russia’s war on Ukraine.”

    That’s a 49 per cent increase in sales.

    Benjamin Freeman, a research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, has told CBC Radio’s Day 6: “This industry is a war industry. Their business is war. [The war in Ukraine is] a profit opportunity for them. …[It is] adding an accelerant on top of a raging bonfire [of arms sales] already. It’s really been a windfall for these firms. Their stock prices have soared because of it.”

    One year ago this month, Peace Brigades International issued this statement that highlights: “Despite the call of the UN Secretary Antonio Guterres for the ‘immediate cessation of hostilities and serious negotiations based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law’, many countries have responded to the crisis by exporting weapons and military equipment to Ukraine, and promising to increase military spending. We are concerned that this initiative could perpetuate armed conflict and suffering for the civilian population.”

    We continue to follow this situation in Ukraine and Russia with concern and affirmation of the imperative for peace.

    Guatemalan forensic expert to Indigenous peoples in Canada: “You’re not alone. Your Mayan brothers and sisters have gone through this.”

    By
    Brent Patterson
    -

    Fredy Peccerelli, the director and co-founder of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), is making the link between genocide against Indigenous peoples in his country and the territories known as Canada.

    Peccerelli was born in Guatemala but had to flee to the United States in 1980 when he was 9 years old due to death threats against his father, who was a law student at the time. The forerunner of the FAFG conducted its first exhumation in Guatemala in July 1992, it was restyled as a foundation in 1997.

    Brett Forester of CBC News now reports: “The head of a Guatemalan forensic anthropology group is offering his support for Indigenous communities in Canada as they investigate unmarked burials linked to residential schools.”

    Peccerelli says: “You’re not alone. Your Mayan brothers and sisters have gone through this for the last many decades searching for their loved ones.”

    Photo: The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied this exhumation conducted by Peccerelli’s organization FAFG in Chel, Quiché in January 1998. PBI-Canada Board member Marianna Tzabiras was at that exhumation.

    More than twenty years later, PBI-Guatemala accompanied this exhumation in September 2019 by FAFG and the National Coordination of Widows of Guatemala (Conavigua) in the Carrizal community of the municipality of Chiché el Quiché.

    The CBC article adds: “[Peccerelli] was struck by the detection of more than 200 suspected unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia in 2021 and felt obliged to reach out. …He visited Canada twice following the Kamloops announcement and still watches reports closely.”

    It further notes: “Kimberly Murray, the special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves associated with Indian residential schools, invited Peccerelli to give a keynote address at a gathering in Edmonton last fall. Following the event, she suggested the FAFG’s Indigenous-led approach offers a model for communities here. She cited it approvingly in a recent brief to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

    More than 200,000 people were killed in Guatemala during the 36-year internal armed conflict that ended in 1996. Of those killed, an estimated 45,000 were forcibly disappeared with their bodies buried in unmarked pits or dumped in mass graves.

    The United Nations-backed Commission for Historical Clarification concluded that agents of the Guatemalan state committed acts of genocide against Mayan groups, finding the military treated the entire Mayan population as an enemy of the state.

    In Canada, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their parents and sent to at least 139 state-funded “residential schools” operated by churches starting in 1883 as part of a genocidal campaign of forced assimilation.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are implicated in the forcibly removal of Indigenous children from their families. Painting by Kent Monkman.

    The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada documented the deaths of 3,201 children at these residential schools, but its chair Justice Murray Sinclair has stated that 6,000 children may have died in them, while Cindy Blackstock and Pam Palmater have estimated that more than 12,000 children died in them.

    In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said ground-penetrating radar had detected the remains of more than 200 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

    As of January 2022, more than 1,800 confirmed or suspected unmarked graves of Indigenous children have been identified in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nova Scotia.

    In January of this year, The New York Times reported: “Chief Chris Skead of the Anishinabe of Wauzhushk Onigum Nation said 171 ‘plausible’ graves of former pupils had been found at St. Mary’s Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ontario.”

    Peace Brigades International-Canada remains attentive to the struggle for justice for Indigenous peoples and the recovery of the remains of those forcibly disappeared in both Guatemala and the lands and territories known as Canada.

    Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew: The RCMP deserves being disbanded

    By
    Brent Patterson
    -

    Photo: Rally in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders, Ottawa, February 2020.

    Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew writes: “In November, [British Columbia premier David] Eby was courting voters with billions of their own money, tossing $230 million to the RCMP to increase manpower and resources. Meanwhile, [Public Safety minister Mike] Farnworth was trying to defuse a timebomb — an unpublicized, five-year-old report of the RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission indicting B.C. Mounties.”

    Mulgrew explains: “About a dozen mainly poor, vulnerable, First Nations girls in the early 2000s made allegations implicating Prince George Mounties in heinous crimes — the rape of a 12-year-old and sometimes-violent racist harassment from about 1992 to 2004.”

    Mulgrew further notes that the complaints commission slammed senior BC Mounties for failing to assess renewed allegations in 2011, that an interim report went to RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki in 2018, but that she sat on it until 2021, and that in October 2022 the retired Mountie who filed the complaint sent the report to reporters.

    Finally, in late February, Farnworth announced: “The director of police services has ordered an independent investigation by an external agency.”

    Mulgrew concludes: “The RCMP has had its day. It’s time to replace it with a new national civilian force, similar to the FBI. Far past time.”

    Disbanding the RCMP

    Musqueam defender Audrey Siegl commented: “Since its inception, we’ve never been safe in ‘Canada.’ The RCMP was created to quash the Indian rebellions. The police were created to protect and serve the colonial state.”

    Pam Palmater has also written: “Canada through the RCMP continues to violently oppress and dispossess Indigenous peoples. Peaceful land defenders, water protectors, and Indigenous rights advocates are vilified, criminalized, surveilled, suppressed, and incarcerated at ever increasing rates. This stands in stark contrast to Indigenous lands defenders’ goals of protecting the lands and waters for our future generations.”

    She has further argued in Canadian Dimension magazine that: “The only way we are ever going to stop RCMP racism and brutality against Indigenous peoples is to declassify, deconstruct and defund the institution itself.”

    Both K’asho Got’ine negotiator Daniel T’seleie and Dene Nahjo founding member Dëneze Nakehk’o have also called for defunding the RCMP.

    And on November 23, 2021, after four days in custody following being arrested during the third militarized RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, land defender Sleydo’ commented: “C-IRG and the RCMP need to be abolished. Anybody who is not into prison abolition should be after this experience that we’ve had.”

    Campaign to abolish the C-IRG

    Peace Brigades International-Canada has recently joined an informal network of activists, academics, lawyers and organizations that is calling for the abolition of the C-IRG, the RCMP’s “community-industry response group”.

    At this time, we also recall Amanda Follett Hosgood reporting on the approval process of the RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory on November 18-19, 2021.

    She wrote that “Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth declined to comment on when approvals were granted for the RCMP action, reiterating the province’s talking points that the government does not direct police [but] the ministry confirmed that Farnworth gave verbal approval to deploy provincial resources [on] Nov. 15.”

    Her article also notes a letter, dated November 26, from Farnworth to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Dwayne McDonald noting his verbal approval on November 15 that continues: “I am authorizing the temporary internal redeployment of resources from within the Provincial Police Service to the extent necessary to maintain law and order, and to ensure the safety of persons, property, and communities in the area.”

    For a further in-depth read, please also see The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (January 5, 2022).

    And to see PBI-Canada’s recent webinar on the C-IRG, click here.

    Democracy Now! interviews Maya Mam human rights defender Thelma Cabrera barred from running in June 25th presidential election in Guatemala

    By
    Brent Patterson
    -

    Video: Democracy Now! interview with Thelma Cabrera and Jordán Rodas.

    On March 3, Democracy Now! reported:

    “The Guatemalan Constitutional Court on Thursday [March 2] upheld a decision by the country’s electoral tribunal to bar Indigenous human rights defender Thelma Cabrera from running [in the June 25th election]. Cabrera and her running mate, former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas, are members of the leftist political party the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples.”

    It also highlights: “Guatemala’s presidential election this year is taking place against a backdrop of worsening repression against journalists, human rights activists and Indigenous environmental defenders.”

    El Pais also provides this background:

    “Cabrera and Rodas announced on December 28 their decision to compete in the presidential elections. And at the end of January they went to the Electoral Tribunal to register their candidacies, registration that was denied because, according to the officials in charge of the process, Rodas has an ongoing investigation for alleged irregularities during his tenure at the head of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office.

    The magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal, after a confinement of hours, ruled on Thursday [February 2] against an appeal filed by the Movement for the Liberation of the Peoples (MLP), a leftist organization that was denied the registration of its candidates, the Mayan leader Thelma Cabrera and the former human rights ombudsman Jordán Rodas .

    A daughter of Rios Montt [the former president of Guatemala who came to power in a coup in 1982 and who was convicted in 2013 of committing genocide], Zury Rios, is running for president and received her candidate credential Saturday [February 4]. In Guatemala it is said that Ríos is precisely the candidate of the oligarchy, the businessmen and the military.”

    To read the full transcript of the Democracy Now! interview, click here.

    Nomadesc, CSPP and CCAJAR in collaboration with Amnesty International call for the dismantling of the ESMAD riot police

    By
    Brent Patterson
    -

    On March 2, Amnesty International stated:

    “Today a diverse and broad group of Colombian human rights organizations and victims of excessive use of force by Colombian security forces presented, in collaboration with Amnesty International, a set of proposals with a differential, intersectional and human rights-based approach for comprehensive reform of the police.”

    Among the organizations presenting these proposals are the PBI-Colombia accompanied NOMADESC, Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos (CSPP), and Colectivo de Abogados Jose Alvear Restrepo (CCAJAR).

    The proposals include this one on page 14 of the report:

    4.4.2. Progressively dismantle the Mobile Anti-riot Squadron, creating and strengthening cross-cutting dialogue processes for the attention of possible affectations derived from demonstrations and social protest. At In any case, the initial accompaniment of demonstrations and protests must be carried out by the territorial authorities and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

    With the release of the report, CCAJAR tweeted: “The ESMAD must be gradually dismantled and work comprehensively on factors that have led to serious human rights violations in the context of social protest. #PoliceReformNow.”

    Two weeks ago, PBI-Canada interviewed Oscar Ramirez of the CSPP about dismantling the ESMAD. For that full interview, plus excerpts, in English, please click here.

    PBI-Colombia also accompanies CREDHOS and dhColombia, both of which have also called for the dismantling of the ESMAD.

    At this time, we also recall and highlight that during the national strike in Colombia in 2021, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) all supported the popular call for the dismantling of the ESMAD riot squad.

    The full report can be read at: Repression in the Spotlight: Proposals for Comprehensive Reform of the Police.

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