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PBI-Mexico reiterates concern about National Guard raid of occupied Danone bottled water plant

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Sandra G. Germendia of Peace Brigades International speaks at the media conference for the report ‘Defending Rights in Mexico: Between Omission and Simulation’.

On September 2, Avispa Media reported on press conference on the report Defending Rights in Mexico: Between Omission and Simulation prepared by Acción Urgente para Defensores de Derechos Humanos A.C. (ACUDDEH), the Cerezo Mexico Committee and the National Campaign Against Forced Disappearance.

That article notes: “During the presentation of the document, the Office of Peace Brigades International (PBI) underlined its concern about the increase in the raid as a way to sow terror and exemplified it with the eviction carried out by the National Guard, in February of this year, against the House of the Altepelmecalli Peoples in Puebla.”

To hear the full comments by Sandra G. de Garmendia, coordinator of the Mexico office of PBI, go to 24:58 to 41:50 in this video.

The eviction of Altepelmecalli

La Jornada de Oriente has reported:

“At 1:20 a.m. on Tuesday [February 15], agents of the National Guard and the State Police evicted members of the Council of United Peoples of the Volcanes Region who had taken – in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla – the Bonafont water bottling plant – which is owned by the French consortium Danone – since March 22, 2021.

[Pueblos Unidos/United Peoples was formed by 20 Indigenous Nahua communities from the volcanic region in the state of Puebla, Mexico “to resist the colonization and depletion of their waters by Bonafont”.]

Eleven months [before the raid], residents of Juan C. Bonilla and 30 other communities in the region, taking advantage of the fact that March 22 is World Water Day, took over the Bonafont plant as part of a growing unrest against the bottler they accuse of having caused the wells of that municipality to run out.

Over the last year, this conflict became emblematic in Latin America for having managed to get the protest against Bonafont to the headquarters – in France – of the Danone Group and collectives from Europe, the United States and Canada, in solidarity in the struggle for the defense of water in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla.

It was learned that Bonafont had exerted strong pressure on the governments of the state of Puebla and the federal government to proceed with the eviction of its Juan C. Bonilla plant, which led this company to extract water from other wells clandestinely.”

Calls to boycott Danone

The Peoples’ Front of Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala has posted this statement on their Facebook page that concludes: “We call on all communities and people who defend the struggles for life and who believe that another world is possible, to mobilize and join the campaign of BOYCOTT the Bonafont company, through calls on social networks, talks, memes, stickers, manifestos, caricatures, graffiti, murals, songs, dances, plays and any possible means, telling people NOT TO BUY AND NOT TO CONSUME Bonafont water.”

Salvemos los cerros de Chihuahua has also signed this statement that concludes: “We invite the population not to support these companies and stop consuming the products of the French transnational Danone: Bonafont, Activia, Danonino, Vitalinea, dnp, Danette, Dany, Oikos and other range of junk food.”

Danone in Canada

Along with Bonafont, Danone’s water brands include Evian. Other Danone brands sold in Canada include Activia, Danette and Oikos.

Some of the Danone brands sold at a Loblaws grocery store in Ottawa.

Evian bottled water sold at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Ottawa.

We continue to follow this situation.

Additional reading

How Nahua Indigenous communities in Mexico took on Danone in defence of water and life by Marina Tricks

Indigenous activists launch global campaign against water bottling transnationals by Tamara Pearson

Glencore calls on Colombian police to remove Indigenous and Afro-descendant blockades at Cerrejón coal mine

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Indepaz.

On September 3, the London Mining Network tweeted: “Glencore has called on the police to remove protesters within 72 hours. Glencore needs to listen to the protesters and engage in dialogue, not repression.”

El Universal had previously reported: “Cerrejón asked the relevant authorities for the necessary actions ‘to be able to recover the normality of our operation’.”

El Cerrejon

Deutsche Welle has reported: “El Cerrejon is the biggest open-cast coal mine in Latin America, and one of the biggest in the world. It sprawls across more than 69,000 hectares, an area the size of 100 soccer fields, and gulps down 30 million litres of water every day in the barren semi-desert of Colombia’s second-poorest department, La Guajira.”

The Deutsche Welle article further notes: “Around 5,000 Wayuu children have died of starvation and thirst in the region around the mine.”

Rosa Maria Mateus Parra, a lawyer with the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), explains: “It’s caused by the shortage of water, because rivers and streams are contaminated, or have dried. And the lack of food because coal is now mined where indigenous communities grew their vegetables. Those children who survive have skin rashes and respiratory diseases because of the fine particle pollution.”

She adds: “We’ve proved all of this in court.”

The blockade

Two days ago, the London Mining Network also posted: “Wayuú and Afro-descendant communities, resettled and historically affected by the Cerrejón Limited open-pit coal mine, decided to block the southern part of the mining operation in La Guajira due to the non-compliance of Cerrejón Limited, today, September 1, 2022.”

They explain that the communities decided to begin the blockade “due to non-compliance with the agreements established with the resettled communities on issues such as access to water, in addition to issues related with the violation of ethnic rights in the municipality of Barrancas and the department of La Guajira due to the impacts of coal mining.”

The London Mining Network further notes: “The communities demand the presence of delegates from Glencore, the Swiss-based multinational mining company that owns the mine, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of the Environment, to reach an agreed solution.”

Still from Twitter video at one of the blockades.

Twitter video: “The only thing that coal exploitation has brought us is pollution, environmental damage, health damage, socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual damage… @CerrejonCol the only thing it has brought us is death” Jairo Fuentes – Governor’s Council of the Wayúu Reservation of Tamaquito II

Contagio Radio has also reported that the blockade began “because of the breaches by the mining company and the Colombian State to Judgment T-704 of 2016 and to another series of agreements that had been made in previous months.”

Prensa Latina further explains: “The demonstrators seek to discuss breaches of Sentence T-704, through which the Constitutional Court ordered the National Environmental Licensing Authority to review whether the comprehensive environmental management plan of the entire mining project is sufficient to counteract pollution, among other aspects.”

Calls to close the mine

In 2020, CCAJAR asked Vancouver Island-based UN Special Rapporteur David R. Boyd to call for “an immediate suspension of the mining operations of Cerrejón” and “in accordance with its Paris Agreement obligations, relevant in order to guarantee the human rights of the Wayuu people, the Colombian State should gradually eradicate coal mining.”

CCAJAR further highlighted the impacts of the mine on the human right to water and noted: “The impact of the mining operation in the dramatic transformations of the water system of [Wayuu] territory in the last 30 years is undeniable.”

Then in 2021, CCAJAR helped launch a constitutional action seeking the fulfilment of the right to participation for communities affected by the mine.

Their media statement explains: “The tutela action is a constitutional mechanism which allows any person to claim immediate judicial protection of their fundamental rights before a judge, at any time and in any place.”

It added: “These communities have suffered serious violations of human rights, affecting their right to a decent life, to water, to health, to food security and sovereignty, to information, to participation and to free prior and informed consent, among others.”

Exports from El Cerrejon to Canada

Numerous groups in Canada including the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network and MiningWatch Canada have also drawn attention to the fact that NB (New Brunswick) Power has been buying approximately 500,000 tonnes of coal from Cerrejón since the mid-1990s. Nova Scotia Power also imports coal from Cerrejón.

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CCAJAR since 1995.

On July 5, Javier Garate (PBI-Colombia) and Brent Patterson (PBI-Canada) met with CCAJAR lawyer Rosa Maria Mateus at her office in Bogota.

PBI-Honduras accompanies the National Encounter of Trans People

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Muñecas de Arcoiris.

On September 2, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“We recently accompanied different organizations of Honduran trans people during the ‘National Encounter of Trans People, We Lead, Let’s Make It Reality!’”

On Facebook, PBI-Honduras further notes that the full name of the meeting was: “National Meeting of Trans People. We Lead, Let’s Make It Reality! Towards the recognition of a Gender Identity Act and recognition of Sexual and Reproductive Rights”.

They also noted:

“Among other things, the participants reflected on the importance of passing a gender identity law, name change and other laws, protocols and public policies that promote and protect their human rights. They also recalled, through a public statement, the importance of the State complying with the reparations established by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH) for the Vicky Hernandez case.

From PBI we highlight the important work of organizations and individuals of the LGBTI+ community in demanding and defending their human rights. We recall that rights must be guaranteed for all people without any distinction.”

Photo by SOMOS CDC.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Arcoíris, the LGTB Association of Honduras since July 2015 and The Centre for LGTBI Development and Cooperation (SOMOS CDC) since January 2022.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS at meeting on the human rights situation in Barrancabermeja and Magdalena Medio

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 2, CREDHOS tweeted:

“A meeting begins with authorities and institutions from the Amnesty visit, to analyze the human rights situation in Barrancabermeja and Magdalena Medio, Iván Madero, President of Credhos, begins the dialogue, @amnistia International listens carefully to the entities and authorities.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

Council of State ruling allows Ecopetrol to carry out first fracking drilling in Puerto Wilches as early as October

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: On June 28, PBI-Canada met with a PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS convened meeting of social leaders in Puerto Wilches and heard their determination to stop fracking and to defend life, water and territory.

This week, the Council of State, the supreme judicial tribunal with jurisdiction over administrative issues in Colombia, ruled against an appeal to stop the fracking pilot projects in Puerto Wilches.

Semana reports: “The Council of State upheld its decision not to suspend the environmental requirements that were established in the regulatory decree of the fracking pilot projects in Colombia. The judicial corporation denied an appeal through which it was sought that, provisionally, they be left without effect during this mandate.”

The appeal was based on a November 26, 2021, order in which a request for the suspension of the fracking pilot projects was denied.

La FM further explains: “The determination implies that the decrees will remain in force as long as that is the will of the administration and until a substantive ruling on their legality is issued. The decree also allowed the signing of the first fracking pilot contract between Ecopetrol and the Government at the end of 2020, ‘thus starting the exploration process over a specific area: Puerto Wilches Santander.’”

And Infobae notes: “Thus, the ruling means that the decree that allows fracking pilots in Colombia, which was issued in November last year, will remain active. To reverse this regulation, it will be necessary for the Government of Gustavo Petro to issue new decrees with different provisions.”

Thus, their headline warns: Fracking pilots will continue in Colombia for the time being, the Council of State confirmed.

Petro government opposes fracking

The government of President Gustavo Petro – who was sworn into office on August 7 this year – opposes fracking.

On July 7, just weeks after he won the second-round election, Petro tweeted: “There will be no fracking in Colombia.”

And just after her appointment as environment minister, Susana Muhamad commented: “The door is closed to fracking in Colombia, we believe that going to look for the last remnants of gas generates more harm than good. We believe that fracking is not an alternative for a complex like Colombian ecosystems. We must accelerate the energy transition.”

The Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, has also stated: “Ecopetrol is going to have to get into the idea that there will be no fracking.”

And the Minister of Mines and Energy Irene Vélez has said: “We are going to review the status of the two pilot projects: Kalé and Platero. Both currently have situations in front of the environmental situation and it will be our commitment to fulfill the country that there will be no fracking, both from a research perspective.”

Drilling at Kalé next month?

Semana has noted: “Ecopetrol said in May that it expected to carry out the first drilling in Kalé in October of this year, while in Platero it would do so in the first quarter of 2023.”

We note that Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc. has highlighted that it “holds an undivided 30% non-operated participation interest in a Contract for Exploration and Production for Block VMM-37” where the Platero project would be conducted.

We also note that Toronto-based Scotiabank provided to Ecopetrol, the operator of both fracking pilot projects, USD $665 million in 2018, another $666.67 million in 2020, and $1.7 billion in 2021 for a total of $3.0 billion in financing.

Al Jazeera has reported: “Local environmental defenders [opposed to fracking] and a representative of the JEP [the Special Jurisdiction for Peace] told Al Jazeera that they suspected a connection between the paramilitary groups intimidating them and the state-owned Ecopetrol, which is behind the fracking project.”

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Honduras observes meeting between civil society and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 1, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“On Tuesday [August 30] we observed a meeting between civil society and @CIDH [the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] who was visiting #Honduras. We recall the importance of complying with the recommendations in the Vicky Hernández case and the cases of the communities #Garífunas Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra. #human rights.”

Criterio.hn has also reported:

“In the framework of the protocol visit to Honduras, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held meetings with human rights organizations, who brought to the attention of the entity issues related to impunity, criminalization and violations against the rights of indigenous peoples.

The delegations present yesterday, Tuesday, August 30 are: the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh), the Broad Movement for Justice and Dignity (MADJ), the Studies for Dignity Law Firm, members of the Tolupán tribe of San Francisco de Locomapa, the Alternative of Community and Environmental Claim of Honduras (ARCAH) and the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (Cofadeh), among others.

Copinh asked the IACHR to urge the State of Honduras to guarantee access to justice for victims of human rights violations during the processes of complaint, investigation, and prosecution of cases in an effective, prompt, and impartial manner and the punishment of those responsible at all hierarchical levels.

Likewise, it determined as “imperative to ensure the capture, prosecution and punishment of the intellectual authors of the murder of our colleague Berta Cáceres and all the human rights defenders murdered in Honduras.”

The MADJ, together with the Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad and members of the San Francisco de Locomapa tribe, informed the commission of five points related to access and implementation of justice, as well as the growing criminalization of defenders who face extractivism in the country.

The Broad Movement raised the impunity in which crimes against social fighters of the organization remain, the penal reforms that criminalize people who defend human rights and promote corruption, and the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and communities by extractive companies.

As well as the inefficiency demonstrated in the implementation of sentences that recognize human rights issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, thus perpetuating impunity. Likewise, they raised the absence of comprehensive channels of communication on the part of the current government, through which it assumes its role as generator and implementer of public policies that resolve structural issues, in broad dialogue with the people, not only with related or uncritical groups.

For its part, the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (Cofadeh) accompanied relatives and victims of human rights violations during the presentation of their cases to the IACHR delegation.

Among the cases shared on Cofadeh’s networks is that of the human rights defender and social communicator, Pablo Hernández, who was murdered in January of this year. The defender’s father, Natividad Hernández, told the IACHR delegation that the authorities had not investigated the whereabouts of the perpetrators of his son’s murder.

The environmental and social problems experienced by the inhabitants of Gualaco, Olancho, were also raised, after a timber businessman placed a chain to prevent the passage through the municipality. As well as the persecution and prosecution of the Nahua indigenous population for the same case, Cofadeh said in one of his publications from social networks.

The Alternative community and environmental claim of Honduras (ARCAH) submitted three letters of application regarding the case of the Employment and Economic Development Zones; water privatization in Honduras; and the case of the poultry company El Cortijo against the Choluteca River and the communities affected by its pollution.

During the protocol visit of the IACHR delegation to Honduras, Commissioner Stuardo Ralón, Executive Secretariat Tania Reneaum, and the technical team held meetings with authorities and conducted training with public officials and civil society regarding the rights of women, Afro-descendants, and indigenous people, the IACHR published.”

The full article can be read at: En visita de la CIDH a Honduras, solicitan instar al Estado a garantizar acceso a justicia.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS at meeting with Amnesty International and communities in Santa Rosa del Sur, Bolivar

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 1, CREDHOS tweeted:

“We began our day in Santa Rosa del Sur, Bolívar, listening together with @Amnesty International to peasant communities and organizations, victims, women, LGBTIQ+, peace signatories, Afro-descendants and people with disabilities.

They have expressed their concern about the high level of insecurity suffered by social and community leaders. They place special emphasis on the leadership that has defended the Serranía [mountain range] de San Lucas and the bodies of water; who have been victimized by armed groups.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) at Ecological Camp in Antioquia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by the Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra (ACVC).

On August 30, Semanario Voz reported: “In Yondó, Antioquia, the V Ecological Camp of the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley was closed with a political declaration that seeks to promote the protection of the territory, especially biodiversity in the San Lucas mountain range, defend the communities of Ampesins in resistance and promote the effective implementation of the Peace Agreement.”

That article also notes that Peace Brigades International (PBI) attended the Camp.

On August 13, ACVC tweeted: “#CampamentoEcológico ll Route of the Yellow Line – San Pablo Bolívar. This is how the first day of the 5th Ecological Camp progresses, in the village “For life, Peace and the Territory”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied ACVC-RAN, a social organization operating in 120 villages in the Magdalena Medio region, since 2007.

It has previously explained: “For more than twenty years the ACVC has been striving for a dignified life for peasant families affected by Colombia’s internal conflict. It promotes the implementation of the Peace Agreement as a strategy to achieve structural changes in the Colombian countryside. One of its prime initiatives is helping small farmers substitute coca leaf plantations with environmentally sustainable agricultural projects.”

You can find ACVC-RAN on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo by ACVC.

Photo by ACVC.

Photo by ACVC.

International Caravan of Jurists releases preliminary findings of its mission to Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Canada Board member Heather Neun (sitting second from the right in the front row) with the International Caravan of Jurists.

On August 21, the PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) posted:

“From August 20 to 28, 2022, 18 international jurists, human rights experts from eleven countries will be in Colombia for an intense week to undertake a fact-finding mission and advocate for the protection of lawyers, human rights defenders and their communities, to guarantee access to justice and truth.”

Heather Neun, representing Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and Peace Brigades International-Canada, participated in this VII International Caravan of Jurists.

Among many activities, Neun met with the PBI-Colombia accompanied the Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers Collective Corporation (CCALCP).

On August 30, Colombian Caravana, the British non-profit civil organization that has been organizing these Caravans biannually since 2008, tweeted about the preliminary findings of this delegation.

It summarizes: “One starting point is the concern about the lack of implementation of the Peace Accord, the continuity of the armed conflict, as well as the serious and increasing levels of violence perpetrated by illegal armed actors involved in drug trafficking and other criminal activities in the regions. Other key elements of the complex current situation include the high and rising levels of poverty and unmet basic needs of the communities, as well as the conflicts surrounding access to water, land and the presence of extractive projects that threaten water and other natural resources.”

Its findings include:

  1. Repression and criminalization of political participation and social protest.
  2. Attacks against the work of lawyers.
  3. Conditions in prisons and centres for temporary detention.
  4. Lack of access to justice for rural, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.
  5. Lack of judicial independence.
  6. Alarming increase in illegal armed actors.
  7. Insufficient implementation of the Peace Accord.

The 3-page document with these findings can be read in English here.

The overview notes: “These are the preliminary reflections of the VII Caravana, and the final report will be presented in due course.”

Further reading:

PBI-Canada Board member Heather Neun participates in VII International Caravan of Jurists in Colombia (August 22)

PBI-Canada Board member Heather Neun meets with CCALCP during VII International Caravan of Jurists in Colombia (August 24)

Photo: Neun along with other members of the VII Caravana meet with the Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers Collective Corporation (CCALCP).

Peace Brigades International marks the 41st anniversary of its founding

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI was founded on Grindstone Island at a meeting that took place from August 31 to September 4, 1981.

The founding meeting of Peace Brigades International began 41 years ago this evening on Grindstone Island, which is situated about 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, Canada on unceded Algonquin, Anishinabek territory.

Ironically, the lodge on Big Rideau Lake where that meeting took place had been built as a summer home for Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill, who had played a prominent role in founding the Royal Canadian Navy. It was his daughter, Diana, who made the home available after his passing to the Quakers as a retreat for peace studies.

In an April 2021 interview with PBI-Canada, PBI co-founder Daniel N. Clark commented: “We are like the street arm of Amnesty International”

In his overview of the founding meeting, Daniel N. Clark notes that Hans Sinn chaired the first session of the consultation on the evening of Monday August 31, 1981.

By Tuesday September 1, the discussion turned to the possible deployment of peace brigades in Guatemala and Mexico.

And by Friday September 4, the founding declaration of Peace Brigades International was adopted.

That declaration stated: “We are forming an organization with the capability to mobilize and provide trained units of volunteers. These units may be assigned to areas of high tension to avert violent outbreaks.”

Clark also recalls: “In Canada, Hans Sinn sent out a mailing [in 1982] funded by Murray Thomson’s Operation Ploughshares to over 1000 people, including Canadian organizations and peace churches, asking for volunteers and money. To assist in the effort, Hans had also been working on the formation of PBI-Canada, which was to become PBI’s first country group [incorporated as a non-profit organization in January 1984].”

PBI co-founder Hans Sinn at his home in Perth, Ontario, June 2019.

As the vision of the organization continued to take shape, the concept of unarmed accompaniment came into being in April 1985 in Guatemala.

As told in the book Unarmed Bodyguards and recounted here, Liam Mahony and Luis Enrique Eguren write that the need for personal accompaniment became clear after the murder of Mutual Support Group for Families of the Disappeared and the Detained (GAM) founder Maria Rosario Godoy de Cuevas.

Mahony and Eguren highlight: “This was the beginning of PBI ‘escorting’: providing the surviving GAM leadership with around the clock unarmed bodyguards.”

Fast forward all these years and our most recent annual review notes: “Throughout 2021 we accompanied 58 organizations, comprising 1,784 individuals – 883 of whom were women and 899 were men. These HRDs [human rights defenders] support 205,928 people in the work they carry out in defence of human rights across the world.”

It further notes: “Across all of our projects we carried out 984 accompaniments as well as office visits and international observation missions in both rural and urban settings to a variety of activities, including court hearings, humanitarian missions and workshops.”

For more on the ongoing work of Peace Brigades International, our annual reviews from 1990 to present can be found here

Murray Thomson’s role in the founding of PBI was highlighted in the slideshow commemorating his life, October 2019.

PBI co-founder Murray Thomson (second from the left) at a “Canada out of NATO” protest in Ottawa just  a few months prior to his death.

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