The Sonora State Human Rights Commission (Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos de Sonora-CEDH Sonora) has posted on social media:
“Protecting human rights defenders requires teamwork, constant dialogue and strong support networks.
For that purpose, the president of the CEDH Sonora, Lic. Cervando Flores Castelo, and staff of the State Commission of Human Rights of Sonora held a working meeting with the organization Peace Brigades International (PBI) Mexico to share experiences and explore mechanisms of collaboration that strengthen the accompanying advocates and civil society organizations.
During the meeting, the importance of generating coordinated actions that respond to the specific needs and contexts of those who carry out human rights defense work was discussed.
From the CEDH Sonora we continue to promote spaces for dialogue and cooperation that contribute to the promotion, protection and defense of human rights.”
PBI-Canada supports call to strengthen Protection Mechanism
PBI-Mexico and PBI-Canada continue to collaborate on advocacy strategies to highlight the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.
“Threats directed against social and political leaders constitute a serious violation of human rights and the exercise of democratic participation. In this context, PBI reaffirms the importance of guaranteeing security, protection, and the necessary conditions so that social and political leaderships, as well as human rights defenders in the Magdalena Medio, can carry out their work and exercise their rights without threats, intimidation, or acts of violence.”
This follows the Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) posting on social media:
“Less than 24 hours after the presidential elections, a pamphlet attributed to the ACSN circulated, declaring several people in the municipality as military targets, including social and political leaders linked to the Municipal Human Rights Committee, CREDHOS, and the Historic Pact.
These events are occurring in a context of high political tension and disputes over economic interests associated with extractive projects in the territory, including the possibility of enabling hydrocarbon exploitation through fracking.
We demand that the National Government and the departmental and municipal authorities immediately adopt effective measures to guarantee life, integrity, and permanence in the territory, as well as to advance investigations that allow these events to be clarified.
The defense of human rights and political participation must have full guarantees.”
The ACSN
CREDHOS has stated the Association of Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (ACSN) “represents a reconfiguration of the territorial dispute with the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), in the context of the internal armed conflict.”
“Economic powers that promote the deepening of extractive economies”
Justice for Colombia has noted: “Far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella broadly outperformed progressive senator Iván Cepeda in Santander. However, Cepeda won in two municipalities, Puerto Wilches and the city of Barrancabermeja. Activists fear the threats could be reprisals for results that saw Cepeda gain 55.6 per cent of the vote in Puerto Wilches, 20 per cent more than De la Espriella.”
CREDHOS further comments: “This threat, carried out within the framework of the presidential elections, represents coercion against members of the Historical Pact Political Party and an attack against the democratic exercise of political participation, intensifying the persecution of the left-wing social and political movement in the municipality of Puerto Wilches. where tensions currently exist between popular sectors and economic powers that promote the deepening of extractive economies, including the possibility of enabling hydrocarbon exploitation through fracking.”
Second-round vote, June 21
The first round of the presidential election took place in Colombia on Sunday May 31, 2026, with a second round about to take place on Sunday June 21, 2026.
WOLA has reported: “Far-right outsider candidate Albelardo de la Espriella secured 43.74% of the vote in Colombia’s first-round presidential election, setting up a June 21 runoff against leftist candidate Ivan Cepeda, who received 40.9% of the vote, following a collapse in center-right support. De la Espriella finished three percentage points ahead of Cepeda, a margin of approximately 670,000 votes.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), has called on the State “to take all measures necessary to ensure that the presidential election process can be completed, in particular by preserving the safety of all presidential candidates.” It has also reminded the State “of its obligation to ensure that citizens may fully exercise their political rights safely and on an equal footing.”
“’Our family has been fighting for 44 years to find out the whereabouts of our sister, and we’ll keep fighting until we know.’
Also this week, #PBI is accompanying the family members of #LuzLeticia during the oral and public hearings in the #casoluzleticiayotros case, which is being livestreamed by @verdadjusticiag [Truth and Justice in Guatemala]. Witness testimony, the presentation of documentary evidence, and expert reports are continuing.
The trial is expected to continue throughout June and the first half of July.”
From Canada, we are also following the court proceedings via the Truth and Justice in Guatemala Facebook page and Instagram account.
PBI-Guatemala accompanies Valentina Agustín, the mother of Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín, as well as Luz’s sisters, Marta and Mirtala.
PBI-Guatemala had also previously accompanied another sister during the 1980s before she had to go into exile in Canada.
Mirtala further explains to El Salto: “In 1987, my sister was a political exile in Canada, and my mother went to be with her. My sister took a job with the Canadian government, and with her salary, they decided to launch this legal battle. They hired legal counsel from the human rights law firm led by Edgar Pérez Archila, one of the attorneys handling several cases related to the genocide in Guatemala.”
Two years ago, Publico reported: “In addition to resolving their sister’s case, the family is fighting to create a museum that tells the story of repression in Guatemala. [Mirtala says] ‘We want the museum to be built in a military base in the capital, but the right wing is intransigent with this.'”
Luz Leticia Hernández Agustín studied at the Belen Institute, School of Commerce and Faculty of Economics of the University of San Carlos.
Verdad Justicia has posted: “Luz Leticia was born on November 22, 1957, the same day she was detained-disappeared, when she was 25 years old. Her family remembers her as a woman, she was a very intelligent, affectionate woman, such a beautiful smile and a hard worker.”
Mirtala has shared in an interview with El Salto that Luz Leticia was a member of Nuestro Movimiento (Our Movement). She explains: “The organization originated as a militant guerrilla group whose goal was to defend the people against poverty, abuses of power, and the actions of the security forces. In 1980, she had enrolled at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala; she was a certified public accountant and worked at the Army Bank. The university was under attack because many of its members—including professors, students, and leaders—were disappearing and being murdered. That was one of the reasons we believe my sister joined Nuestro Movimiento, which was like an insurgent group made up of young people from the capital who were challenging the security forces both in the capital and in the interior of the country.”
This movement kidnapped Jorge Mario Ríos Muñoz, the 19-year-old nephew of the de facto head of state at the time, Efraín Ríos Montt, on October 14, 1982. The objective was to exchange Ríos Muñoz for a comrade who had disappeared the previous month. UPI reports: “Rios Munoz was rescued unharmed in a shootout between police and his leftist kidnappers in Guatemala City.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has noted Luz Leticia and Ana Maria López Rodríguez were “captured on November 21, 1982, by security forces made up of elements of the special operations reaction battalion (BROE) and the intelligence service. (SIM) while they were at the address located in block 4, block “E”, lot 13 of the Monte Real II neighborhood, zone 4 of Mixco.”
On the accused, Prensa Libre also reports: “Cifuentes Cano was the director of a police division and worked closely with the Army in counterinsurgency operations during the de facto government of the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), as explained by the Prosecutor’s Office before the Fifth Criminal Court of First Instance. The ex-commander is accused of the forced disappearance of the university students Luz Hernández and Ana López, who 40 years later have still not been located.”
“On June 5, we visited @casaculturalpotosi [Potosi Cultural Centre] again alongside @justiciapazcolombia [Justice and Peace Commission], a community-led initiative that supports peacebuilding and cultural resistance among young people and children in Ciudad Bolívar through art and education.
This space was born out of the memory of teachers murdered for rescuing teenagers in Ciudad Bolívar, and today it continues to thrive with a community library, a communal kitchen, and a music collective, @cocinolproduce [Cocinol Produce Collective], which has its own rap recording studio. In the garden, the organization @engativacultiva [Sergio Engativa farms] works on environmental education and the propagation of native species to restore the subxerophyticecosystem of Cerro Seco.
During the tour, we reached the Palo del Ahorcado [Hanged Man’s Tree], a tree that symbolizes this resistance and has already survived two attempts to cut it down. We also had the opportunity to meet @emisoralaterraza [La Terraza Radio Station], a voice that, through artistic expression and grassroots communication, strengthens the community fabric of the area and contributes to the defense of Cerro Seco against mining interests and uncontrolled urban expansion.
At PBI Colombia, we continue to stand in solidarity with those who, through culture and memory, defend life and the territory in Ciudad Bolívar.”
PBI-Canada has previously highlighted this situation in these articles:
“For two decades, the Río Blanco community has played a key role in defending the #Gualcarque River, which is threatened by energy megaprojects.
Today, a land dispute is ongoing, and this Lenca indigenous community, located in the department of Intibucá, continues to defend the lands where they live and have farmed for years.
During our visit as PBI, we were able to observe firsthand the destruction of their crops and speak with the community about the harassment and threats they have suffered in recent weeks. For this reason, we emphasize the importance of the #righttoland for indigenous and peasant communities.”
On January 30, 2015, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) issued this condemnation of the Canjel dam and named “HYDROSYS (Canada)” along with Blue Energy.
On March 4, 2016, Telesur reported: “Two years after the [Rio Blanco] community set up a road blockade [in April 2013] to resist the foreign-backed Agua Zarca dam project on the Gualcarque River, Caceres and her fellow activists found out that Blue Energy planned to build a dam on another local waterway, the Canjel River.”
That article adds: “The community was never consulted about the project and COPINH publicly opposed the dam.”
Blue Energy said dam was in Santa Barbara
On March 9, 2015, Upside Down World reported: “When Blue Energy filed paperwork with Honduras’ Environmental Ministry, they listed the project as being located in the Municipality of Intibucá.”
“However, when the Environmental Ministry requested the company provide documentation of authorization to construct the dam in Intibucá, Blue Energy responded by simply claiming the dam was now in Santa Barbara. In this way, they avoided consulting the Indigenous people of Intibucá.”
That article adds: “In December 2014, Rio Blanco community members walked the borders of the Rio Blanco territory and found the dam being constructed; the Indigenous elders of Rio Blanco report the dam is partly in Lenca territory, in Intibucá.”
The Canadian company that built the dam
On March 7, 2016, the Honduras Culture and Politics blog also noted: “Recently, a new dam project in the same region, on the Rio Canjel, was awarded to a US firm, Rio Energy LLC, owned by Peter L. Ochs of Capital III, along with Canadian firm Hydrosys Consultants.”
That article highlights: “Hydrosys has sole responsibility for the planning and construction according to their own project description.”
Then on August 9, 2016, Radio Canada International (RCI) reported: “So far, the Canadian government has not made any statement concerning the case of Berta Cáceres, which is surprising since a company from this country, Hydrosys, has directly participated in the feasibility studies, plans and specifications for the construction, supervision, construction management and commissioning of the Canjel River hydroelectric project in the Lenca indigenous territory to which Cáceres was openly opposed.”
Police search for Caceres on bus en route to protest Rio Canjel project
The Honduras Culture and Politics blog adds: “On January 27 of [2016], a bus load of Rio Blanco protestors was stopped on their way to protest the Rio Canjel project by Honduran police in the community of Agua Caliente and the bus was searched for the presence of Berta Cáceres, who fortunately was not aboard the bus but rather back in Rio Blanco.”
Death threats from Blue Energy
Telesur has also reported: “Caceres warned on multiple occasions that she had received death threats and other harassment from state and corporate agents, including Canadian hydroelectric giant Blue Energy, as a result of her activism resisting unwanted development projects on Indigenous territory.”
That article adds: “Caceres made statements [in April 2015] claiming that ‘men close to Blue Energy’, a transnational Canadian company looking to build a dam in the Rio Blanco area in western Honduras, or people ‘close to politicians’ and ‘death squads promoted from government policies’ were behind the death threats leveled against her.”
On April 28, 2016, less than two months after Caceres was murdered, this media release stated: “CIMA+, one the largest Canadian consulting engineering firms, has recently merged with Hydrosys Consultants Inc., a firm specializing in engineering services for hydropower and hydraulic structures.”
Furthermore, CIMA+ notes on its Hydropower Construction, Honduras webpage that its client was “Blue Energy SA” and that “CIMA+ provided a complete range of engineering for the construction of the 3 MW hydropower project.”
That webpage adds: “CIMA+ also ensured work supervision. The final stages of the project were achieved with the support of a local partnership and technology transfer by CIMA+ experts to our client’s local employee. The project included a large concrete weir with a desander and a 4 km penstock leading to the powerhouse located 290 m below.”
PBI-Canada visits Lenca territory
PBI-Canada was present on Lenca territory in March 2026 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killing of Berta Caceres.
The European Council, comprised of the heads of state or government of EU countries, European Council President, European Commission President, is meeting for a two-day summit in Brussels this June 18-19, 2026.
The Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute has highlighted that the European Council will discuss the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2028–2034).
TNI notes: “The proposed Competitiveness Fund under the 2028–2034 MFF would allocate €131 billion to armament and space, around five times more than in the previous budget cycle [€28.97 billion in 2021-2027].”
They are calling on Members of the European Parliament and EU governments to reject the proposed €131 billion envelope in the MFF, to halt the militarization f the EU budget, and, among other demands, to “create a binding human rights, environmental and due diligence exclusion framework for EU funding, preventing public money from going to companies involved in war crimes, occupation, repression, genocide, environmental destruction or serious human rights abuses.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada takes note of this because in June 2025 Canada and the European Union signed a “Security and Defence Partnership” that, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated at the time, is “the intentional first step toward Canada’s participation in Security Action for Europe (SAFE), an instrument of the ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030.”
This week, CBC News further explained: “The European Parliament formally welcomed Canada into the defence borrowing and procurement agreement known as Security Action for Europe (SAFE) [on May 20, 2026], the only non-European country to join. The 150-billion euro [the equivalent of C$240 billion] program grants preferential access to defence contracts financed through low-interest loans. It’s part of a broader initiative aimed at reducing the continent’s military reliance on the United States. As the first non-European country taking part in SAFE, Canadian companies can partner with European peers to bid on joint projects and access favourable financing.”
In reference to European military spending, Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty describes Europe as a “major marketplace for us.”
This past February 2026, “Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy” highlighted Canada’s intention to: “Substantially increase financial support for export promotion efforts, and add new Trade Commissioners in the UK and key EU markets and ramp up Canada’s presence at major global defence and aerospace trade shows.”
The Government of Canada says this means “a stronger and more visible Canadian presence at major international defence and aerospace trade shows.”
This includes the ILA Berlin Air Show (June 2026 in Germany), the Eurosatory arms fair (June 2026 in France), the International Defence Industry Exhibition (September 2026 in Poland), the Defence & Security Equipment International/DSEI arms fair (March 2027 in Germany), and DSEI (September 2027 in the United Kingdom).
Some of the companies that attend these arms fairs are implicated in the list of Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide published by the American Friends Service Committee Action Center for Corporate Accountability.
We continue to follow this situation and to make the link between the export of weapons and the human rights violations committed by State-based actors against organizations, defenders and communities.
The newly formed Peace Brigades International-Southeast Asia Project has shared the video a presentation they did for the “Intersectionality as a Diagnostic Tool” webinar organized by PBI-Spanish State and PBI-Kenya.
Intersectionality is seen as vital to build inclusive protection systems given human rights defenders experience risks differently.
The PBI-Southeast Asia presentation highlights Angelika Moral, an Indigenous Lumad woman, a youth leader, a displaced learner, a human rights defender, a member of the Save Our Schools Network, and a supporter of the Talaingod 13.
The Lumad are situated across the Mindanao region in the southern Philippines. Talaingood is located about 100 kilometres north of Davao City, the third-most-populous city in the Philippines after Quezon City and Manila.
Inquirer.net has reported: “Over 200 Lumad schools were forcibly closed [between 2019 and 2022] upon the orders of then President Rodrigo Duterte, who had also threatened to [have the Air Force] bomb these schools in July 2017. He claimed that they had no permit from the Department of Education and were teaching children about communism and to oppose the government.”
PBI-Southeast Asia notes the Lumad school teachers and community educators were “red-tagged”, described as “a process – which falsely brands legitimate activists as terrorists – used to silence land and environmental defenders.”
Moral says: “We were deprived of free education and also of our ancestral lands. Because of this, more than 10,000 students were unable to continue their studies. Most of us were subjected to arranged marriages [to stop political activism].”
The news article continues: “Moral defended the Talaingod 13, saying they only tried to help the Lumad communities.”
Moral has also stated: “Years passed when the solidarity team rescued us, but we still could not move forward. Instead of going after the Alamara [paramilitary group] and the military, the government filed charges [in November 2018] against the likes of [Bayan Muna representative] Ka Satur [Ocampo] and [former Alliance of Concerned Teachers/ACT Teachers Party representative] Ma’am France [Castro].”
Bulatlat.com has also reported: “The Save Our Schools (SOS) Network declared that their Lumad schools were subject to militarization in Talaingod. Government soldiers and Alamara used these schools as temporary military camps, barracks, shelters, outposts, or storage of weapons and belongings…”
You can follow the Save Our Schools Network on Instagram here.
Extraction & conflict: Canadian mining in the Philippines
The Trade Commissioner Service of Canada has published on their website that there are six Canadian mining companies operating in the Philippines with $895 million of mining assets held in the country.
Defenders across Southeast Asia face militarization and repression
Global Witness and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) have reported: “Since 2012, the Philippines has been ranked as the deadliest country in Asia for people protecting land and the environment, with mining linked to a third of all killings documented by Global Witness. …The military has been linked to the highest number of documented killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines over the past decade. These abuses have gone unchecked.”
We additionally note that a delegation from the Philippines recently attended the CANSEC “defence, security & emerging technology event” this past May 2026 in Ottawa.
Malaysia and Thailand were also present at CANSEC 2026.
The PBI-Southeast Asia Project video can be seen here.
Photo: PBI-Canada and PBI-Honduras meet with the CNTC union in Tegucigalpa to discuss research topics of interest to them, March 2026.
The Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU) was launched in June 2025 as part of our longstanding commitment to the holistic protective accompaniment of human rights defenders.
The intent of this research unit is to generate information to connect the corporations, banks and pension funds located in the Global North with the companies involved/complicit in the attacks on the organizations, defenders and communities we accompany in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, in order to strengthen our advocacy efforts and overall protection strategies.
-53 human rights defenders who spoke out about business-related harms were killed in 2025 (BHRC).
-The Americas remain the most dangerous region for human rights defenders in 2025: 165 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia, 43 in Mexico, 13 in Honduras, and 10 in Guatemala (Front Line Defenders).
-The perpetrators of the killings of the 358 human rights defenders in 2025 are largely unknown; 159 of the killings were committed by unknown actors; 196 were allegedly committed by state and non-state actors (Front Line Defenders).
-There were 5 extra-judicial killings of workers and their representatives in the Americas, with 3 killings documented in Mexico, 2 killings in Colombia, and 1 forced disappearance in Mexico (International Trade Union Confederation).
And for the first time ever, we wrote a chapter in the Annual Federal Budget (AFB) 2026 published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The soon-to-be published AFB Defence chapter includes analysis and a series of recommendations based on a human rights and peace-building perspective.
Next steps
In the coming year we hope to continue to collaborate with other Peace Brigades International entities in the identification of priority research areas, the publication and amplification of that research, and to integrate that research more fully into advocacy and accompaniment strategies.
We acknowledge the support of the Unifor Social Justice Fund in enabling the formation, continuation and further development/strengthening of the Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU).
Peace Brigades International-Canada extends its solidarity, support and congratulations on these wins accomplished by organizations, defenders and communities.
PBI-Canada has been following with interest the Mexico-Canada Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Issues that took place in Ottawa on May 20, 2026. We have highlighted the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico, both in a preparatory call with Global Affairs Canada on March 27 and in a follow-up meeting with them held on June 15.
Both calls were organized by the Americas Police Group (APG).
In this follow-up meeting, we learned:
1-a topic of discussion at the Dialogue was freedom of expression and the protection of human rights defenders (about 30-40 minutes on the agenda)
2-the discussion acknowledged the growing threat to human rights defenders and journalists, including the context of disinformation
3-a “substantive discussion” on the Protection Mechanism took place during the Dialogue; this involved highlighting Canada’s “Voices at Risk” guidelines, and asking Mexican officials their understanding of how the Mechanism is working
4-the recommendations – developed by Espacio OSC and forwarded to Global Affairs Canada by PBI-Canada – to strengthen the Protection Mechanism had been shared with Mexican officials
5-the preferred method for Global Affairs Canada when it wants to financially support an issue of concern in Mexico is through a United Nations agency (e.g., $9.9 million in funding for United Nations-led projects to support migrant integration initiatives in Mexico and combat the illicit production and trafficking of fentanyl).
In this call, PBI-Canada noted that several reports on the situation in Mexico in 2025 had been released after the Dialogue that point to an ongoing and concerning situation: 43 human rights defenders killed (Front Line Defenders); 3 union activists killed, 1 disappeared (International Trade Union Confederation); 41 business-related attacks against defenders, with 30 of those attacks in the mining sector.
Global Affairs Canada noted that these reports are concerning, that they take them seriously, and that their role is to encourage Canadian companies follow the guidelines and standards for responsible business conduct. Their interest is for Canadian companies to be seen as good investors.
We will continue to follow the issue of the Protection Mechanism, the Canadian government’s elimination of the Canadian Office for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), and the process to update the “Voices at Risk” guidelines.
The next Mexico-Canada Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Issues is scheduled to take place in Mexico City in 2027.
