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PBI-Honduras visits community of Nueva Esperanza after their violent eviction and the destruction of their homes and crops

By
Brent Patterson
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On February 7, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“Last week we visited the community of Nueva Esperanza, El Eden, Comayagua, after being violently evicted. Their houses, belongings and crops were destroyed and burned. @COPINHHONDURAS denounces that the harassment continues.”

They add:

“PBI we are concerned about the situation of risk, violence and criminalization experienced by the community of Nueva Esperanza for defending access to land. We are closely following the case after the summons to appear in the Comayagua Court today.”

On Facebook, they also explained:

“Last week we visited the community of Nueva Esperanza in El Eden, Comayagua, after being violently evicted last February 2. The community is made up of 24 families whose homes, belongings and crops were destroyed and burned. COPINH reports that the harassment continues by private security and the National Police. From PBI we show concern for the situation of risk, violence and criminalization experienced by the community of New Esperanza for defending access to land. We follow closely the case after the summons for sympathy in the Comayagua Court today.”

COPINH has posted on Facebook:

“#Alert | Harassment continues against the community of Nueva Esperanza, in Eden, Comayagua

After the eviction in which the houses, property and crops of the people of COPINH were destroyed and burned in this area, the community continues to demand their right to land.

We denounce the private armed security that has harassed the community and threatened female companions to sexually assault them. This guard is under the responsibilities of UNAG [National University of Agriculture] authorities, according to their own statements, which is the institution that has promoted the complaint to the community.

The colleagues have been summoned by the Court of Comayagua to appear in court on Tuesday, February 7.

The land belongs to the one who takes care of it and works!”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations in Honduras (COPINH) since May 2016.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the mass for the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya at their ongoing El Tambor mine protest

By
Brent Patterson
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On February 6, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday, #PBI accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya at mass at the encampment.”

Background

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 Vancouver-based 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).

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.”

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.”

General elections will be held on June 25 this year.

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

PBI-Guatemala has regularly accompanied mass at the resistance site including on this occasion in November 2021.

PBI-Honduras accompanies COPINH on visit to Rio Blanco; court hearing in assassination attempt against COPINH member

By
Brent Patterson
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On February 6, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“Today we will closely follow the conclusion hearing in the case of Allan García, a member of @COPINHHONDURAS [the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras] and an indigenous Lenca from the Río Blanco community, who in 2013 suffered an assassination attempt, allegedly by a member of the Armed forces.”

They add:

“Last Friday, we accompanied COPINH during a visit to Río Blanco where a reconstruction of the events took place. We highlight the work of defending the community against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project on the Gualcarque river.”

COPINH has also tweeted:

“Yesterday in the #Lenca community of Río Blanco, the reconstruction of the events of the attack suffered by Allan García at the hands of Kevin Saravia, a member of the #FFAA [Armed Forces] of #Honduras that left him with serious injuries in the chest leaving the brink of death.”

On January 17, PBI-Honduras had also tweeted: “PBI accompanies COPINH at the trial of former Petty Officer Kevin Saravia for the attempted murder of Allan García. We are concerned about the levels of violence faced by Río Blanco, which continues to demand the cancellation of the concession on the Gualcarque River.”

Criterio.hn has previously reported:

“In the western department of Intibucá, in the municipality of La Esperanza, the trial against noncommissioned officer Kevin Yasser Saravia Ortiz accused of attempted homicide against Allan Evey García began on Friday [January 13].

The events occurred during a mobilization against the imposition of the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project in the community of Río Blanco in 2013.

In the same incident, Allan’s father, Tomás García, a Lenca leader and member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh), was murdered, who along with his son and the Lenca people were protesting outside the campus of the company Desarrollos Energéticos S. A. (DESA), which was guarded by members of the Engineers Battalion of the Honduran Armed Forces.”

Tomás García was killed and his son Allan wounded by soldiers at a protest against the construction of the Agua Zarca dam on Lenca territory on July 15, 2013.

COPINH has demanded:

1-The State of Honduras must prosecute and convict Kevin Saravia and investigate his superiors for their responsibility in the attempted murder of Allan García and the murder of our comrade Tomás García for the defense of the rights of the indigenous community of Río Blanco.

2-The State of Honduras must make substantive progress in the fulfillment of the rights of the Lenca people and the memory of the national heroine Berta Cáceres by immediately canceling the illegal and illegitimate concession on the Gualcarque River, the origin of the waves of violence, persecution and death suffered by our organization.

3-We call on the national and international community to be observers of this trial and guarantee the fulfillment of the rights of the victims.

We continue to follow this case.

Further reading: Berta Cáceres and COPINH opposed construction of Canjel dam on Lenca territory by Canadian company.

PBI-Kenya and Police Reforms Working Group comment on sentencing of police officers in extrajudicial killings

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were killed by police in June 2016.

The Guardian reports: “A police officer, Fredrick Leliman, who was among those convicted of killing Nairobi lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, has been sentenced to death by a Nairobi court.”

“In Kenya, death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison, according to a ruling by the country’s supreme court.”

“In the judgment delivered on Friday [February 3], three other accused, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku and Peter Ngugi, will serve 30, 24, and 20 years in prison, respectively.”

Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku were police officers and Peter Ngugi was a police informant.

The article adds: “The killings caused uproar in Kenya where cases of extrajudicial killings are rife, with some organisations reporting 127 cases of police killings and 25 enforced disappearances in 2022 alone.”

Kimani, Mwenda and Muiruri were killed by the police in Nairobi on June 23, 2016.

Aljazeera further explains: “Kimani, Mwenda and Muiruri were killed shortly after filing a complaint of police brutality. Mwenda, a motorbike taxi driver, accused lead defendant Frederick Leliman of shooting him for no reason at a traffic stop in 2015. At the time of his death, Kimani was working for International Justice Mission, a global legal rights group that helps investigate and document police killings and brutality. Their bodies were later recovered from a river outside the capital Nairobi.”

Missing Voices has tweeted:

The full statement from the Police Reforms Working Group says: “With the sentencing of the three police officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku and police informer Peter Ngugi today we give a sigh of relief following a six-year court battle to bring the perpetrators to justice. Although this sentence cannot bring the three back to life, it is a step in the right direction that will promote police accountability in the country.”

This statement signed by working group members – including the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project – demands: “Government of Kenya to ratify, without any reservations, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance” and that “All police killings are to be swiftly and impartially investigated to ensure that the use of lethal force is appropriate.”

We continue to follow this situation in Kenya.

Anne Makori, Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

Cree land defender sets up tipi on the route of the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline project

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Cree land defender Khursten Bullock. Photo by Aaron Hemens.

IndigiNews reports on Cree land defender Khursten Bullock from Treaty 7 territory in the province of Saskatchewan is staying in a tipi beside the Brunette River on the route of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia.

The tar sands oil pipeline, owned by the Canadian government since May 2018, is being expanded from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.

“The tipi — with poles that span about eight metres —  has been standing along the pipeline’s undeveloped route since it was first assembled on Dec. 4. The tipi is owned by Ramona Shirt of Cold Lake First Nations, who came up with the idea to assemble the structure with Bullock and their allies at Protect the Planet.”

The article highlights the tipi has a large “Land Back” sign as well as “a red dress to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S), to hang amongst the trees for passing vehicles to see.”

“Hundreds of kilometres away in Secwépemc territory, Indigenous land defenders and their allies are awaiting trial and potential jail time for opposing the project’s development there.[The pipeline would cross 518 kilometres of unceded Secwepemc territory and] many have argued that TMX and “Canada” have no jurisdiction in the nation’s unceded homelands, and they fear the fate of water and salmon if the pipeline is ever up and running.”

And the article notes: “A hanging sign above a short fence warns that they’re entering TMX property, and that any person who obstructs access to the construction site is a breach of an injunction order.” But so far “TMX personnel have not addressed the land defenders regarding the tipi, according to Bullock. The only reaction that they received were from police, she said, who visited the tipi as it was being constructed.”

“The plan is to keep the tipi in place for a few more months, unless the land defenders are met with opposition from TMX. Bullock said that Shirt has expressed interest in moving the tipi to the Every Child Matters vigil site outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery at some point in the summer.”

The full article by Aaron Hemens can be read at: Land defenders build tipi along TMX construction route in ‘Burnaby’.

The C-IRG and TMX

In December 2019, The Guardian reported: “The RCMP Community Industry Response Group (C-IRG) has also recently been deployed to monitor and suppress Indigenous people fighting the proposed Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.”

Last year, APTN reported: “The C-IRG has been accused of brutality, collusion with private security firms, and excessive surveillance against the Tiny House Warriors camp, which is blocking pipeline construction by occupying unceded Secwépemc territory near Blue River. For example, group spokesperson Kanahus Manuel is suing a Mountie named Cpl. Todd Bowden, who she alleges broke her wrist when applying a wrist-lock technique during an October 2019 arrest, according to the provincial court registry.”

And earlier this year, the CBC reported that the C-IRG had spent $3.5 million policing resistance to the Trans Mountain pipeline since 2017/18.

Abolish the C-IRG

This past week, Leadnow launched a new campaign and petition that calls for an End C-IRG violence against land defenders.

Their petition highlights: “We demand transparency and accountability for the colonial violence perpetuated by the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group.”

PBI-Canada webinar, February 21

This webinar will discuss the role of the C-IRG in the repression of Indigenous land defence struggles in Canada, amplify demands from land defenders that the C-IRG be dismantled, and support the call for a public inquiry into its actions.

To register for this webinar, please click here.

PBI-Mexico meets with Cerezo Committee who share their analysis of the situation for human rights defenders in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
-

On February 3, PBI-Mexico posted:

“From PBI we want to thank the willingness of the Cerezo Committee to share spaces with us, its analysis of the situation of #human rights in the country as well as its commitment to improving the situation of #human rights defenders in #Mexico.”

Two weeks ago, Once Noticias reported:

“The Cerezo Committee, an organization in defense of human rights, reported that during 2022, 22 defenders were killed, of which 18 were men and four were women.

In eight cases, it is known that the victims were human rights defenders who belonged to an indigenous people, in twelve cases they were mestizo, one case was of an Afro-descendant person and in one case it was not possible to determine the belonging of the victim.

The organization points out that these killings were carried out for political reasons, that is, as a form of punishment for the activity they carried out, in addition to the fact that the perpetrators were agents of the State.

In its most recent report entitled “Defending human rights in Mexico: between omission and simulation”, the Cerezo Committee warns that at the state and municipal level the strategy of political repression prevails, in addition to the existence of impunity in these cases.

On 19 January, the organization delivered the report to Morris Tidball-Binz, UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions.

According to information provided to Once Noticias by Francisco Cerezo, the UN official attended an academic activity in Mexico City and it was during that act when they delivered the document. Morris Tidball-Binz remains in Mexico and his visit is for academic reasons.”

That article can be read at En 2022 fueron asesinadas 22 personas defensoras de derechos humanos: Comité Cerezo.

For more, please also see: 22 Human Rights Defenders Extrajudicially Executed in 2022 (Cerezo Committee report, January 10, 2023).

PBI-Mexico started accompanying the Cerezo Committee in 2002.

RCMP declines to comment on Minister’s direction on tear gas and rubber bullets; C-IRG violence remains unaddressed

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The RCMP says “OC spray [pepper spray] was deployed when the crowd failed to comply with police directions” at the Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) blockade in August 2021. Video here. Keith Cherry has filed a seven-page complaint about C-IRG actions at Fairy Creek with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.

The Canadian Press reports: “The federal government says it wants the RCMP to ban the use of two crowd-control tools that forces across the country say they have in their arsenals: sponge rounds and CS gas.”

“The force does not use rubber bullets [but uses the 40 mm extended-range impact weapons that fire sponge-tipped rounds] or the more-dangerous chemical compounds referred to as tear gas [but uses CS gas that the RCMP considers milder].”

“Public disclosures show that the RCMP used CS gas 102 times in 2021, and it used extended-range impact weapons 86 times.”

Notably, the article adds: “Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office confirmed that it wants the measures outlawed, even as the RCMP declines to say whether or not it will comply with that instruction.”

Chemical & Engineering News has reported: “Riot-control agents like tear gas and pepper spray [OC spray] are banned from use in warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Yet they may still be used for law enforcement and riot control, explains chemical weapons specialist Marc-Michael Blum, founder of Blum Scientific Services, which focuses on analytical testing and training in the areas of chemical and biological defense.”

In 2020, NDP MP Matthew Green called “upon the House of Commons to ban the use of tear gas in all its forms in Canada, destroy the stocks of tear gas currently owned by the police and armed forces in Canada, investigate the use of tear gas by the police [against a George Floyd solidarity protest] in Montreal on May 31, and encourage the police to prioritize de-escalation tactics over dispersal and arrest tactics in crowd control actions.”

Neck restraints

In a May 2022 letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, Mendicino called for “prohibiting the use of neck restraints in any circumstance and the use of tear gas or rubber bullets for crowd control alongside developing national standards for the use-of-force.”

The Canadian Press article continues: “The RCMP made headlines recently when it confirmed that it still allows officers to use the controversial neck hold despite those instructions and the fact that other police forces have stopped using it.”

The RCMP reported it used the “carotid control technique” 14 times in 2021.

Video: In December 2021, CBC reported 24 year old Gitxsan land defender Denzel Sutherland-Wilson shouted “I can’t breathe!” as RCMP officers tackled him at an encampment in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en struggle against the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Weapons used against Indigenous land defenders

Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham was arrested at gunpoint by the RCMP on November 19, 2021.

She recently told journalist Brandi Morin: “I did not take my eyes off of that gun and that man who was holding that gun and pointing it at me. I was thinking, what’s going to happen if the dog comes in, or if somebody makes the wrong move.”

We are in the process of trying to identify that. gun While we are not certain, it appears to be a Colt C8 carbine.

According to a Government of Canada website, the specifications for the C8A3 Carbine Automatic Rifle include: “Sustained rate of fire: 15 rounds per minute; Maximum rate of fire (semi-automatic): 65 rounds per minute.”

It’s also possible that the RCMP officer pointing his gun through the smashed cabin door may have been equipped with an AG-C grenade launcher.

More at: What weapons are deployed by the RCMP against Indigenous land defenders? (January 20, 2023)

Calls to dismantle the C-IRG

Meanwhile, the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), the unit established to protect resource extraction projects in British Columbia, including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, continues unaddressed by the federal government amid growing calls for it to be abolished.

The British Columbia Federation of Labour (BCFL), on November 24, 2022, voted in favour of this resolution calling for the C-IRG to be disbanded.

This past week, Leadnow launched a new campaign and petition that calls for an End C-IRG violence against land defenders.

Their petition highlights: “We need to make it known that it is unacceptable for the government to provide unlimited resources to a squad that violates Indigenous rights in order to make way for environmental destruction.”

Leadnow adds: “The RCMP is under the direction of federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, and BC Solicitor General Mike Farnworth. We are calling on them to dismantle the Community-Industry Response Group and conduct a public inquiry into its actions.”

In less than a week, 1,877 people have taken action in support of this petition.

Webinar, February 21

This webinar will discuss the role of the C-IRG in the repression of Indigenous land defence struggles in Canada, amplify demands from land defenders that the C-IRG be dismantled, and support the call for a public inquiry into its actions.

To register for this webinar, please click here.

Did a Canadian company manufacture the armoured vehicle used by Mexican police to repress a student protest?

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo by Voices in Movement.

On February 3, La Jornada reported: “Riot police evicted with tear gas about 100 students from the Mactumactzá rural normal school, who demonstrated in the center of Tuxtla Gutiérrez to demand the hiring of 33 workers for that school.”

A student told La Jornada: “First the municipal police harassed us and then the grenadiers arrived. Then came one of the tankettes from which they launch tear gas. …We condemned the eviction because we were not doing anything, we were peaceful.”

Voices in Movement also tweeted: “Riot police officers use tear gas to disperse about 100 students from the Rural #Mactumactza Normal School who were demonstrating in downtown Tuxtla Gutierrez to demand the hiring of 33 workers at the school.”

What kind of “tankette” is this? Is it possible that it is a Canadian-made armoured vehicle?

We note similarities between the tankette in the photo above and this photo of the Spartan light armoured vehicle manufactured by the Streit Group.

We offer this side-by-side photos as a way to compare and contrast and to help identify what type of vehicle this might be.

The Globe and Mail has reported: “Streit Group, founded in Canada in 1992, is today based in the United Arab Emirates. It describes itself as one of the world’s biggest armoured-vehicle manufacturers, with a work force of 3,000 in five production plants (including one in Canada) and the capacity to produce 500 vehicles a month.”

Canadian manufacturers of armoured vehicles also include Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing and Newmarket-based Terradyne Armoured Vehicles.

When concerns have been raised about Canadian-made armoured vehicles being used against National Strike popular mobilizations in Colombia in 2021, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Jason Jung responded: “Canada is monitoring developments in Colombia and will take appropriate action if credible evidence of the inappropriate use of any controlled Canadian product or technology is identified, including to perpetrate or facilitate serious violations of international human rights law.”

We continue to express concern about the sale of Canadian arms and equipment to security forces that are used in the violent repression of protests or in other breaches of established human rights laws and norms.

Photo: Colombian police use what appears to be a Toronto-based INKAS-manufactured armoured vehicle to stop buses of delegates travelling to Cali for a popular assembly related to the national strike on July 17, 2021.

In 2016, the Amnesty International Surviving Death report demonstrated that “the Mexican police and armed forces routinely torture and ill-treat women, and that sexual violence is routine during arrest and interrogation.”

In 2019, Terradyne highlighted that it had sold its vehicles to the Nuevo Leon police in Mexico. It has also sold its Gurkha RPV vehicles to the Veracruz Fuerza Civil (civil force) and its MPV to the Ministry of Public Security in Ciudad Guadalupe, Nuevo.

Last year, Terradyne exhibited their vehicles at the annual CANSEC arms show in Ottawa. That arms show will take place again this year May 31-June 1.

PBI-Canada webinar calling for an end to RCMP violence against land defenders, February 21

By
Brent Patterson
-

We are organizing a webinar that will be held on Tuesday February 21 at 4 pm ET on the controversial RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).

To register for this webinar, please click here.

This webinar will discuss the role of the C-IRG in the repression of Indigenous land defence struggles in Canada, amplify demands from land defenders that the C-IRG be dismantled, and support the call for a public inquiry into its actions.

Speakers:

– Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks

– Keith Cherry, who has submitted a complaint about the C-IRG to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP

– Shivangi Misra, Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) and co-author of ‘The Toxic Culture of the RCMP: Misogyny, Racism, and Violence against Women in Canada’s National Police Force’

– Seb Bonet (PBI-Canada Board member and moderator of this webinar).

We also invite you to sign the Leadnow petition: End C-IRG violence against land defenders.

Their petition highlights:

“For half a decade, the C-IRG has been protecting the interests of destructive projects like fracked pipelines and old-growth logging, by violently arresting and harassing Indigenous land defenders. This violence is ongoing, and with no limits on their budget or jurisdiction, we could see excessively violent C-IRG raids continue for years to come. We need to make it known that it is unacceptable for the government to provide unlimited resources to a squad that violates Indigenous rights in order to make way for environmental destruction.”

To join our webinar, click here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón who experience systemic attacks for their defence of the Cahabón River

By
Brent Patterson
-

On February 2, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies members of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabon. who live with systematic attacks against their integrity for their defense of the territory and the Cahabon River. In addition, violence against women is still very present in this territory surrounded by hydroelectric megaprojects.”

 

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón since July 2017.

It has explained: “The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón is made of more than 190 Q’eqchi’ communities who live in the Cahabón River basin. Since 2015 they have organized around defense of territory and against the launch of the OXEC I and OXEC II hydroelectric projects installed on the Oxec River, a tributary of the Cahabón River.”

It adds: “During the good-faith consultation [in August 2017] PBI accompanied the consultation process relating to the hydroelectric project installed on the Cahabón river basin, operated by OXEC SA, belonging to the Energy Resources Capital Corp group (ERCC).”

Hatch Ltd., a company founded in Toronto and now based in nearby Mississauga, was involved in the construction of the OXEC II dam.

In 2017, PBI-Guatemala noted: “On February 17 the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered to suspend the construction of Oxec I and Oxec II hydroelectric projects due to incompliance with Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which establishes the right of indigenous peoples to be consulted on projects that affect them.”

OXEC II became operational in September 2018.

Hatch and OXEC II

NS Energy has reported: “What began as a discussion with stakeholders in 2014 would later become Hatch’s formal engagement by Energy Resources Capital (ERC), the developer, and Solel Boneh Guatemala (SBG), the general contractor.”

“Hatch would be engaged to deliver the conceptual design and detailed design-build-engineering for the Oxec II Hydroelectric Project, recipient of a 2019 Award of Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC).”

Design-Build combines all aspects of design services, construction services, and project management into one team that works together to complete a project.

That article also notes: “Hatch’s design of the cellular cofferdam [for the first stage diversion of the river] was recognised by the Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO) in 2017 with an award of merit in the Industry, Energy, and Resources category.”

Commenting on OXEC II, Ian Ainslie, a Hatch project manager based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, noted: “Hatch has been active in developing hydroelectric sites in Guatemala for over 20 years.” And Hatch’s managing director of power, Jim Sarvinis, says: “Projects like Oxec II are exactly why we do the type of work we do at Hatch.”

Criminalization of Maya Q’eqchi’ water protector Bernardo Caal Xol

Hatch’s one-page Indigenous Peoples Policy (signed by CEO John Bianchini in March 2018) states: “Our relationships with First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Native Americans are based on the values of honesty, respect, and transparency. We understand that our ability to deliver successful projects on behalf of our clients is enhanced by our knowledge and understanding of the histories, cultures, protocols, values, aspirations, and governments of First Peoples across North America and Aboriginal communities around the world.”

And yet the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission has highlighted: “[In December 2017] a few months [after the August 2017 consultation on the OXEC dams], Bernardo was arrested [in] a clear act of retribution for the defense of his community’s water rights.”

In November 2018, he was sentenced to seven years and four months in jail.

Caal Xol was released from prison on a judge’s order on March 24, 2022.

PBI-Guatemala is now accompanying Caal Xol and the Human Rights Law Firm at a second criminalization trial against him.

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