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PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico meet with the Embassy of Canada in Mexico to highlight the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism

By
Brent Patterson
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Representatives from Peace Brigades International teams in Canada and Mexico met with officials from the Embassy of Canada in Mexico today.

A key point of discussion was the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico.

In January 2024, during the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico, the Government of Canada called on the Government of Mexico to: “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.”

In September 2025, just after Canadian prime minister Mark Carney visited Mexico, PBI-Mexico accompanied two human rights defenders from the Espacio OSC to Ottawa to highlight and discuss this recommendation.

Now, in February 2026, PBI-Canada is visiting Mexico with the same message to coincide with the Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico.

With the recent abduction of ten Mexican workers from the Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver Corp mine in Mexico less than five weeks ago, and with more than 61,000 Canadians in Mexico and the disruption that followed the killing by the Mexican military of Jalisco cartel leader El Mencho, security is a key issue.

We are aware that just as Canadian companies can face extortion from cartels in Mexico, land and environmental defenders and journalists who oppose extractive megaprojects can face threats and violence from cartels that want those projects to move forward as a source of extortion revenue.

We believe that tools such as the Protection Mechanism and the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) need to be strengthened and that the Government of Canada’s “Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders” need to be implemented.

Canada in Mexico

The Globe and Mail has reported: “[Mexico has] proven an attractive destination for Canadian foreign direct investment, which totalled $46-billion in 2024. More than 60 Canadian auto parts companies and nearly 140 Canadian mining companies operate in Mexico. And a number of Canada’s largest businesses have a sizable footprint in the country [including] TC Energy Corp. [that] has over US$11-billion invested in 3,600 kilometres of natural gas pipelines in Mexico…”

That article further notes: “Companies such as Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. are betting on this growth. One reason CP bought the Kansas City Southern Railway in 2021 was to create a continental network that encompassed Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.” In May 2023, Bnamericas reported that the Government of Mexico had invited Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) to participate in the Maya Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor between Oaxaca and Veracruz states.

Mining.com has also reported: “Mexico and Canada will present an joint action plan on minerals, infrastructure and supply chains in the second half of the year, Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said after meeting with Canada’s Minister of Trade, Dominic LeBlanc, in Mexico City. ‘We are preparing during the next month the action plan between Mexico and Canada in order to expand investment, increase commerce, reduce regulatory difficulties or obstacles, and facilitate investment,’ Ebrard told journalists. He also said a delegation of Mexico’s finance ministry will visit Canada to continue conversations, without providing a date.”

Upcoming webinar prior to Mexico-Canada Dialogue

Look for a webinar in late-April or early-May where we will continue to amplify this message in advance of the Mexico-Canada Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Issues that will take place in Ottawa in the second half of May 2026.

Further reading: Secretary of State Randeep Sarai links aid with trade prior to Team Canada Trade Mission to Mexico (PBI-Canada article, February 4, 2026).

WEBINAR: Learn about joining the PBI-Mexico field team, March 9

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Canada is organizing with PBI-Mexico a webinar on Monday March 9 at 3 pm EST (1 pm in Mexico City) about the application process to be a field volunteer.

You can register for the webinar here.

The application form for apply to join the team is here. Applications are being accepted until March 15.

Hear from the PBI-Mexico team about what it’s like to be a field volunteer! Hear about the work of PBI-Mexico accompanying human rights defenders! Bring your questions!

Register for this webinar today.

PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico meet with Espacio OSC, Front Line Defenders and Comite Cerezo in Mexico City

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Francisco Cerezo Contreras (Comite Cerezo), Brent Patterson (PBI-Canada), Manuel Jabonero Prieto (PBI-Mexico).

Over the last two days, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has facilitated meetings for PBI-Canada with Espacio OSC, Front Line Defenders and the Cerezo Committee in Mexico City.

Espacio OSC

The Space for Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) is currently made up of 13 national organizations and is accompanied by Peace Brigades International.

One of their objectives is to: “Promote the operability and effectiveness of the Protection Mechanism to guarantee the safety of human rights defenders and journalists.”

Less than two weeks ago, Mario Hurtado Cardozo, Héctor Hugo Arreola Galván and Elizabeth Guadalupe Mosqueda Rivera participated in this webinar on strengthening the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists.

And Elizabeth and Hugo met with representatives from all five of Canada’s parliamentary parties while in Ottawa in September 2025.

You can find out more about the work of Espacio OSC from their website and on Bluesky, Instagram and X.

FLD Américas

We also met with Sandra Patargo, the Protection Coordinator for the Americas for Front Line Defenders.

As noted on their website: “Front Line Defenders (FLD) is an international human rights organization founded in Dublin in 2001, with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs).”

They also note: “As identified by human rights defenders themselves, FLD responds to protection and security needs by providing support through grants, capacity building, visibility, networking, and advocacy, at the international, regional and local levels.”

You can find out more about the work of Front Line Defenders from their website and on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and X.

Comite Cerezo

And we met with Francisco Cerezo Contreras of the Cerezo Committee.

After our meeting, Francisco posted on social media: “We were visited by Brent Patterson from Peace Brigades International-Canada. We had a very pleasant conversation about the human rights situation in Mexico and about our organization, its origins, and where we are currently. The host was Peace Brigades International – Mexico Project. Thank you both for everything.”

As noted on the Comite Cerezo website: “We are a solidarity collective of volunteer work, dedicated to the defense of the Human Rights of victims of repression for political reasons in Mexico.” Their Facebook page also notes: “We are an independent organization that defends and promotes human rights in Mexico since August 13, 2001.”

The Comité Cerezo was founded after the arrest of three Cerezo brothers, Alejandro, Héctor and Antonio. They were sent to a maximum-security federal prison, suffering physical and psychological torture. Francisco, family members and allies formed the Comité Cerezo to fight for their liberation.

This PBI project information bulletin that interviewed Francisco in March 2005 notes: “PBI has been accompanying Emiliana and Francisco Cerezo Contreras, members of the Cerezo Committee, since February 2002.”

You can find out more about the work of the Cerezo Committee from their website and on Facebook and X.

Additional reading

PBI-Mexico accompanies Cerezo Committee and families in the call to find Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz (April 6, 2024)

PBI-Mexico accompanies march in solidarity with the disappeared during the Mendez Arceo National Human Rights Award in Cuernavaca (May 21, 2025)

PBI-Mexico concerned Cerezo Committee on list the Ministry of National Defence targeted with Pegasus spyware (October 4, 2022).

Human rights defenders, journalists and searchers continue to be at risk as the security situation becomes “more normalized” in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project is one of fourteen organizations participating in the Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC).

Following the killing of Jalisco cartel leader El Mencho, Espacio OSC posted on social media: “In light of the violence recorded since yesterday in various federal entities, organizations are documenting and supporting risk situations for #human rights defenders and journalists. To contact and activate support: @article19mxca @prensacimac @RedDefensorasMx.”

On the day that El Mencho was killed, Article 19, which is a member of the Espacio OSC, documented: “8 attacks against the press during today’s day of blockades and violent incidents in various states of Mexico. The attacks committed in Guanajuato (2), Jalisco (2), Tamaulipas (2), Michoacán (1), and Sinaloa (1) are linked to organized crime groups or unidentified individuals. One additional attack, which occurred in Nayarit, is currently in the process of being documented.”

A “more normalized” situation

On February 23, Cameron MacKay, the Canadian ambassador to Mexico, told CBC News: “We’re absolutely going in the right direction of stabilization after yesterday’s obviously very dramatic events.”

And yesterday, February 24, Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand stated: “The long and the short of it is the situation is becoming more normalized. We should continue to see this trajectory unfolding. The situation needs to be closely monitored as we are doing with our consular officials on the ground in Mexico.”

40 human rights defenders killed in 2025

La Jornada quoted Amnesty International Mexico stating: “These events occur in a context where human rights defenders, journalists and women searchers face alarming levels of aggressions, disappearances and murders.”

This week the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations ‘All Rights for All’ (Red TDT), which is also a member of Espacio OSC, stated that 40 human rights defenders had been killed in 2025.

Red TDT further noted that 12 of those killed were searchers searching for their missing relatives. They noted that most of the cases of those killed happened in Jalisco, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacán.

Espacio OSC has also documented that 205 human rights defenders and journalists have been killed in Mexico between 2016 and 2025.

Canada in Mexico

The context also includes the abduction on January 23 of ten Mexican national employees of the Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver Corp. Panuco mining project in Sinaloa. By February 9, five of those workers were identified among ten bodies found in a clandestine grave in a community near the mine.

Less than a week after that a “Team Canada Trade Mission” with more than 370 delegates, including two cabinet ministers, began in Mexico City. And only two days after the trade mission visited Monterrey and Guadalajara, Global Affairs Canada advised Canadians to “exercise a high degree of caution” in those states.

After the killing of the workers at the Canadian mine in Sinaloa, Agence France-Presse reported: “[The Canadian minister responsible for North American trade, Dominic] LeBlanc said that security should be a priority and announced that the Canadian Royal Mounted Police plans to double the number of officials who work in the Canadian Embassy in Mexico this year.”

But The Los Angeles Times also reported on insecurity for communities and environmental defenders. It noted: “The mine workers’ disappearance in late January brought more troops into the mountains as they searched by air and on the ground for signs of them. …Roque Vargas, a human rights activist for people displaced by violence in the area, said that ‘all of the hubbub has scattered the organized crime guys’ but he worries they could return. He and others are also concerned about being mistaken for bad guys and attacked by security forces when they leave their town, because it has happened elsewhere in the state. ‘We’ve practically been abandoned’, he said.”

Extortion against companies, armed groups silence opponents

Significantly, the LA Times article further highlighted: “Mines, along with other businesses like avocado groves and pipelines carrying gasoline, have long attracted organized crime’s attention in Mexico as a source of extortion payments or to steal the extracted material. [Security analyst David] Saucedo, who has researched cases in Guanajuato, Sinaloa and Sonora, said he has also seen cases where mines take advantage of armed groups to control mine opponents.”

That article also notes: “The Mexican government has said it has no reports that Vizsla was extorted. [Mexican president Claudia] Sheinbaum said that her administration would talk with all mining companies in Mexico ‘to offer the support they require.’”

El Sol de Hermosillo columnist Gustavo Álvarez has also noted: “President Sheinbaum has been emphatic in pointing out that, during the meeting with the Canadian delegation, no business representative formally denounced extortion, rent collection or pressure from organized crime…”

But Álvarez comments: “Many companies choose to handle these situations [of extortion by organized crime] discreetly, working with local authorities and private security, absorbing minor losses and avoiding exposing their vulnerabilities to the public or the markets.”

Looking ahead

Two days after the killing of El Mencho and security concerns across Mexico, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce statement on the Team Canada Trade Mission made no reference to this context of instability and violence.

Mexico and Canada will reportedly present a joint action plan on minerals, infrastructure and supply chains in the second half of this year; it has also been reported that more than 35 Canadian companies will soon visit the state of Chihuahua to pursue strategic projects and investment opportunities.

With $46 billion of Canadian investment in Mexico including nearly 140 mining companies, 60 auto parts companies, and more than USD $11 billion invested in 3,600 kilometres of pipelines, there does not yet seem to be a fully developed Canadian strategy to address the security of Canadian businesses, the 55,000 Canadians currently in Mexico as tourists or on business (two of whom were injured in Jalisco cartel attacks on Sunday February 22), threats against Mexican communities, and the safety of human rights defenders, journalists and searchers.

Strengthening the Protection Mechanism

One strategy includes strengthening the existing Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists.

At the United Nations Universal Periodic Review session held on January 24, 2024, 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.”

PBI-Canada is working with PBI-Mexico and Espacio OSC to develop strategies to help materialize this recommendation from Canada.

Further reading: Integrated protection policies needed for human rights defenders and journalists with Canadian megaprojects in Mexico: Espacio OSC (PBI-Canada article, February 16, 2026).

The possibility of a new Canada-US pipeline brings concerns about state violence against land and environmental defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Signs in front of Oceti Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, November 2016. Source: camp Palestine; Becker1999.

Bloomberg reports: “South Bow Corp. is considering an expansion of its pipeline system that may revive a version of the canceled Keystone XL project.”

The article further notes that Bridger Pipeline LLC is in the early stages of considering a 550,000 barrel per day pipeline that would move oil from Canada through Montana to Wyoming. The original Keystone XL pipeline would have taken oil from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

Bloomberg also explains: “South Bow was spun off in 2024 from TC Energy Corp., which originally proposed Keystone XL.”

CBC News adds: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was aware of oil company South Bow’s plans to revive parts of the canceled Keystone XL pipeline to the United States when he floated the idea to U.S. President Donald Trump in October, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday [February 24].”

That article also notes: “A spokesperson for Calgary-based South Bow confirmed in an email to Reuters that the company is evaluating a proposal that would leverage its existing infrastructure and already-permitted corridors in Canada to potentially connect to crude oil pipelines in the U.S.”

The CBC News article further reports: “U.S. company Bridger Pipeline recently filed a proposal with Montana regulators that describes the construction of a potential 1,038-kilometre pipeline beginning near the U.S.-Canada border in Phillips County, Mont., and transiting to Guernsey, Wyo.”

Resistance to KXL

In October 2025, the BBC reported: “Environmentalists and indigenous groups have also long opposed the project.”

In January 2017, The Guardian reported: “Opposition to the Keystone project was driven by grassroots environmental activism. Campaigners from 350.org and other environmental groups made it a test case of Obama’s promise to act on climate change – elevating a little-noticed infrastructure project into a national issue.”

In March 2017, CBC News explained: “Keystone XL has faced multiple delays since it was first pitched in 2008. When it was blocked by President Barack Obama in 2015, many environmentalists declared a victory. Now [with the election of Donald Trump as US president], south of the U.S. border, many Indigenous groups are vowing to fight once again. ‘The fight to kill the Keystone XL pipeline begins anew — and Donald Trump should expect far greater resistance than ever before,’ wrote Dallas Goldtooth, lead organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.”

Indigenous Climate Action has also previously posted: “[The Keystone XL pipeline] was fiercely opposed by groups in both the United States and Canada, including Dene, Cree, Metis, Oceti Sakowin, and Ponca tribes and communities. Indigenous leaders helped lead a coalition that also included Nebraska landowners and environmentalists in more than a decade-long struggle. In 2021, President Joe Biden revoked the presidential permit for KXL and 6 months later, in June 2021, TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) announced the project was officially dead.”

Resistance to DAPL

This week, Nicholas Gottlieb wrote in Ricochet: “Late last year, Enbridge and Energy Transfer, the company that built and operates the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), told shareholders that they are working on a plan to begin transporting as much as 250,000 barrels per day of Alberta tar sands crude oil through the pipeline to refineries in the United States. …The companies’ new plan, referred to by Enbridge as its Mainline Optimization Phase 2 project, would mark a more direct incorporation of the pipeline into the Canadian oil industry. It is part of a broader set of brownfield projects that Enbridge says could add as much as 600,000 bpd of southbound export capacity, roughly the same amount added by the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.”

Formation of the RCMP CRU

With the news reports about the possibility of a South Bow-Bridger crude oil pipeline from Alberta through Montana to Wyoming, along with the news from Gottlieb about the emerging plan from Enbridge and Energy Transfer, we recall the resistance in 2016-2017 against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), most notably at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North and South Dakota.

Gottlieb explains: “The conflict over DAPL had profound implications for Canada’s oil and gas industry through its role as an impetus for the formation of the CRU (formerly C-IRG) police unit and as a model for the kind of counterterrorism police tactics that would later be deployed to defend Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink.”

He then comments: “To move DAPL forward, Energy Transfer hired a private security contractor founded during the US occupation of Iraq to surveil and suppress the protests. The contractor, TigerSwan, worked with local, state, and federal police agencies, deploying a variety of ‘counterterrorism tactics’, including embedding double agents within protest camps.”

Gottlieb further notes: “These tactics would come to Canada almost immediately: DAPL was explicitly cited by RCMP as justification for the formation of the C-IRG police unit (now CRU). CRU was originally formed to suppress any Indigenous resistance that might crop up, but it has since been used to surveil and police Palestine solidarity marches and a wide array of other forms of political speech and action. We also know that CRU has closely collaborated with industry and private security firms, as state and federal police did during the #NoDAPL conflict. As I’ve argued before, CRU is our ICE, its scope keeps growing, and its primary mission seems to be to defend the profit margins of US-led capital in this country.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras visits with the defenders of the Medina Sector resisting the Agrecasa Cantera Sapadril mine

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“Last week, the defenders of Sector Medina (Puerto Cortes) and the Camp Digno ‘René Aleman and Pedrina Melgar’ taught us during a tour of the area the impact of extractivism on the mountains surrounding communities. From PBI, we recognize the important work of the advocates of Medina Sector in protecting the common goods and show concern for the criminalization process against them. The initial hearing, scheduled for February 20, was canceled and rescheduled for June 20.”

Reportar sin miedo adds this context: “In April 2025, the community set up the “René Alemán and Pedrina Melgar” camp in front of the Cantera Sapadril mine, operated by Agrecasa. They did so because the company had continued to operate despite having prohibitions. And because there are at least four technical reports from the State that confirm that the mine pollutes, damages health and affects water.”

That article continues: “The company Agregados del Caribe S.A. (Agrecasa) has launched a double judicial offensive against 13 environmental defenders from the Medina Sector. …On January 5, 2026, the 13 people voluntarily appeared before the courts, accompanied by the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ). …The MADJ reiterated that it will accompany the defenders “until the case is closed and the company is held responsible for the environmental crimes it has committed.”

The article also quotes Víctor Fernández, a lawyer for the MADJ, who says: “Agrecasa is a company with U.S. capital.”

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading: Cuando la ciudadanía no participa conscientemente, la democracia enferma (Contra Corriente, August 12, 2025).

Also:

–PBI-Honduras accompanies sit-in by land defenders demanding the closure of the Agrecasa mining project (PBI-Canada, January 14, 2026)

–PBI-Honduras observes arraignment hearing against 13 environmental defenders opposed to the Agrecasa “Cantera Sapadril” mining project (PBI-Canada, January 9, 2026).

PBI-Mexico accompanies the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water at commemoration of Samir Flores in Amilcingo

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has posted on social media:

“Seven years after the unpunished murder of Samir Flores Soberanes, human rights defender and community communicator, PBI accompanies the Front of People in Defense of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala in Amilcingo in their fight for justice.”

El Sol de Cuautla reported: “To commemorate his death anniversary, a mass was held at the activist’s home and later a march that concluded at the community’s primary school, in the center of Amilcingo. There they placed a wreath at the foot of the bust that is located in the campus. The march continued to the community cemetery, where the remains of Flores Soberanes rest.”

That article also highlighted: “Inhabitants of the community of Amilcingo, in Temoac, Morelos, together with members of the Permanent Assembly of the Peoples of Morelos, demanded justice seven years after the murder of activist Samir Flores Soberanes, which occurred on February 20, 2019, outside his home.”

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Front of People in Defense of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala since early 2020.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission in defence of “Hanged Man’s Tree” near Bogota after fire

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:

“On Wednesday, February 18, we accompanied the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission together with @casaculturalpotosi in a drumming ritual in defense of the Hanged Man’s Tree, a space of memory, spirituality, and resistance for the community in Ciudad Bolívar.

The ritual was held in response to the events of February 11, when the tree was damaged by a fire. This event is part of a territorial dispute between the community and a company that is currently carrying out exploitation activities in the area.

The Hanging Tree was declared a Site of Cultural Interest by Resolution 734 of August 13, 2025, recognizing its historical, symbolic, and cultural value. Therefore, any damage not only impacts the natural environment, but also the collective memory and community processes that are woven around this place.

The day was a collective gathering of drums, words, and ritual, in which the community reaffirmed its commitment to defending the territory, life, and cultural heritage.”

Cero setenta has provided this additional context: “Meters from where Bogotá ends, in the south, a solitary eucalyptus tree stands on the hill, in the middle of houses made by its own hand, and right next to a quarry. The tree is on a disputed piece of land, between urban development interests that clash with the Land Use Plan. But recently, thanks to the struggle of the environmental leaders of the area, the District has been trying to buy the property, amid threats, to make it a border park that benefits the community, made up largely of peasants displaced by the conflict or who are looking for better opportunities in the capital.”

That article also notes: “Between 2015 and 2016, the mobilization in the Potosí neighborhood managed to seal the quarry after a dump truck ran over Yineth Herrera, a resident of the sector. They also denounced attempts to cut down the tree by cutting its roots with heavy machinery. Currently, Decree 555 of 2021 legally shields the territory by classifying it as a protected area.”

It further explains: “While the company Malkenu SAS – owner of the lot – claims rights to develop a project of 75,000 homes, the properties face processes of forfeiture of ownership for alleged links with networks of ‘terreros’ and drug trafficking figures. The possession of the lot was suspended in 2025, this makes it difficult for any individual to carry out physical or commercial interventions on the land. At the same time, the Malkenu Group sued the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá for more than 2 billion pesos because a procedural ruling and the change in the Land Use Plan allegedly reduced the commercial value of the property and blocked the investment project.”

The full article can be read at El último árbol en el borde: la lucha ambiental por el Árbol del ahorcado en Ciudad Bolívar (Cero setenta; February 22, 2026).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc to meet with women’s cooperative in El Estor

By
Brent Patterson
-

On February 18, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on social media:

“Today #PBIaccompanies the community journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc in a meeting with a women’s cooperative from 5 communities of El Estor.

Women have developed a system of savings and communal lending accounts, generating economic independence at the community level.

Carlos Choc interviewed members of the cooperative, to give visibility to this initiative and favor its recognition by the local authorities.”

Choc has also posted on social media:

“#CommunityJournalism Soon a report on the reality of Maya Q’eqchi’ women from the community Seacacar Arriba, El Estor Izabal, and how they have organized themselves to move forward.”

We look forward to that report.

Accompaniment

Carlos Ernesto Choc is a Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist, environmentalist and human rights defender (HRD), born in the municipality of El Estor, in the department of Izabal.

Choc has been criminalized and prosecuted because of his journalistic work, which he has used to report on human rights violations against the Q’eqchi’ people and the environmental pollution caused by the Fenix mine in the El Estor municipality.

The criminal prosecution against him began in August 2017, when mine personnel brought allegations in two cases, which finally concluded in January 2024, when all charges against him were dropped.

Choc requested accompaniment from us in order to be able to continue his work as a journalist. PBI began accompanying him in April 2025.

PBI-Honduras meets with COPINH in La Esperanza and visits Utopia Meeting and Friendship Centre

By
Brent Patterson
-

On February 18, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on social media:

“Last week we met with COPINH [the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras] in La Esperanza and visited the Utopia Meeting and Friendship Center.

Utopia is a collective space where tools for the self-sustainability of COPINH and the communities it represents are shared; a place of collective healing that nurtures the spirituality of the Lenca people, where ideas and proposals for a more just world can be developed.

As PBI, we value the existence and stewardship of this space as a guarantee of protection for Indigenous communities living in a historically threatened territory.

#IndigenousCommunities #LencaPeople #CollectiveSpace #Utopia”

COPINH’s coordinators, including Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, have been accompanied by Peace Brigades International since May 2016.

The co-founder of COPINH, Berta Caceres, was killed on March 2, 2016.

COPINH is currently planning activities in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of “the sowing” of Berta Caceres.

This quote is widely attributed to Caceres: “They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”

COPINH has posted on social media: “We invite you to gather to sow memory, strengthen hope for a more just world and reaffirm our commitment to demand justice for Berta Cáceres and defenders of the territory and life. Berta lives. The struggle continues.”

More on this in the coming days.

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