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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.

PBI accompanies the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Mexico accompanies the International Day march in Chihuahua.

On August 30, Peace Brigades International marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

The United Nations has explained: “Enforced disappearances is a crime which is generally committed by State agents through abduction and arrest, with victims often held in secret detention… Some are subjected to torture and summary execution, while their fate is kept secret, from families and society at large.”

Regrettably, Canada has not yet signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The Convention has been ratified by Honduras (2008), Mexico (2008) and Colombia (2012) as well as France (2008), Germany (2009), Spain (2009), Belgium (2011), Netherlands (2011), Switzerland (2016), Norway (2019) and numerous other countries listed here.

PBI-Mexico tweeted: “#PBI accompanies the march in #Chihuahua today, the International Day of #Forced Disappearance, where relatives and organizations defending #human rights demand justice.”

Twitter photo from PBI-Mexico.

PBI-Kenya tweeted: “Today we mark the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances, in #Kayole #Kenya.”

Photo: PBI-Kenya at Kayole 2 Social Hall for conversation on ending enforced disappearances. Photo by Missing Voices.

PBI-Honduras tweeted: “Within the framework of the National Day of the Detained and Disappeared and the International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearance, we want to highlight the important work of the organizations that work in the search for justice for the victims and their families.”

“I neither forget nor forgive”

Progress in Colombia

And PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Today, in the framework of the commemoration of the day against forced disappearance, the State accepts the competence of the UN committee of #Forced disappearances. Recognition of the great effort of human rights organizations and victims for justice and against impunity in Colombia.”

The United Nations further explains: “From the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, we celebrate the historic progress of the State of Colombia in accepting the competence of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to receive and examine communications from persons claiming to be victims of violations of the Convention provided for in Article 31. This decision contributes to the guarantee of the rights of victims of enforced disappearance and to the protection of all persons against this crime.”

Twitter photo from PBI-Colombia.

The Canadian Embassy in Colombia also tweeted: “On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, we stand in solidarity with those who continue to search for their loved ones, for truth and justice.”

Why hasn’t Canada signed the Convention?

Speculation as to why Canada has not signed the Convention includes the enforced disappearance of Indigenous children through the “residential school” system.

CBS has reported: “More than 150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government and sent to what were called Residential Schools.”

As of 2021, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, which holds the records gathered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), has documented 4,118 children who died at residential schools.

In September 2021, CBC reported that searches of at least nine former residential schools have found over 1,300 potential unmarked burials and that “ground-penetrating radar searches are in progress or investigations have been launched at approximately 17 former residential school sites, and discussions or consultations are ongoing at another 21 sites.”

In May 2022, CBC reported: “Preliminary information obtained through ground-penetrating radar in May 2021 showed there could be as many as 200 unmarked children’s burial sites near the [Kamloops Indian Residential School], though specialist Sarah Beaulieu later said she suspects the number could be much higher as only a small portion of the site was surveyed.”

“The Scream”: Painting by Cree artist Kent Monkman of state agents forcibly taking Indigenous children from their families.

On August 31 of this year, CBC reported: “Lawyers representing 325 First Nations — more than half of all recognized First Nations in the country —  are seeking to subpoena [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller to take the witness stand via Zoom and face questions on the sincerity of residential school-related statements they’ve made in the past.”

This past June, the Assembly of First Nations also noted: “AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald called for a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission Special Rapporteur to investigate crimes and human rights violations associated with Residential Institutions at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on April 25, 2022. UN Special Rapporteur Francisco Cali Tzay has told media he will visit Canada but is not mandated to investigate crimes related to Residential Institutions.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN as they denounce an unknown oily liquid spill in Caño Rosario

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 29, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “PBI accompanied the documentation of the spill of unknown chemicals that cause fish mortality and serious damage to pipes and swamps. Without #WATER there is no life.”

This follows the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) tweet that noted: “Today, August 26, 2022, Credhos and Fedepesan [the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Santander] denounce an unknown oily liquid spill in Caño Rosario, which flows into Ciénaga San Silvestre, where there is death of fish and contamination of the babillas, we make a call to the competent entities, be present.”

This CREDHOS video documents the spill.

Lise Josefsen Hermann has also written in EL PAÍS:

“A canoe glides slowly through the waters of the Ciénaga de San Silvestre, just outside Barrancabermeja in northern Colombia. On board are five fishermen who defy the dangers of a hot zone in every way: to the usual more than 30 degrees of temperature are added the challenges of an area with the presence of paramilitaries, the Clan del Golfo and the ELN guerrilla group. But these women, grouped in the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Santander (Fedepesan), have organized to defend the water from pollution in an area affected by two landfills and several industries, including a refinery of the oil company Ecopetrol, the largest company in Colombia.”

Her article can be read at: Amenazas y destierro: el precio a pagar por defender el agua en Colombia.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS as they tour with FEDEPESAN and Amnesty International endangered wetlands

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 29, the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) tweeted:

“#Credhos and #Amnesty International begin the tour with #Fedepesan [the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Santander] analyzing the environmental situation between the San Silvestre, El Llanito and Palota wetlands. Visiting the Manatee [an endangered marine mammal sometimes referred to as a sea cow] corridor.”

Reporting on a previous visit to the wetlands on June 30 (also with CREDHOS and PBI), Lise Josefsen Hermann writes in EL PAÍS:

“A canoe glides slowly through the waters of the Ciénaga de San Silvestre, just outside Barrancabermeja in northern Colombia. On board are five fishermen who defy the dangers of a hot zone in every way: to the usual more than 30 degrees of temperature are added the challenges of an area with the presence of paramilitaries, the Clan del Golfo and the ELN guerrilla group. But these women, grouped in the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Santander (Fedepesan), have organized to defend the water from pollution in an area affected by two landfills and several industries, including a refinery of the oil company Ecopetrol, the largest company in Colombia.”

The full article about the water defenders who risk their lives to protect these wetlands around the city of Barrancabermeja can be read at: Amenazas y destierro: el precio a pagar por defender el agua en Colombia.

Protests continue against the Maya Train in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: “Let’s protect the Mayan jungle” .Greenpeace Mexico protest against the Maya Train, March 28, 2022.

The Associated Press reports: “Mexico’s ambitious Maya Train project is supposed to bring development to the Yucatan Peninsula, but along the country’s Caribbean coast it is threatening the Indigenous Maya people it was named for and dividing communities it was meant to help.”

The article further highlights:

“It is one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s signature projects and has drawn objections from environmentalists, archaeologists and cave divers, who have held protests to block backhoes from tearing down trees and scraping clean the thin layer of soil.

As with his other signature projects, including a new airport in the capital and a massive new oil refinery on the gulf, the president exempted the train from environmental impact studies and last month invoked national security powers to forge ahead, overriding court injunctions.

For the largely Maya inhabitants of the village of Vida y Esperanza – a clutch of about 300 people and 70 houses whose name means “Life and Hope” – the train is going to run right by their doors. They fear it will pollute the caves that supply them with water, endanger their children and cut off their access to the outside world.

When marines showed up last month to start cutting down trees in preparation for the train on the edge of the village, residents who hadn’t been paid for their expropriated land stopped them from working.”

Photo: Greenpeace protest, July 18, 2022.

The route

Mongabay has reported: “The Tren Maya line is supposed to run 1,525 kilometers (948 miles) across Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Tabasco, Campeche and Chiapas, states with large Indigenous populations and high rates of biodiversity.”

Canadian connections

Vancouver-based Renaissance Oil Corp., Regina-based Sask Energy

El Pais has reported: “It is estimated that 70% of the revenues will result from the transport of cargo, largely from fuels (to serve the six gas pipelines in the southeast of the country) and products of the region’s thriving agribusiness, such as soybeans or pork.”

The Mexico City-based Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER) has also published The train of the elites that lists the companies and energy projects that would benefit from this megaproject.

Their report highlights (on page 34): “The main source of income for the Mayan Train will be the transportation of fuels, it seems clear that the Mayan Train will function as a platform infrastructure for the energy sector.”

It then notes: “If this is consolidated, the construction of the train will favor extractive energy projects in the region that have led to environmental and social conflicts and are largely owned by companies with Spanish, Canadian and US capital.”

The chart below from the PODER report notes Vancouver-based Renaissance Oil Corp. and Regina-based provincial Crown corporation Sask Energy Incorporated.

Quebec City-based Caisse de Dépôt

In July 2019, Milenio also reported: “Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said there are several Canadian companies interested in investing in the Mayan Train. … As for pension funds, Ebrard mentioned La Caisse dé depot a Quebec company that currently has an investment in Mexico of two billion dollars.”

The PODER report further explains (on page 19): “In recent years [Empresas ICA S.A.B. de C.V.] has gone through a strong financial crisis that has led it to accept foreign capital, as happened in 2015 with the signing of an association agreement with Canadian fund manager Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (“CDPQ”). The agreement establishes the formation of a business which initially involves four highway concessions between which is the Mayab Consortium, S.A. of C.V. (“Mayab”), which has the concession of the Mayab highway and through which the Mayan Train track.”

Montreal-based Bombardier Inc.

And Reuters has reported: “A consortium led by a unit of [Montreal-based] Bombardier Inc. won a bid for the rolling stock and rail systems for Mexico’s flagship ‘Mayan Train’ infrastructure project, the government said on Wednesday [May 26, 2021].”

Toronto-based Scotiabank

The Toronto-based Scotiabank has also been linked to the megaproject when it denied a media report that it had withdrawn from it, stating: “[Scotiabank] carefully analyzes the opportunities in public and private projects that are presented exclusively according to business criteria. This process in the project in question continues its course.”

Other Canadian companies?

In February 2020, EFE reported: “The director of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur), Rogelio Jiménez Pons, explained at the end of January the details of the tenders and indicated that there was interest from 85 companies. There were 65 national and 20 international from Spain, Canada, Portugal, Brazil and China.”

PBI accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has commented: “The organizations that we accompany continue to be concerned about [Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s] position on the rights of indigenous populations, given that his public discourse seems to respect their autonomy, but he continues to propose initiatives of megaprojects such as the Mayan Train or new mining investments.”

Many organizations have signed this open letter that states the consultation of Indigenous peoples on this megaproject did not meet international standards.

Among the groups that signed that letter are the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y Agua Morelos, Puebla y Tlaxcala; Centro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos “Fray Juan de Larios”, A.C.; Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC); and Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña, Tlachinollan, A. C.

The Maya Train is expected to be inaugurated in December 2023.

#SélvameDelTren

UN Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons to visit Mexico, August 29 to September 9

By
Brent Patterson
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The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted:

“UN expert Cecilia Jimenez-Damary will conduct an official visit to Mexico from 29 August to 9 September, to assess the human rights situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country.”

Their media release highlights: “Jimenez-Damary will visit Mexico City and the states of Chihuahua, Chiapas and Guerrero. She will meet senior Government officials, UN and other human rights, humanitarian and development organizations, civil society, IDPs and communities affected by internal displacement during her visit.”

Jimenez-Damary will present her preliminary observations on September 9 in Mexico City and then submit her comprehensive report to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2023.

Internally displaced persons

As of December 2020, there were approximately 357,000 internally displaced persons in Mexico, up from 8,000 people in 2009.

While some have been displaced by climate change and natural disasters, the majority have been displaced by organized crime groups fighting for control of territory rich in natural resources, including timber.

Social movements have called on the López Obrador administration to implement the necessary protection frameworks in this regard.

PBI-Mexico has also noted that the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights has highlighted that Chihuahua is one of the states with most episodes of internal forced displacement in the country.

CONTEC and ASMAC

The issue of internal displacement was raised on PBI-Canada-organized webinars by Diana Villalobos Diaz of the Community Technical Consulting (CONTEC) on April 2022, and by Isela Gonzalez of the Sierra Madre Alliance (ASMAC) in March 2021.

Both CONTEC and ASMAC are accompanied by PBI-Mexico.

Global Biodiversity Framework to be discussed in Montreal amid concerns about Afro-Colombian ancestral rights and title

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Berenice Celeita of the Association for Research and Social Action (NOMADESC) speaks at a meeting on the Afro-Colombian island of La Plata, July 3, 2022.

The COP15 biodiversity summit will take place in Montreal this coming December 5-17.

On July 1, Mongabay reported: “Finalizing the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is taking longer than expected and yet another round of negotiations – this time in Nairobi, Kenya [June 21-26] – ended without much progress, say members of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB).”

That article adds: “A final agreement is now set to take place at COP15 in December in Montreal, Canada.”

That article also cautions: “Indigenous leaders … are disappointed that the inclusion of language recognizing Indigenous and traditional territories in the final GBF is still up for debate after years of negotiations – as is majority of the IIFB’s proposals.”

Target 3 – 30×30

The 30×30 conservation proposal is target 3 of the GBF.

In short, the proposal says at least 30 percent of the world’s land and sea area important for biodiversity should be protected by 2030.

Image from The Conversation.

Significantly, Mongabay notes: “The first draft GBF targets contained no effective safeguards to protect the lands, rights and livelihoods of IPLCs [Indigenous peoples and local communities] in conservation programs or protected areas, say Indigenous leaders. Since then, Indigenous groups have been calling for the full recognition of their rights over their lands, waters, and territories within the GBF.”

The article also warns: “Many Indigenous leaders and human rights advocates say this goal may lead to the mass eviction of Indigenous and local communities for the creation of more protected areas.”

Then in August, Sofia Monsalve (FIAN International) and Georgina Catacora-Vargas (Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology) highlighted: “This ‘fortress conservation’ approach has already been tried, and it was shown to lead to systematic violations of local communities’ rights. By deploying such strategies, governments risk sidelining precisely the people who live closest to the ecosystems that we are trying to protect, and who play a critical role in sustainably managing those resources to preserve their own livelihoods.”

They add: “Governments need to look beyond ‘30 x 30’ and ‘nature-based solutions’ to put human rights at the center of the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

Celebrities appear to endorse 30×30

Concurrently, a proposed Global Ocean Treaty was discussed at the United Nations in New York on August 15-26.

A list of celebrities, including Alec Baldwin, Javier Bardem, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley and Helen Mirren, concerned by the lack of progress on this Treaty, have signed this joint letter that says: “A weak Treaty, or any further delay, would make 30×30 practically impossible. This would be a slap in the face for all those who have put faith in political leaders actually keeping their promises.”

Concerns

In August 2021, 49 organizations expressed concern with the 30 x 30 initiative, warning: “The Framework’s focus on ‘protected areas’ will likely continue to lead to human rights abuses across the globe.”

One of the signatories, the Swift Foundation, said: “How it’s working right now is a militarized form of conservation. You have guards with guns, people imposing fines, building fences and kicking people out of their traditional lands. And if communities react in defense they are perceived as anti-conservation.”

And in her critique of 30×30, Sophie Grig of Survival International says: “Up to 300 million people could be directly displaced and dispossessed. Many will be Indigenous people, who have protected their lands for millennia. Those who have done the least to damage the environment, stand to lose the most. Because they rely on their lands for survival – eviction from these will be completely devastating for them.”

The example of Bahía Málaga, Colombia

On July 3, PBI-Canada joined with a Canadian labour delegation on a visit to the island of La Plata (off the coast of Buenaventura) and heard from the Afro-Colombian community of Bahia Malaga on the threat of “conservation” to ancestral and collective rights.

As they seek to confirm their title over this territory and continue to oppose a deepwater port (see Megaport vs Megadiversity, November 2006, as well as a possible expansion of the existing Colombian naval base, see Plan Pacifico and U.S. Military’s Presence in the Greater Caribbean Basin), they are concerned by the proposal of a maritime park that would leave out the proposed port but include their islands.

IPS has previously reported: “The community’s collective title to the land, which was officially recognised in 2003, covers 7,703 hectares. But the community hopes it will be granted title to the entire bay — a total of 36,600 km.”

A 30×30 conservation-backed maritime park on paper would appear to protect this bay (and the whales, dolphins and biodiversity of this bay), but in practice undermine the Afro-Colombian assertion of these waters as part of their collectively owned territories.

We continue to follow this situation.

Glossary with photos

The International Labour Organization’s Convention 169, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, entered into force in 1991.

Law 70, that officially recognized Afro-Colombians as a distinct ethnicity and provided a legal foundation for the defense of Afro-Colombian territorial rights, was signed in 1993.

Decree 1745 of 1995 “recognizes the right of Black communities to collective ownership of the idle lands (baldíos) that have been historically occupied by these communities in the coastal areas of the rivers forming the Pacific basin and in other areas of the country.”

The territory of the Bahía Málaga Community Council of La Plata has an area of 38,037 hectares + 1,364 m² and is made up of the village of La Sierpe with the Secadero and El Tigre farmhouses, the village of La Plata with the farmhouses of Santa Rita, Pital, Camaronero, Mangaña, Cabezón and Mayordomo, and the Miramar village.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS at regional meeting of women human rights defenders in San Pablo, Sur de Bolívar

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 26, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“The voice of women: @Credhos_Paz develops in South Bolivar regional meeting of women leaders and defenders of #human rights. Building training spaces for differentiated protection and accompaniment.”

CREDHOS has also tweeted: “In San Pablo, South of Bolívar, the Regional Meeting of Women for the Training, Protection and Accompaniment of Human Rights Defenders will be held on August 25 and 26.”

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

For more on the work of CREDHOS, please see the PBI-Colombia overview here.

PBI-Honduras attends presentation of draft report on agrarian conflict in Aguán valley

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 25, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“[We] recently attended the presentation of the draft of a report on the agrarian conflict in Aguán, carried out by @CESPAD_HONDURAS [Centro de Estudio para la Democracia / Study Center for Democracy]. We emphasize the importance of investigating the conflict and reflecting on possible democratic ways of resolving it.”

In December 2021, Reuters explained:

“On July 3, Juan Moncada, a leader of a Honduran agricultural cooperative, sat down with his wife, Esmilda Rodas, and told her: “They’re going to kill me.”

Three days later, gunmen shot Moncada dead outside a bank in Tocoa, a small city in the fertile Aguán Valley near Honduras’ Caribbean coast. For a decade, the couple, their family and their cooperative have been struggling to reclaim land in this region where they once grew food crops but that is now dominated by large landowners and sprawling, lucrative palm plantations.

His murder is part of a free-for-all in northern Honduras that pits peasants, landowners, public and private security forces, criminal gangs and government officials against one another.

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.

The result, say those who monitor the region, is a legal and social vacuum increasingly filled by violent criminals and abandoned by locals who find the valley unlivable.

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.

The 146 victims tracked by the Aguán Human Rights Observatory, a local monitoring group, include more than 100 farmers, 16 private security guards, a judge, a police officer, and a handful of collateral victims, including a 13-year-old boy.

The conflict in the Aguán, named after the river that shapes the valley, festered as land here grew ever more profitable. Oil from the small red palm fruit is an increasingly common staple of the global food, personal care and biofuels industries. Palm oil exports from Honduras, now trailing only those of coffee and bananas, last year totalled almost $380 million.

In a region where many once relied on subsistence farming, palm has overtaken much of the fertile terrain, creating food shortages and a reliance on outside sources for nourishment, agronomists say. Palm has also altered the topography, making the land more susceptible to drought, floods and crop damage, especially during increasingly powerful hurricane seasons. More than half the population of the Aguán Valley, Honduran government data show, lives in extreme poverty and has trouble putting food on the table.”

The full feature article can be read at: How a bloody land feud in Honduras is stoking migrant flight to U.S.

On August 23, CESPAD tweeted: “Yesterday, CESPAD socialized the draft report ‘Agrarian conflict in Aguán: its structural causes, the dynamics of the confrontation and the prospects for a democratic solution’.”

PBI-Honduras observes presentation of amparo appeal in the disappearance of four Garifuna social leaders

By
Brent Patterson
-

On August 24, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“Today we observe the presentation of an appeal for amparo [remedy or action for the protection of constitutional rights] against the Attorney General for omission in the investigation of the crime of forced disappearance suffered by four social leaders of the community #Garífuna of Triunfo de la Cruz in July 2020.”

Photo: Anti-riot police outside the Honduran Supreme Court as Garifuna leaders arrive to present the legal petition.

The PBI-Honduras Twitter thread also noted:

“Yesterday we met with the lawyer Edy Tábora from @BufeteBJP [Justice for the Peoples Law Firm], who highlighted the importance of clarifying these events, which occurred more than two years ago.

Through @ofraneh [the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization], the Garífuna people defend their ancestral territory against the planning of tourism projects. In 2015, the @CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] found #Honduras responsible for the violation of the right to collective property to the detriment of two Garífuna communities.

Recently, the Public Ministry opened a criminal investigation against Miriam Miranda of @ofraneh, the lawyer Edy Tábora and the minister Luther Castillo [an Indigenous Garifuna physician and the Secretary of Science, Technology, and Scientific Innovation], for an action carried out at the MP’s facilities to claim the ancestral rights of the Garífuna people.”

Criterio.hn reports: “The disappearance of the president of the board of trustees of the community of Triunfo de la Cruz, Alberth Sneider Centeno Tomas; together with Suami Mejía García, Gerardo Róchez Cálix and Milton Martínez Álvarez it happened more than two years ago, and to this day the authorities continue to keep a hermetic silence about the case.”

The full Criterio.hn article on the amparo presentation can be read at: Ante negligencia del MP, presentan amparo para garantizar investigación por desaparición de jóvenes Garífunas.

Telesur also reports on this at: OFRANEH Presents Legal Disposition Against Honduran Prosecutor.

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