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PBI-Colombia accompanies event opening Macro Case 08, an investigation into crimes committed by members of the Public Force

By
Brent Patterson
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Twitter photo.

On September 9, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We accompany the event in #Barrancabermeja on the opening of a new macro case 008 of @JEP_Colombia in #Colombia , where the Middle Magdalena will be one of the 5 prioritized regions within the case.”

CREDHOS explains:

“The magistrate of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace [JEP], exposes the cases that have been presented at the national level, especially in the Magdalena Medio region. Considering case 08, which examines the members of the public force who have had links with groups outside the law and have been the main perpetrators of violence against groups, Magdalena Medio is one of the five most important territories to be analyzed by the JEP.”

Semana has also reported:

“The JEP announced on Tuesday [August 30] that it is formally opening macro case 08, which will investigate crimes committed by members of the public force. Likewise, acts committed by other State agents, in association with the paramilitaries, will be investigated.

In this case alone, more than 70,000 victimizing acts are concentrated, of which more than 15,000 are attributed to the Public Force, followed by another number of State agents. The total number of alleged perpetrators to be investigated, according to the president of the JEP, Eduardo Cifuentes, is more than 2,800 people.

According to the Information Analysis Group of the JEP, the main crimes attributed directly to the security forces were homicides with 8,345 cases; forced displacement, 2,904; threats 1,638; torture, 1,249 and forced disappearance, 1,136.

Between 2000 and 2009, 51% of the events took place.”

And El Espectador reports on the various crimes that will be investigated, including “crimes against trade unionists of multinationals.”

That article notes: “The reports received by the Knowledge Chamber of the JEP warn about the crimes suffered by trade unionists of multinational companies in areas of agro-industrial or mining-energy exploitation who, likewise, were indicated as collaborators or members of the guerrillas or for their work that claimed labor and social workers.”

Companies named include the Swiss transnational Nestlé, Cicolac (a subsidiary of Nestlé) and US-based Drummond, a coal mining and oil company.

We will continue to follow this investigation.

The drilling for a fracked gas pipeline under Wedzin Kwa could start within days on Wet’suwet’en territory

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Kris Statnyk.

On September 8, Defend Our River and Yintah Access posted:

“Did you know that the CGL Pipeline will be drilling under our river starting as early as next week? …Our beautiful river is in imminent danger. We must URGENTLY build a coalition of people to stop CGL from drilling under the headwaters of our river. If drilling happens, the river flowing through our communities will be forever damaged.”

They add: “We need to come together as a community that is prepared to protect our river by any means non-violently necessary.”

The Facebook event page for the march is here.

Earlier this year, the Terrace Standard reported: “The active tunneling work [under Wedzin Kwa] is expected to take two and half to three months.”

For further updates, please follow the Defend Our River and Yintah Access Instagram feeds as well as Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter.

On September 9, Kris Statnyk also tweeted: “Yesterday Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs went to witness the ongoing destruction of their yintah at the Coastal Gaslink drill site. They were pulled over on the forestry road by RCMP with hands on their guns and threatened arrest if they didn’t show their BC drivers licenses.”

We recall that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to stop the construction of the pipeline and “that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

It has been noted on YintahAccess.com that: “In three large-scale police actions in January 2019, February 2020, and November 2021, a total of 74 people have been arrested and detained, including legal observers and members of the media.”

Stand.earth has also highlighted: “RBC is among top commercial banks providing the CGL project with working capital, including CAD $275 million in project finance, a co-financed $6.5 billion loan, a $40 million corporate loan, and $200 million in co-financed working capital – while acting as financial advisor for the pipeline.”

For more on the ongoing campaign calling on RBC to defund Coastal GasLink, please see Decolonial Solidarity on Twitter.

We continue to follow this closely.

Criminalized Maya Q’eqchi’ defenders in court over land taken for military base in Guatemala

By
Brent Patterson
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“This land is ours”

On September 8, CasoCreompaz tweeted:

“Announcement. Today begins the Trial against 21 companions of the community of #Chicoyogüito criminalized for demanding the return of their territory in a peaceful demonstration. #Chicoyogüito Is Ours.”

Background

The Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito was violently displaced on July 28, 1968, from their ancestral lands so that an army base – then known as Military Zone 21 – could be established in the department of Alta Verapaz.

After the displacement of the community, the military base became a clandestine centre for illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance, and rape committed from 1978 to 1990.

At least 565 Indigenous people were disappeared at that base. The bodies identified are of Mayan Achí, Q’eqchi’, Pomochí, Ixil, and Kiché peoples.

The military base is considered the largest clandestine cemetery in Latin America.

The military base that displaced his community was rebranded in 2004 as Creompaz, a training base for UN peacekeepers funded by Canada and other countries.

Dawn Paley has written: “Regardless of the mass graves at the base, military and police training continues there, supported by countries like the US and Canada.” The support from Canada has included a CAD$250,000 grant in 2009 and the purchase of specialized equipment in 2014 for a training program at Creompaz.

On July 15, 2021, Olivia and Domingo,  members of AVECHAV, highlighted on a PBI-Canada webinar: “We know Canada has provided a lot of support for [the Creompaz peacekeeping base on our land]. But where is the peace that they say they are creating?”

On September 15, 2021, Domingo also presented to Seb Bonet’s 4th year students at the University of Victoria about the situation for this community.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV) since 2015.

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies hearings on the massacre of 251 people in Dos Erres by US-trained counter-insurgency force

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 7, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies the hearing of testimony in advance of trial in the #CasoDosErres.”

On June 22, 2021, PBI-Guatemala had also posted: “PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in the #CasoDosErres. Today Judge Claudette Domínguez tied former Kaibil José Mardoqueo Ortiz Morales to the process, for his participation in the massacre. The next hearing will be in October; the accused will remain in remand.”

Then on October 13, 2021, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies the Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos [Human Rights Law Firm – BDH] in the mid-stage audience at the #CasoDosErres.”

Update on the most recent hearing

Verdad Justicia tweeted: “Hearing for the advance statement of Marcelina Cardona Juárez, a survivor of the massacre, in the trial against Alfonso Bulux Vicente, is suspended for the second time. It was not possible to hold it due to hearing problems of the witness.”

And Famdegua tweeted:

“Judge Domínguez asks, for the transparency of the process, the Justice of the Peace in Petén to establish if the witness Marcelina Cardona Juárez can listen and understand. Witness does not answer questions. Judge decides to suspend hearing and orders @INACIFGT [the National Institute of Forensic Sciences of Guatemala] to evaluate it.”

Alfonso Bulux Vicente

On June 29, 2022, La Hora reported:

“For murder and crimes against the duties of humanity in real competition, the judge of Highest Risk «A», Claudette Domínguez, decided to send ex-military officer Alfonso Bulux Vicente to trial for his alleged involvement in the case known as Dos Erres. As in the previous procedure, the accused appeared by videoconference.

Yesterday, the Human Rights Prosecutor affirmed that the ex-soldier participated in acts of sexual assault against women from the Dos Erres subdivision, in Petén, among whom was a minor who was also attacked in front of relatives. In addition, he is accused of participating in the events in which at least 200 people, including men, women and children, died violently.”

The Massacre

The BBC has reported: “More than 200 people were killed in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, one of the most violent episodes in Guatemala’s brutal 36-year conflict.”

That article explains: “The Kaibiles [were] a US-trained counter-insurgency force fighting left-wing guerrillas. …The special unit of the Guatemalan army stormed the village in the north of the country on 6 December 1982.”

“The Kaibiles suspected the villagers of sympathizing with left-wing guerrillas who had two months earlier carried out an ambush on a nearby army patrol, leaving 21 soldiers dead. Even though the soldiers’ search of the village did not uncover any of the weapons the guerrillas had seized during the ambush, the Kaibiles proceeded to kill the village’s inhabitants.”

That article further notes: “Over several days, the soldiers systematically shot or bludgeoned to death hundreds of men, women and children. They disposed of most of the bodies by throwing them down a well.”

And the Associated Press has reported: “The slaughter [at Dos Erres] went unpunished for years — even after Guatemalan authorities issued 17 arrest warrants. In 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights demanded the country prosecute the perpetrators.”

We continue to follow this case.

PBI-Honduras meets Peasant Women’s Network of Bajo Aguán in Tocoa to discuss the violence faced by women

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

“We met with the Peasant Women’s Network of #BajoAguán to talk about the situation of violence faced by women in the region. It is estimated that 86% of rural women do not have access to land compared to 64% of men.”

On Facebook, they also noted:

“Of the 79,000 property titles delivered by the National Agrarian Institute between 2011 and 2020, only 37% were granted to women.”

In July, La Tribuna reported:

“More than a hundred peasants from Bajón Aguán (northern part of the country) asked the government to put an end to the historic land conflict and criminal persecution by the landowners of the sector, during their first day of peaceful protests in the capital.

Jaime Cabrera, one of the spokesmen of the movement, explained that they are still waiting for the government to give them their property titles and put an end to the judicial and physical persecution they frequently suffer from agricultural entrepreneurs in the sector.

They are also calling for a review of the liquidation process of peasant cooperatives over the past 30 years and whose land ended up in the hands of landowners.

Cabrera complained that the current agricultural authorities (INA) have not been able to resolve their demands, so they prefer to continue the dialogue with President Castro.”

In December 2021, Reuters also explained:

“Nearly 150 murders and disappearances in connection with the land conflict have convulsed the Aguán Valley since 2008, when violence first intensified here.

Convictions have been reached in just 25 of those killings, according to a government summary of the cases reviewed by Reuters.

Disputes still rage over some of the land now growing with palm. The Honduran government hasn’t verified many of the contested titles or resolved allegations by local residents, human rights groups and others that farms were acquired by force and at unfair prices.

At times, the perpetrators have allegedly included private security guards working on behalf of large palm growers, small farmers ostensibly defending their plots, would-be landowners seeking to muscle in amid the chaos, and armed gangs increasingly moving cocaine through Central America.”

We will continue to follow this situation.

Mi’kmaw Elder Darlene Gilbert arrested while protecting Eisner Cove Wetland on unceded Mi’kmaq territory in Nova Scotia

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 6, Elliot Page posted on Instagram:

“Came to support Protect Eisner Cove Wetland and witnessed Darlene Gilbert of the Grassroots Grandmothers being arrested for protecting her rights and the land. Just like she did in our documentary “There’s Something in the Water”. @nsgov continues with back room deals at the expense of the environment and Indigenous rights. @protecteisnerwetland.”

Sakura Saunders has also posted on Facebook:

“A Mi’kmaw elder (Darlene Gilbert) and two other people were arrested at the Eisner Cove Wetland protest today around 8am. We have been waiting all day for their release and are now calling on others to join us at the Gottingen Police Station until they are released!”

The fund to contribute to help with her legal costs, healing and recovery is here.

It notes: “Thunderbird Swooping Down Woman (Darlene Gilbert) is a Mi’kmaw Elder, grandmother, survivor and water protector. She has devoted almost all her time and energy to caring for her community. Teaching, leading, feeding, gathering.”

It further notes: “Supposed offenses include refusing to give her colonial name, and pointing an eagle feather at a cop who was attempting to remove her.”

Comments on the Protect Eisner Wetland Facebook page highlight that the work is being done on unceded Mi’kmaq territory without prior consultation.

Another post highlights: “Darlene Gilbert, Mi’kmaw grandmother: ‘Show me the deed to my land and I’ll go.’”

CTV reports: “Protesters clashed with police over a housing development being built in the area. The group says the wetland is a possible home to at-risk species, such as wood turtles, black ash trees and bats, and is calling for the housing development to be built in another part of the city.”

Halifax.ca adds: “A 45-year-old man, a 41-year-old man, a 27-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman are scheduled to appear in Dartmouth Provincial Court to face one count each of obstruction. The 57-year-old woman is also facing charges of assaulting an officer.”

We continue to follow this.

Photo by Carl Pomeroy/CTV Atlantic.

PBI-Honduras accompanies ASODEBICOQ at meetings promoting declarations in the defence of water in Quimistán

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 5, PBI-Honduras posted:

“Recently we accompanied ASODEBICOQ [the Association for the Defense of Common Goods of Quimistan] at different meetings for communities in Quimistán. Communities raise water defense as one of their priorities, for this reason they continue their efforts to promote declarations of protection to the sources of water in their territories.

From PBI we highlight the work of ASODEBICOQ in the defense of the common goods of the area. We remember that communities not only face the risk of contamination of their waters but also the cutting of trees and the imposition of projects for which they have not been informed or consulted.”

Quimistán is a town and a municipality in the department of Santa Bárbara.

In February 2019, Radio Progreso reported that Santa Bárbara is “threatened by more than 15 hydroelectric projects and 23 concessions for mining.”

That article notes: “In the municipality of Quimistán, there is an imminent danger from the installation of the Santa Lucia hydroelectric dam, which is advanced by 90%. And, despite the fact that there is a strong rejection by the population, they currently intend to build a second hydroelectric dam also on the Cuyagual River.”

PBI-Honduras has previously highlighted: “Over the past two decades alone, Honduras has lost between 23,000 and 58,000 hectares of woodland per year.”

Between 1990 and 2005, Honduras lost 37 per cent of its forest cover, and between 2007 and 2011 the deforestation rate tripled in Honduras.

PBI-Honduras has accompanied ASODEBICOQ since May 2018.

“From PBI we highlight the work of ASODEBICOQ in the defense of the common goods of Quimistán. The communities in the area face the contamination of their waters, the felling of trees and the imposition of projects for which they have not been informed or consulted.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies UVOC to meeting with the Prosecutor’s Office of Human Rights

By
Brent Patterson
-

On September 6, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“PBI accompanies UVOC to its meeting with the authorities representing the Prosecutor’s Office of Human Rights in Guatemala.”

UVOC is the Union Verapancese de Organizaciones Campesinas (Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations).

On Twitter, it describes itself as a “Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’ and Achi’ Peasant Organization that fights for Resistance and Emancipation: Resistance to not stop being Original Peoples.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied UVOC since 2005.

PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC in carrying out census in communities impacted by hydroelectric projects

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 6, PBI-Honduras posted:

“Recently, we accompanied CEHPRODEC in carrying out the census in the Sierra de Agalta, in the municipalities of Gualaco and San Esteban, in the Olancho department.

On this occasion we were able to observe how some communities, their waters, lands and agricultural production of the area are affected by hydroelectric projects located inside a protected area.

PBI accompanies CEHPRODEC since 2014 and highlights its enormous work in favor of the environment and human rights, which develops through democratic processes for food sovereignty of the populations, in the framework of the defense of the public goods and the territory.”

On September 5, CEHPRODEC also explained:

“We finished the census in the communities inhabiting the Sierra de Agalta National Park in the municipality of Gualaco, despite the difficulties we did it.

This has been a joint effort with the Environmental Committee for Life, the ICF, the UMA, the technical team of the #MAMSA and CEHPRODEC, we also have the valuable accompaniment of PBI – Honduras Project.”

Further reading: PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC as it works to defend the Talgua River and the Sierra de Agalta from logging (May 27, 2022) and PBI-Honduras accompanies Olanchano Environmental Movement in Defense of Life (MAODVI) on environmental walk (July 11, 2022).

CCAJAR says proposed coal mine “would condemn La Guajira to remain a sacrifice zone”

By
Brent Patterson
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The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) has issued this statement in opposition to a proposed new open-pit coal mine in an Afro-Guajira community that would compromise the Cañaverales spring.

CCAJAR explains:

“The Ministry of the Interior and the Best Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Turkish multinational group Yilmaden, reached an agreement to skip the right to prior consultation of the Ancestral Community Council los Negros de Cañaverales, to advance in the endorsement of a coal mega-mining project.

The project would irretrievably compromise the Cañaverales spring, a unique body of water found in the south of La Guajira, aggravating the humanitarian situation of a department in which they continue to die of hunger and thirst.

On July 19, 2022, a day before the inauguration of the new Congress of the Republic, the Best Coal Company and the Ministry of the Interior signed a document, in which they grant the endorsement to a new coal mine that intends to be installed between Fonseca and San Juan del Cesar (La Guajira).

The agreements reached by the Ministry of the Interior without a consultative process and absence of scientific certainty about the damages that this mining project will generate, will allow the Best Coal Company to implement a coal exploitation and export complex projected until 2056 that would condemn La Guajira to remain a sacrifice zone.”

The full statement can be read at ¿Una nueva mina de carbón en La Guajira en tiempos de descarbonización?

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied CCAJAR since 1995.

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