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PBI-Honduras visits water protector Jeremías Martínez in La Ceiba prison as December 1 hearing nears

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 17, PBI-Honduras posted:

“In previous days, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras regretted that, without justifying elements, the Trujillo Trial Court has decided to maintain the preventive detention of the eight defenders of #Guapinol.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that keeping the eight defenders in prison goes against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

PBI accompanies and visited the defender Jeremías Martínez in prison, who expressed his gratitude for the support of the international community and was hopeful for the next hearing on December 1.

From PBI we express the fundamental nature of respect for human rights and compliance with international agreements and declarations.”

Martinez has been imprisoned since December 8, 2018.

Criterio has reported: “Daniel Márquez, Kelvin Romero, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto, Orbin Hernández, Arnold Alemán, Ewer Cedillo Cruz and Jeremías Martínez Díaz are being held in Olanchito prison. That article adds: “The eighth defender, Jeremías Martínez Díaz, is being held in La Ceiba prison.”

They are being criminally prosecuted for peacefully protesting the installation of an open-pit iron oxide mine in Carlos Escaleras National Park, after contamination of the Guapinol River and the San Pedro Sector appeared.

The Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa and other organizations are demanding that the Court allow the presence of national and international observers in the judicial process to guarantee transparency and compliance with other human rights obligations.

They also ask that the Supreme Court guarantee family members and other human rights defenders a simultaneous video and audio transmission to make transparent a judicial process typical of a member country of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

PBI-Canada continues to follow this closely.

Juana Ramona Zúñiga, whose husband José Abelino Cedillo is being held at Olanchito, participated in the PBI-convened webinar on COP26 this past Saturday November 6. You can watch her intervention (in Spanish) on that webinar here (starting at the 15:30 mark).

On August 11, 2021, PBI-Honduras posted: “PBI visits the 7 environmental defenders of Guapinol and San Pedro sector in the prison center of Olanchito, who are facing a criminalization process for the defence of water.”

RCMP set up exclusion zone on Wet’suwet’en territory, federal Minister says “it depends” what will happen next

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Gidimt’en Checkpoint.

On Sunday November 14, Wet’suwet’en land defenders issued this evacuation order to Coastal GasLink workers on their territory and ten hours later blocked the Morice River Forest Service Road, a main access road onto their lands.

They have stated that this action was taken to protect the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) headwaters and in accordance with Wet’suwet’en laws that predate Canada as well as the Supreme Court of Canada ruling recognizing their title to these lands.

On Monday November 15, Mike Farnworth, the provincial Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General in British Columbia, responded by criminalizing them. He said: “The right to protest does not extend to criminal actions.”

Then just after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday November 16, Marc Miller, the federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, said “it depends” when asked by a reporter if the situation will escalate as it did in early 2020.

In February 2020 a militarized raid by the RCMP resulted in the arrest of 22 land defenders. The Tyee reported: “More than 40 officers arrived at the Gidimt’en camp … in two helicopters and a dozen police vehicles… People at the Gidimt’en camp said the RCMP force included tactical squad officers armed with rifles.”

While seemingly implicitly suggesting that could happen again, Miller adds: “I do not exclude at the same time that we can settle peacefully.”

Hours after Miller’s statement, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “RCMP Are Blocking Food And Medical Supplies From Wet’suwet’en Homes. The RCMP are openly violating the human rights of the Wet’suwet’en people again.”

Their series of tweets adds: “The driver of a vehicle carrying food and medical supplies was blocked by an arbitrary illegal police exclusion zone and threatened with arrest.”

This despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urging Canada to “guarantee that no force will be used against Wet’suwet’en peoples and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

The Canadian Press further reports: “Miller says there is a window in the next week or so for a resolution to be reached but specified it will require ‘good minds’ to come together and provide solutions that address the issues at play.”

The timeline of “the next week or so” is notable.

In 2020, there was a 10-day period between Farnworth authorizing an “internal redeployment” of police resources and the start of the RCMP raid.

A spokesperson for Miller also highlighted: “The Coastal GasLink project and the [RCMP’s] E Division are under provincial jurisdiction.” As such, the provincial minister describing the Wet’suwet’en blockade as a “criminal action” is additionally worrisome.

Peace Brigades International-Canada will be travelling to Wet’suwet’en territory this week and reporting on the situation at the blockade this weekend.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies criminalized Retalhuleu water defenders to Justice of the Peace to sign alternative measures

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 16, PBI-Guatemala posted “PBI accompanies the four criminalized defenders of the CCR to the Justice of the Peace of Champerico, to sign the book, after they were granted alternative measures.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The Council of Communities of Retalhuleu consists of more than 18 communities in the department of Retalhuleu (mainly the municipality of Champerico), belonging to the Mam, K’iche’ and Ixil peoples.”

The defenders have stated: “We organize ourselves in a peaceful way to publicize the consequences of sugar cane, the diversion of rivers that the mills have.”

PBI-Guatemala adds: “The CCR began to organize in 2015 as a result of adverse effects caused by the expansion of the monoculture of sugar and the use of large-scale agrochemicals and pesticides used by the mills in the region.”

As a result of their defence of the right to water, four members of the Retalhuleu Community Council have been criminalized by the El Pilar and Magdalena sugar mills.

On October 22, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanied the 4 criminalized defending people on the South Coast for defending water.”

That day Prensa Comunitaria reported: “The hearing of the defenders, who are part of the Board of Directors of the Council of Organized Communities of Retalhuleu and Champerico, is held behind closed doors. Human rights observers or communicators from @REDSAG_ [the National Network for the Defence of Food Sovereignty] were not allowed.”

The next court hearing for the criminalized defenders is now scheduled for March 14, 2022.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied them since April 2020.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) in opposition to Jilamito hydroelectric dam

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 16, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “PBI accompanies @MovAmplioHn in the defence of the river Jilamito. Communities demand @Simonds_BandSaw withdraw its support for the project in the face of the drought, rupture of the social fabric and the criminalization that the hydroelectric plant entails.”

In a series of tweets, the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective also explains:

And on November 15, Criterio.hn reported:

“The inhabitants of the municipality of Arizona in the department of Atlántida have promoted a new form of struggle to make it clear that the waters of the Jilamito River are for the people and their communities.

This has been stated by the communities organized in the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) established in the Dignified Camp for the Defense of Water.

Today they have demonstrated in front of the offices of HERMACASA in Honduras and SIMONDS SAW INTERNATIONAL in Massachusetts, USA, both companies are partners of INGELSA and the IESA Group owned by Emin Abufele Marcos main shareholder of the Jilamito Hydroelectric Project (PHJ).

On this day for the defense of life, sovereignty and dignity have expressed that the people of Arizona have already decided, at least in three assemblies of open council, that the waters of the Jilamito River will be destined exclusively for the consumption of the present and future generations of the municipality and in this way overcome the shortage that already suffer about 30 thousand inhabitants.

To fulfill the popular mandates in defense of the river, the people were constituted in Permanent Assembly since 2017, through the Dignified Camp for Water and Life.

As they have repeatedly denounced, in public spaces and in national and international institutions, the Jilamito Hydroelectric Project is a clear expression of acts of corruption, violence against communities, rupture of the social fabric, criminalization of community leadership, threats and violation of the human right to water, the environment, community participation, access to public information, sovereignty and dignity of individuals.

Faced with the lack of response to their complaints, challenges and many other actions, today they have begun a new phase of mobilizations to the headquarters of the companies and homes of the people who, through corruption and violence, intend to impose the PHJ with impunity.

“With our peaceful demonstrations and with our capacities, in articulation with the brothers and sisters of different parts of the world, today we re-promote the process to put a face and full identity to the executioners of our communities, we are taking another step to break with the violence, corruption and impunity of perverse groups like INGELSA-IESA.”

They called on international economic actors such as Simonds Saw International, the Inter-American Development Bank and any actor in the international financial system to withdraw and refrain from supporting the IESA-INGELSA group and the PHJ, as it did in April 2021, the DFC development finance corporation that has recognized the multiple complaints of the People of Arizona and made the decision to suspend the financing of 35.7 million dollars for the construction of the PHJ.

The right companies and people do not invest in or promote corruption and the violation of rights, they point out in their statement.

From the peaceful resistance and the legitimate right to defend their common goods, they reaffirm that they will continue to defend the sovereign and human decision that the waters of the Jilamito River and the natural wealth of the municipality of Arizona, be for the people; whatever it costs us, the statement ends.”

For our last article on this, please see: PBI-Honduras accompanies event marking the 4th anniversary of a blockade against dam on the Jilamito River.

Will Canada respond with violence to the Wet’suwet’en road blockade on their territory?

By
Brent Patterson
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Mike Farnworth, the RCMP raid in 2019, Marco Mendicino.

On Sunday November 14, Wet’suwet’en land defenders issued this evacuation order to Coastal GasLink workers on their territory and later blocked the Morice River Forest Service Road, a main access road onto their lands.

They have stated that this action was taken to protect the Wedzin Kwa headwaters and in accordance with Wet’suwet’en laws that predate Canada as well as the Supreme Court of Canada ruling recognizing their title to these lands.

Mike Farnworth, the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General in the province of British Columbia, has responded by criminalizing them. In this statement, he says: “The right to protest does not extend to criminal actions.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) fall under the responsibility of federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. When the RCMP are contracted to do policing in British Columbia they also fall under the responsibility of Farnworth.

While Farnworth has stated he does direct “police operations”, he did authorize on January 27, 2020,  the “internal redeployment of resources within the Provincial Police Services” on Wet’suwet’en lands in order to “maintain law and order.”

Days later, on February 6, 2020, a militarized raid began that over a five-day period resulted in the arrest of 22 land defenders.

The Tyee has reported: “More than 40 officers arrived at the Gidimt’en camp … in two helicopters and a dozen police vehicles… People at the Gidimt’en camp said the RCMP force included tactical squad officers armed with rifles.”

The CBC has reported: “The province [of British Columbia] did not respond to a question about whether a similar authorization [from Minister Farnworth] was made with respect to the first enforcement operation.”

After that raid, The Guardian reported: “Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of a natural gas pipeline.”

There are concerns about a third militarized raid against the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

On Sunday, Dawn Roberts of the RCMP said: “We have had and will continue to have a police presence in the area. The primary responsibility of those officers has been to conduct roving patrols and respond to any complaints, but there has [sic] been no indications that I’m aware of that we were doing any enforcement today.”

And yet earlier that day, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “3 RCMP have broken the conditions of the evacuation and are responding to Gidimt’en frontline.” They also tweeted: “Reports now they are putting up a drone.”

Farnworth’s statement concludes: “We remain committed to a peaceful resolution.” We hope this means he will not authorize an “internal redeployment of resources” allowing another RCMP action against Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the state (Canada and British Columbia) to halt construction on the pipeline, seek free, prior and informed consent in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and remove the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en lands.

In another context, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has commented that blockades fit within the right to protest and that an “absolute prohibition of any blockade” can “distort the exceptional participation” of militarized force and “constitute a disproportionate restriction to freedom of expression, demonstration and assembly.”

The international community is watching with concern that the Canadian state will again act with violence and enforce a megaproject that lacks consent at gunpoint.

Gidimt’en land defenders continue to call for people to come to camp. In response, Peace Brigades International-Canada will be attempting to visit the territory this week and document the situation at the blockade.

Five questions for Ministers Filomena Tassi and Anita Anand on the purchase of Canada’s new fleet of fighter jets

By
Brent Patterson
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Filomena Tassi, Anita Anand

On November 15, Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese reported: “The three aerospace firms bidding on the fighter jet program were told in writing by the federal government that a decision would be made this month on a ‘down select’ of companies that would be allowed to advance to the final stage of the competition.”

Pugliese adds: “That, in turn, would set the stage for the winning bidder to be announced in March/April of 2022.”

He then highlights: “But now Public Services and Procurement Canada has gone silent on whether that timetable will be met.”

Filomena Tassi, the new the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, has the responsibility for the procurement process. She is working in conjunction with Minister of National Defence Anita Anand. Ultimately, the decision on the new fighter jet will need cabinet approval. 

Beyond the reported delay, there are still at least five significant unanswered questions about the purchase of these new fighter jets:

1- When will the Parliamentary Budget Officer conduct a full-cost assessment of the lifespan costs of these fighter jets? While the purchase cost may be $19 billion, the full cost over 30-years has been estimated by community activists at $76.8 billion.

2- Will a calculation be made on the greenhouse gas emissions from this fleet of 88 fighter jets? A basic calculation would suggest the fleet could consume 3.94 billion litres of fuel. At COP26 this month there was a call for transparency in military emissions.

3- The current fleet of CF-18s has conducted an estimated 1,598 offensive bombing missions over the past 30 years. Murray Brewster of CBC News has reported on DND’s refusal to disclose the casualty figures from its bombing missions in Iraq and Syria. Will a comprehensive report on casualties be released before billions are spent on new warplanes?

4- At what point and how will the United States grant its “ultimate certification” of the Canadian government’s choice of a fighter jet? Lee Berthiaume of The Canadian Press has reported: “American officials will need to certify the fighter jet Canada buys at the end of a multibillion-dollar procurement [process].”

5- Will there be a parliamentary debate on the lifespan costs, carbon pollution, offensive uses and ultimate certification process prior to the contract with either Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Saab being signed next year?

While most parliamentary parties appear to agree on the economic value of buying new fighter jets (disputed by Costs of War Project research), these unanswered questions suggest much greater transparency and public scrutiny is needed before a contract is signed.

Boeing F/A-18, Lockheed Martin F-35, Saab Gripen

PBI-Colombia accompanies COSPACC at memorial event in Yopal, Casanare

By
Brent Patterson
-

On November 15, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted: “Last Saturday we joined COSPACC for a memorial event in Yopal, Casanare. Armed conflict in the area was talked about and how it dignifies the fight of the victims.”

Earlier this year, Contagio Radio reported:

“On the morning of February 25, the community of the corregimiento of El Morro, in Yopal, Casanare, found several threatening pamphlets issued by the paramilitary group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), which have sown terror and anxiety in the communities before the territorial domination that this action supposes.

It was reported that several of the pamphlets were found in the sector known as La Aguatoca a few kilometers from Yopal and in the vicinity of a military base.

The Social Corporation for Community Counseling and Training [COSPACC] issued an alert in which it stated that it is worrying that, after the president visited the department of Casanare, the Prosecutor’s Office arrested the human rights defender and peasant leader Miguel Yesid Daza and a day later the threatening pamphlets issued by the AGC appeared.

COSPACC, issued a statement in which it denounced that the communities and social organizations of Casanare are in a serious security situation.

They assured that it is worrying that “in an area of oil influence, highly militarized, judicial prosecution is being pursued and threatening pamphlets of the AGC appear.”

Fabián Laverde Doncel, human rights defender and spokesman for Cumbre Agraria, said that the installation of a Territorial Table of Guarantees in Casanare is urgent.”

We also recall at this time that COSPACC accompanies the case of eight social leaders criminalized by Toronto-based Frontera Energy in San Luis de Palenque, Casanare.

Laverde has commented: “Casanare has been an extremely victimized zone mostly because of the business that engages in the extraction of natural resources, especially petroleum.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied COSPACC since 2009.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu at meeting in Champerico

By
Brent Patterson
-

On November 15, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “PBI accompanies the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu [CCR] to a meeting with the Youth Association, in the community of October 20, Champerico.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The CCR consists of more than 18 communities in the department of Retalhuleu (mainly the municipality of Champerico), belonging to the Mam, K’iche’ and Ixil peoples.”

Notably, the Guatemalan Sugar Association (ASAZGUA) has identified Canada as the top export destination for Guatemalan sugar.

Abelino Mejia Cancino of the CCR says: “We need people to realize that when they consume sugar, it has an impact on the life of the communities and on the right to water for all. We call for the consumption of what is healthy and good produced by the campesinos and not products made by the big companies.”

The defenders have stated: “We organize ourselves in a peaceful way to publicize the consequences of sugar cane, the diversion of rivers that the mills have.”

PBI-Guatemala has noted: “The CCR began to organize in 2015 as a result of adverse effects caused by the expansion of the monoculture of sugar and the use of large-scale agrochemicals and pesticides used by the mills in the region.”

Criminalization

As a result of their defence of the right to water, four members of the Retalhuleu Community Council have been criminalized by the El Pilar and Magdalena sugar mills.

On October 22, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanied the 4 criminalized defending people on the South Coast for defending water.”

It then noted: “After 6 suspensions since 2019, today is the hearing in which Anabella Spain, Abelino Mejía, Flavio Vicente and Virgilio Garcia is feared to be brought to trial for the crimes of coercion, threats and illegal arrests such as sends the ruling of an appeals court.”

That day Prensa Comunitaria reported: “The hearing of the defenders, who are part of the Board of Directors of the Council of Organized Communities of Retalhuleu and Champerico, is held behind closed doors. Human rights observers or communicators from @REDSAG_ [the National Network for the Defence of Food Sovereignty] were not allowed.”

The next court hearing for the criminalized defenders is now scheduled for March 14, 2022.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied them since April 2020.

Juana Ramona Zúñiga: “In Honduras, there is a pattern of criminalization against those who defend water against extractivism”

By
Brent Patterson
-

On November 15, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “More than 1,005 land and environmental defenders killed since COP21 in 2015. The final Agreement of #COP26 does not refer to those who protect the land from the front line. It is urgent to protect those who protect the earth. The climate crisis is a crisis of #DDHH [human rights].”

The quote below says: “In Honduras, there is a pattern of criminalization against those who speak out for defending the territory and water sources against extractive projects.”

Juana Ramona Zúñiga is a member of the Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Assets (CMDBCP). She lives in the village of Guapinol in the municipality of Tocoa in the department of Colón.

Her husband José Abelino Cedillo is currently in prison with seven other defenders for their role in peacefully defending the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers from contamination by the Inversiones Los Pinares iron oxide mine.

The venue for the trial of the Guapinol 8 who have been imprisoned for almost two years is scheduled for December 1-14, 2021. On November 11, Guapinol Resiste noted has been moved from Trujillo to La Ceiba to prevent peaceful protests that could occur.

Zúñiga participated in the PBI-convened webinar on COP26 this past Saturday November 6. You can watch her intervention (in Spanish) on that webinar here (starting at the 15:30 mark).

Follow this struggle at @GuapinolResiste.

Danilo Rueda: “In Colombia, 601 environmental defenders have been murdered since the peace agreement”

By
Brent Patterson
-

On November 15, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “More than 1,005 land and environmental defenders killed since COP21 in 2015. The final Agreement of #COP26 does not refer to those who protect the land from the front line. It is urgent to protect those who protect the earth. The climate crisis is a crisis of #DDHH [human rights].”

The quote below says: “In Colombia, 601 environmental defenders have been murdered since the peace agreement. What we are protecting are the forests, the animals: the sources of life. The underlying issue is social and environmental justice.”

The Peace Agreement was ratified on November 29-30, 2016, meaning more than 100 environmental defenders have been killed each year since then.

Rueda also participated in the PBI-convened webinar on COP26. You can watch that webinar here (Rueda’s intervention in Spanish begins at 1:13:40).

During that webinar, he commented: “Only the people, the organized society, saves the organized society. Only to the extent that the conscious citizen power, the power of the people, is the conscious power, society will be transformed.”

Rueda is the national coordinator of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission. PBI-Colombia has accompanied them since 1994.

Still from PBI webinar on COP26, November 6.

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