Home Blog Page 241

All Rights for All network in Mexico issues urgent action for two People’s Front members after break-in at their home in Puebla

By
Brent Patterson
-

Miryam Vargas Teutle and Juan Carlos Flores Solís.

The National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations All Rights for All (Red TDT) has posted this Urgent Action about the security situation for two members of the People’s Front in Defense of the Land and Water (FPDTA).

Red TDT notes that the home of Miryam Vargas Teutle and Juan Carlos Flores Solís in Santa María Zacatepec, Puebla was broken into.

Miryam Vargas Teutle is a Nahua indigenous communicator and woman human rights defender from the Choluteca region. Juan Carlos Flores Solís is a lawyer, human rights defender and former political prisoner.

Red TDT notes the break-in “represents a danger to their physical integrity and their lives.”

The Urgent Action highlights:

“When they arrived at their home, they noticed that someone entered violently: they broke the fence and the lock on the door and stole some objects.

They point out that there are other valuable belongings, however, they did not take them, so they rule out that it is a common robbery. Personal items were also stolen, such as a family photograph of a portrait holder and some documents; the assailants placed a household knife on the bed and cut a tree in the garden.”

The Red TDT calls “on the authorities to guarantee security and cease attacks against those who defend the land against projects that affect communities and investigate those responsible for this aggression.”

For more, please see Acción Urgente: Allanamiento pone en riesgo la vida de integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua (FPDTA) en Puebla.

The FPDTA works together with Nahua communities in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala to protect the rights of 22 communities impacted by megaprojects, including the PIM gas pipeline, river aqueduct and thermoelectric plant megaproject.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has accompanied the FPDTA Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala since 2020.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs in Toronto to speak to RBC annual shareholders meeting

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo from IndyBay.org.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs travelled from their unceded territories in northern British Columbia to Tkaronto to speak to the RBC annual shareholders meeting about that bank’s financing of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) fracked gas pipeline now being constructed on their territory without free, prior and informed consent.

But on the morning of the shareholders meeting, the Unist’ot’en Camp tweeted: “RBC canceled the entire in person part of their AGM in Toronto today, in order to prevent Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs from attending.”

Stand.earth explains:

“With an estimated $6.6 billion CAD price tag, RBC is the top commercial bank providing the Coastal GasLink pipeline with working capital, while acting as financial advisor for the pipeline, despite lacking consent from Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.”

They also highlight:

“At a February 25 landmark meeting between Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and RBC executives, Chiefs closed with a gut wrenching video of the years of police violence, arrests, raids, and harassment which continues to this day.

The RBC-financed Coastal GasLink pipeline has brought a rise in police violence against Indigenous land and water defenders, with Canadian federal police spending topping $21 million CAD in Wet’suwet’en territory alone.”

The Coastal GasLink pipeline is being built by Calgary-based TC Energy.

Gidimt’en Checkpoint also retweeted this Banking on a Better Future tweet that reports: “@RBC shareholders have voted to re-elect all 13 current directors, including Thierry Vandal, who sits on the board of @TCEnergy. Reminder: not only does RBC finance TC Energy’s CGL pipeline, it shares executive membership with them.”

This occurs at a pivotal time.

On February 6, the Terrace Standard reported: “Coastal GasLink has resumed preparations to tunnel under the Morice River [Wedzin Kwa].” At that time, a CGL spokesperson said: “Preparation work has resumed over this past month. We expect that the micro-drilling will take place starting this spring.”

PBI-Canada was present on Wet’suwet’en territories in November 2021.

We continue to follow this situation.

Photo: Among the solidarity actions across the country today, there was this protest at an RBC branch in Ottawa.

Stand.earth image.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Guapinol Resists as they seek freedom cards weeks after their release from arbitrary detention

By
Brent Patterson
-

On April 7, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “PBI accompanies @guapinolre [Guapinol Resists]. Defenders of human rights still do not have definitive freedom cards, so the @MP_Honduras [Public Ministry] could reopen the file. They share their concern about the environmental consequences of Lenir Pérez’s projects in the area.”

Last month, Criterio also reported: “Guapinol’s defenders have still not received their letters of freedom from the Trujillo Court.”

That article further explains: “This is a situation that recently caused harm to the defenders, who were arrested by agents of the National Police when they were going to the National Registry of Persons to process their new national identification documents, the lawyer of the Justice for the Peoples law firm, Kenia Oliva, told Criterio.hn.”

“Oliva said they have been requesting the issuance of the eight letters of freedom to the Trujillo Court since February 28. To date, the Tribunal has not fulfilled its responsibility.”

The article also notes: “Peace Brigades International expressed its concern at the detention of the defenders of the Guapinol River in a police post for not having yet received their letters of freedom. ‘The defense of human rights must be able to be carried out in conditions of freedom and security,’ the organization published.”

At that time, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “The defenders have not received their freedom cards [and] no progress in reparation for damages and investigation of arbitrary detention.”

The struggle against the Los Pinares iron oxide mine

Guapinol Resists opposes the Inversiones Los Pinares open-pit iron oxide mine in the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park.

When the company began building an access road to the planned mine site in March 2018, the tap water in Guapinol turned brown and thick with muddy sediment.

By August 2018, the community established a Camp in Defence of Water and Life that blocked the construction of the access road.

Then in October 2018, more than 1,500 police officers and military personnel began the forceful expulsion of the protest camp – and the criminalization process against the Guapinol River defenders began.

That includes the defenders who are still waiting for their freedom card.

It has now been weeks since the Constitutional Chamber annulled on February 10, 2022, their convictions, and after finally being released from prison on February 24, 2022, after 914 days of arbitrary detention.

Lenir Pérez and Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP)

Guapinol Resists has stated: “Lenir Pérez and his wife Ana Facussé, daughter of the late Honduran oligarch and businessman Miguel Facussé, are the owners of ILP. Lenir Pérez is a businessman previously linked to the execution of construction contracts illegally granted by the government of President Hernández (Global Witness 2017).”

EFE has also reported: “Los Pinares has installed a processing plant for iron oxide pellets in the municipality of Tocoa, department of Colón and has requested an ‘expansion of the area of the concession from 100 hectares to 1,000 hectares.”

We continue to follow this situation from Canada.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Justice and Peace Commission press conference that tells Supreme Court of Justice: “Don’t extradite the truth”

By
Brent Patterson
-

On April 7, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “The information of those responsible for serious crimes and violations of human rights is essential to consolidate peace completely. @Justiciaypazcol [Justice and Peace Commission] @SomosGenesisCol [We are Genesis] ‘If the truth is not known there will be neither justice nor reparation’”

Yesterday, Reuters reported: “Colombia’s Supreme Court of Justice on Wednesday approved the extradition to the United States of accused drug kingpin and Clan del Golfo crime gang leader Dairo Antonio Usaga, known as Otoniel. [Otoniel’s lawyers] argued he should be included in a special tribunal [the Special Jurisdiction for Peace/JEP] convened under the auspices of a 2016 peace deal. Otoniel was willing to divulge details of collaboration between some military officials and illegal armed groups, his lawyers said.”

Today, SomosGenesis posted:

“We came to Bogotá with the purpose of being heard, particularly by the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Transitional System.

We came to hear our opinion on the suspension of the extradition of Dairo Antonio Üsuga, alias Otoniel, former commander of the Gulf Clan of the AGC.

We came because our writings seem to be insufficient.

Our women victims of sexual violence don’t matter. Our disappeared and murdered don’t matter. Our recruited children and youth don’t matter. The exclusion and this continuity of war and violence every day in our territories does not matter.

Our displacements or confinements do not matter. The destruction of our forests, waters, animals, does not matter. That doesn’t matter.

Crimes against humanity don’t matter.

We ask to suspend extradition.

We never said not to be tried for crimes in the United States.

Peace are truths that the country must know, it must know the names of some businessmen, sectors of the military and police sectors, sectors of politicians who in our territories use the Gulf Clan, those are the faces and names that the country must know.

The JEP should not urge the Supreme Court of Justice, it should condition, and request the suspension of Otoniel’s extradition until justice is done here, not revenge either with Otoniel, nor with the military, nor police, nor businessmen nor politicians nor perhaps the justice apparatus that are implicated. It is that with the truth we can move as a country to peace.”

8am Press Conference via @Contagioradio1: @Justiciaypazcol and communities. One of the core points of the Peace Agreement is #EsclarecimientoDeLaVerdad [Truth Clarification] and the centrality in victims of serious human rights violations, they all legitimately claim that #NoExtraditenLaVerdad [Don’t extradite the truth].”

Inuk land protector opposed to Canadian government approval of Bay du Nord deepwater oil drilling megaproject

By
Brent Patterson
-

Amy Norman: “We’re the people of ice and snow. That’s who we are and that’s who we’ve been since time immemorial. Destroying the ice is destroying us.”

On April 6, The Narwhal reported: “Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has approved a major deepwater production project.”

“The Bay du Nord project proposes to extract up to one billion barrels of crude oil from the seabed about 500 kilometres northeast of St. John’s. There, in depths ranging from 300 metres to 1,200 metres, owners Equinor, of Norway, and Husky Energy (now owned by Cenovus), of Canada, hope to operate for up to 30 years.”

The article published in The Narwhal also notes: “Several environmental and Indigenous groups wanted the project rejected. In mid-March, Amy Norman of Labrador Land Protectors told a media briefing hosted by Sierra Club, that approving Bay du Nord would put the country on the wrong trajectory.”

Norman is an Inuk and an active member of the Labrador Land Protectors and Grand RiverKeeper. (The Sierra Club has noted: “She’s faced charges and even been arrested on Parliament Hill for trying to protect the Grand River from the destruction caused by large-scale hydro dams.”)

She says: “The world is changing and climate change is already here … Already we’re seeing impacts here in Labrador and in Newfoundland: unreliable sea ice, warming temperatures, more frequent storms, unpredictable weather. It’s already impacting our ways of life and it’s already changing how we live on these lands.”

“We’re the people of ice and snow. That’s who we are and that’s who we’ve been since time immemorial. Destroying the ice is destroying us.”

She has further emphasized: “Investing in oil and gas is violence against these lands and waters and it perpetuates the cycles of destruction and colonialism. Climate destruction is already disproportionately impacting the north.”

And she has told APTN: “I want to be able to teach my grandchildren how to ice fish. If we continue to pursue oil and gas, if we continue to greenlight and greenwash these horrible polluters, my grandchildren will have nothing to inherit. There won’t be any ice to fish on. And as an Inuk, I cannot sit by while that happens.”

Bay du Nord is expected to begin extracting oil in 2028.

Canadian military budget set to increase by $8 billion this year to $32.3 billion

By
Brent Patterson
-

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The CBC reports: “The federal budget is expected to pour up to $8 billion in new money into the Department of National Defence.”

With $24.3 billion already budgeted for the military in 2021-22, this could push spending to $32.3 billion this year and if maintained $40.7 billion in 2026-27.

The article adds: “A senior government source, speaking on background, said that the budget’s billions of dollars in new defence spending will be over and above the increases the Liberal government committed to in its 2017 defence policy.”

In 2017, the government committed to increase annual military spending from $18.9 billion in 2016-17 to $32.7 billion in 2026-27.

Over a 20 year period, it has said it will spend $553 billion on a cash basis.

The CBC adds: “The source said the budget measures to be announced [April 7] are expected to bring Canada’s defence budget to 1.5 per cent of GDP and are intended to demonstrate ‘a real effort’ toward hitting the long-established two per cent target.”

NATO calculates that Canada spends 1.36 per cent of its GDP on the military.

David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says Canada would have to spend an additional $17-billion annually to reach its 2-per-cent commitment.

That would bring it to $41.3 billion this year.

The Business Council of Canada (formerly known as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives) has also called on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to increase military spending to 2 per cent in this upcoming federal budget.

On March 28, Defence Minister Anita Anand and Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi announced the government would begin final negotiations with Lockheed Martin to purchase 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

The purchase price is expected to be $19 billion but their cost over a 30 year period have been estimated to be $76.8 billion.

It is believed the negotiations could take seven months and that a contract could be signed with Lockheed Martin by November.

In its recent statement on the war in Ukraine, Peace Brigades International highlighted: “Billions more spent on weapons will not make the world safer.”

PDAC mining convention coming to Toronto, June 13-15

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention will be happening in Toronto this coming June 13-15.

Their searchable exhibitor directory notes that the following companies will be participating in this convention:

MCC Mining Corporation (Booth 2750)

The PBI-Colombia accompanied Justice and Peace Commission has helped to amplify solidarity actions in support of Embera opposition to mining on their lands.

They have shared an open letter that states: “We know that the Minera Cobre SAS and by extension the Canadian MCC [Minera Cobre de Colombia] Mining Corporation, are heirs of the militarization and terror unleashed for the benefit of the Muriel Mining Corporation.”

Further reading: Embera reject mining on their lands, say that any investment would be “stained with our blood”

GCM Mining Corp. (Booth 2310)

PBI-Colombia has noted: “The abundance of natural resources in [Antioquia] and the arrival of multinational companies, such as the Canadian Gran Colombia Gold [that operates the El Silencio, Sandra K, Providencia and Carla mines in the Segovia-Remedios area along with interests in three other mines in Colombia], has provided the illegal armed groups who are present in the region with an extremely lucrative funding source in mining.”

On September 2, 2011, Father José Reinel Restrepo was murdered reportedly because of his opposition to the Gran Colombia Gold proposal for a vast open pit mine that would destroy the town of Marmato, Caldas.

Further reading: PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA on second day of gathering of peasant mining communities

Alamos Gold Inc. (Booth 2722)

The PBI-Mexico accompanied People’s Front in Defence of Water and Land – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala has stated: “[Mexican President] Lopez Obrador betrays the peasant and the promise of change of his government, to favour transnational corporations [including] Canadian miners like Alamos Gold, among others.”

Alamos Gold reactivated work on their Esperanza open-pit gold mine in 2020. That mine is located near the communities of Tetlama and Cuentepec in the state of Morelos. That is about 70 kilometres west of Huexca and the site of the controversial thermoelectric plant that is part of the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) opposed by the Peoples Front.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanied People’s Front in Defence of Water and Land notes concern about Toronto-based Alamos Gold

Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (Booth 1131)

On March 2, 2012, residents from San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc – an area known as La Puya, just north of Guatemala City – set up a 24-hour a day blockade at the entrance of the Vancouver-based Radius Gold Inc. El Tambor mine.

By August 2012, the Canadian company sold El Tambor to US-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates, but retained an economic interest in the mine (including quarterly royalty payments on the gold production from the mine).

Further reading: PBI-Guatemala accompanies Peaceful Resistance of La Puya at 10th anniversary of blockade against gold mine

Orogen Royalties Inc. (Booth 3040)

The PBI-Mexico accompanied ASMAC accompanies the Indigenous community of Coloradas de la Virgen in the Sierra Tarahumara region of Chihuahua.

Indigenous Rarámuri defender Julián Carrillo spoke against the environmental impacts of a concession near his community granted to a Canadian mining company without free, prior and informed consent just a week before he was murdered in October 2018.

This civil society statement highlights that the concession was given to Vancouver-based Evrim Resources Corp (now named Orogen Royalties).

Further reading: PBI accompanied defenders speak about the impacts of Canadian mining in Mexico.

Beyond these mining companies, the Government of Colombia National Mining Agency (Agencia Nacional de Minería) will also have an online exhibit at PDAC.

We will be looking to the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network for updates on Toronto-based organizing in response to this convention.

Photo: MISN posted this photo of a “Blood On Your Hands” banner unfurled at the PDAC convention in 2020.

Justice and Peace Commission says Gran Tierra has ignored territorial autonomy of the Cabildo Ksxa ́w Nasa in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
-

On April 6, the Justice and Peace Commission posted:

“In the last two weeks, the Canadian company Gran Tierra Energy has ignored the territorial autonomy of the Cabildo Ksxa ́w Nasa that lives between the municipalities of Puerto Asís and Puerto Caicedo, Putumayo.”

Calgary-based Gran Tierra Energy Inc. is “a company focused on oil and gas exploration and production in Colombia and Ecuador.”

The Justice and Peace Commission further notes: “Operating companies and contractors of Gran Tierra entered the territory of the council without consultation, installing equipment and elements for the realization of environmental studies, has made tours and examined species of fauna, and flora of vital importance for the Nasa people.”

Their full statement is at Empresa Gran Tierra Energy desconoce derechos de Pueblo Nasa.

Danilo Rueda, Justice and Peace Commission national coordinator.

Justice and Peace has also highlighted the military repression that resulted in Nasa leader Victor Campo being wounded and Yordan Rosero Estrella being killed last year.

Their report on that May 31, 2021, incident noted: “Today at 5:30 am in the municipality of Villagarzon, department of Putumayo, protesters tried to enter the Costayaco field owned by the [Canadian] oil company Gran Tierra Energy, in order to block its operation.”

Still from National Organization of Indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC) video.

Justice and Peace also accompanies the Perla Amazónica Peasant Reserve Zone (ZRCPA) near Puerto Asis, which is about 200 kilometres northwest of Puerto Leguizamo.

The Guardian has reported: “Jani Silva [of the ZRCPA] says she has seen firsthand the effects of big business in Putumayo, where, she believes, oil companies ‘exploit irresponsibly’ and contaminate the environment.”

Jani Silva with PBI-Colombia.

Both Villagarzon and Puerto Asis are in the proximity of Puerto Leguizamo where the military killed 11 community members, including Indigenous Quechua governor Pablo Panduro Coquinche, on March 28.

Pablo Panduro Coquinche.

This week, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Human rights organizations, among them @ccajar @justiciaypazcol, behind the verification mission in Puerto Leguízamo, Putumayo highlights that the National Army operation in an indigenous community left civilians murdered, injured and missing, including several minors. Urgent investigations.”

More on this at Statement of the Verification Mission Vereda El Remanso, Puerto Leguizamo – Putumayo.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace Commission since 1994 and the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) since 1995.

Article 19 report: 664 documented attacks against journalists in Mexico in 2021

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: In January, PBI-Mexico accompanied solidarity protests in Mexico City and Chihuahua City for murdered journalists.

The Guardian reports: “Attacks against the press in Mexico have increased by 85% since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office, making it the most deadly period for journalists since records began, according to a new report.”

That article adds:

“Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists with 1,945 attacks – including 33 murders – between 2019 and 2021, according to the press freedom group Article 19. Another eight have been killed so far this year.

In 2021, there were 664 documented attacks – the equivalent of one every 14 hours – including online threats, harassment, arbitrary criminal charges and seven murders. Government officials were linked to 274 of the incidents, while organised crime accounted for about 42.

Nineteen journalists were murdered during the first three years of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government, and 26 under Felipe Calderón over the same time period.

But López Obrador is the first to vilify journalists so consistently. In 2021, the president and his officials maligned the press at least 71 times, and the same insults were often repeated by private and public figures the same day, according to the report.”

Protection mechanism for journalists

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has previously explained that a Protection Mechanism was created for journalists in Autumn 2010.

Later, the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists was implemented in June 2012. That law obliges both federal and state authorities to protect the rights of journalists and human rights defenders.

In March 2020, PBI-Mexico commented “the Mechanism continues to demonstrate notable deficiencies and concerning failures.”

The year before that, PBI also highlighted: “The Mechanism can’t possibly address its shortcomings with its current budget and staffing levels. Providing additional funding would be the first step the Mexican government can take to ensure the Mechanism has the resources necessary to manage its rapidly growing caseload.”

For more, please see the report Turning the Tide on Impunity: Protection and Access to Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Mexico.

#NoSeMataLaVerdad

“The truth is not killed by killing journalists”

Photo: In February, PBI-Mexico accompanied organizations in Oaxaca at the 2nd Regional Forum for the discussion around the initiative of the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Corporation for Judicial Freedom to meetings with Embassies on the situation in Antioquia

By
Brent Patterson
-

CJL tweet: “Social leaders from different subregions of Antioquia are already in Bogotá, together with the Corporation for Judicial Freedom to alert the international community about the serious humanitarian situation in the department and the risks to their work.”

The Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) was founded by a group of legal professionals in the city of Medellin, Antioquia in 1993.

It represents victims of state crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations in both national and international courts. A focus of its work is the support and defence of displacement communities or those at risk of force displacement or dispossession due to armed conflict or the imposition of mining and energy projects.

CJL members have received death threats because of this work, experienced false accusations and attempts to detain them, and have detected illegal interceptions and followings during social protests in late 2019.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the CJL since 2000.

This week PBI-Colombia is accompanying the Corporation for Judicial Freedom and social leaders at meetings with embassies in Bogota to draw the attention of the international community to the humanitarian crisis in Antioquia.

April 8

France

April 7

Norway

April 5

United States

Netherlands

April 4

Spain

The humanitarian crisis in Antioquia

In January, Blu Radio reported: “Defenders said that they have made multiple alerts and have warned about the situation [in Antioquia] that has been presented by the presence of different actors of illegal armed groups [including the AGC and ELN], in addition, they denounced that the authorities have turned their backs on this situation.”

Last month, Community Peacemaking Teams (CPT) issued this Urgent Action, at the request of CAHUCOPANA, urging Colombian authorities to respond to the critical situation that is threatening the population of the Northeast Antioquia region.

Canada in Antioquia

PBI-Colombia has previously noted: “The abundance of natural resources in these lands and the arrival of multinational companies, such as the Canadian Gran Colombia Gold [that operates the El Silencio, Sandra K, Providencia and Carla mines in the Segovia-Remedios area along with interests in three other mines in Colombia], has provided the illegal armed groups who are present in the region with an extremely lucrative funding source in mining.”

The Hidroituango hydroelectric dam is being built in northwest Antioquia by the Colombian state-owned utility Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM).

EPM has twice benefitted from the support of the Government of Canada financing agency Export Development Canada (EDC). In 2016 and 2017, EDC provided EPM with financing totalling between 500 million and one billion dollars.

The province of Quebec pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has also provided financing for the dam.

In 2019, the CJL published a study of twelve municipalities affected by the construction of this hydroelectric plant, highlighting the crimes committed by paramilitary groups and State agents, who individually or jointly have acted against local populations, social leaders, human rights defenders and political opponents.

Isabel Cristina Zuleta of the Rios Vivos movement says: “Since its launch in 1997, this megaproject has been imposed by violence and the forced displacement of the population, victims of the armed conflict.”

We continue to follow the situation in Antioquia.

Photo: PBI-Colombia with Ríos Vivos, June 2016.

1...240241242...476Page 241 of 476