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PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission to the Chidima Tolo reservation

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 6, PBI-Colombia posted: “Last week we joined the Justice and Peace Commission as it entered the community of Chidima-Tolo in Acandí with the purpose of strengthening its processes, after the murder of its member Efren Antonio Bailarín Carupia in the month of September.”

Infobae has reported:

“The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) denounced the murder of Efrén Antonio Bailarín Carupia, a young former governor of the Chidima Tolo reservation located in Acandí, Chocó.

Bailarín Carupia, who was also part of the Indigenous Guard of the Embera Eyabida people, apparently was murdered on the morning of this Thursday, September 16.

In a statement issued by the Akubadaura [Indigenous “Helpers” law collective] leadership, it was highlighted that the Embera community of the Chidima Tolo reservation has always opposed the dispossession of their territory, refuses to plant illicit crops on their lands and resists their youth from being forcibly recruited. by any of the armed groups.

According to figures from the Institute for Development and Peace Studies, Indepaz, so far this year at least 34 indigenous people have been murdered in different areas of Colombia.”

The full statement from ONIC highlights: “In the department of Chocó, 19,334 Indigenous people were in a state of confinement, 12,486 were displaced due to the danger and risk that being in the territories represents them.”

BluRadio notes that it’s the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo) paramilitary and National Liberation Army (ELN) that “commit crimes” in the area.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has been accompanying the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission since 1994.

PBI-Guatemala expresses concern about the defamation campaign against ACOGUATE

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 4, PBI-Guatemala posted: “As a member of the Network of International Accompaniment Organizations in Latin America we express our concern for the recent campaign of disinformation, defamation and criminalization against the International Accompaniment Project in Guatemala (ACOGUATE).”

ACOGUATE was constituted as an international accompaniment project in 2000. It operates in Guatemala through a field team based in the capital city. It is composed of four committees based in France, Germany, Sweden and Canada who send volunteers to join the international accompaniment and observation team.

Currently, ACOGUATE accompanies human rights defenders under two thematic areas: the fight for justice and against impunity, and the defence of land and territory.

On October 12, 2021, ACOGUATE carried out the international observation of the activity called March for Dignity.

On that day, Indigenous, peasant and popular organizations marched for the Dignity and Resistance of the peoples and in defence of a Plurinational State.

During this activity, unknown persons took photographs of ACOGUATE observers that subsequently appeared on social networks and were used in a campaign to defame and threaten ACOGUATE and more broadly international accompaniment in Guatemala.

On October 18, Immortal Guatemala filed a complaint against the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) and ACOGUATE, for alleged crimes of sedition, activities against the internal security of the nation, and depredation of cultural heritage.

And ACOGUATE has been the target of threats on social networks by private individuals and by some authorities of the country.

International organizations, including WOLA, GHRC and RFK Human Rights, have expressed solidarity with ACOGUATE and the Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC) and demand that the authorities of the State of Guatemala respect fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful demonstration.

Embassy of Canada in Guatemala

On October 27, the Embassy of Guatemala tagged ACOGUATE in this tweet that states: “We recognize the work of those who accompany the defenders of #DerechosHumanos [human rights]. The defense of human rights is a central part of building inclusive, prosperous and safe societies.#Canada4Rights”

PBI-Canada continues to follow this situation.

Canada to cut subsidies to unabated fossil fuel projects as Colombia supports carbon capture

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau talks with Colombian president Ivan Duque at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

The Canadian government announced this week that it will cut subsidies to oil and gas companies operating outside of Canada by the end of 2022.

This promise is outlined in this joint statement signed by Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and 23 other countries.

The Canadian Press reports: “Bronwen Tucker of Oil Change International said Canada [through Export Development Canada] has for years been one of the world’s top public financiers of fossil fuels, averaging about $13.6 billion a year.”

The National Observer highlights: “Enbridge for instance, received $303 million US from EDC in 2018-19 for activities in the United States [including the controversial Line 3 tar sands pipeline], while Calgary-based Parex was given at least $94.5 million in loans for oil and gas extraction in Colombia that same fiscal year.”

It adds: “The top recipient countries for Canadian fossil fuel financing from 2018 to 2020 were the United States, Mexico, Australia, and Colombia respectively.”

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS, the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) and COSPACC, human rights organizations that support communities impacted by EDC-recipient oil and gas companies, including Toronto-based Frontera Energy in San Luis de Palenque, Casanare and Parex in El Diviso, Bajo Simacota.

The caveat to the cut

A key aspect of this promised cut is that it will apply to “unabated” fossil fuel projects.

The National Observer explains: “Unabated fossil fuel projects are those without technology in place to capture greenhouse gas emissions.”

In July, the Colombian government enacted the Energy Transition Law. The country’s Minister of Mines and Energy Diego Mesa says it includes carbon capture.

In January, IHS Markit reported: “While cutting emissions is in sharp focus for the future, the government is not forgetting the existing extractive industry wealth it has been blessed with. Colombia is one of the world’s top five steam coal exporters, with shipments expected to rise in 2021 after falling in 2020, according to IHS Markit data. One way to leverage that mineral wealth is employing carbon capture and storage technology, Mesa said.”

The Colombian government has also backed fracking. Canadian companies Canacol Energy, Parex Resources and Sintana Energy have all recently expressed interest in commercially pursuing fracking in Colombia.

Carbon capture seen as a false solution

Forbes has explained that with carbon capture: “Emitted carbon could be removed through natural means such as planting trees or removing it from the atmosphere through mechanical or chemical interventions.”

Lydia Cardona from GreenLatinos says: “Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are false solutions that perpetuate and exacerbate existing burdens for frontline communities. For Latino/a/x and other disproportionately pollution burdened communities, continued investment in carbon capture technology and subsidies amounts to a continuation of a long history of environmental injustice.”

And Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) says: “Funding for carbon capture technology is a subsidy for the fossil fuel industry.”

He also notes: “Oil, coal and gas will use these funds to build out more pipelines and concentrate fossil fuel pollution on already impacted Indigenous nations and environmental justice communities. Billions of dollars for carbon capture essentially redirects money away from renewable energy like solar and wind. We do not have time and money to waste on more questionable carbon capture infrastructure.”

Furthermore, Nina Lakhani has reported that more than 130 Indigenous youth and Elders from the Americas, who refuse to participate inside the official COP talks, reject false solutions like net zero and carbon markets.

Lakhani writes: “They all bring personal stories about the impact of land loss, water shortages and forced displacement, which they say will get worse if world leaders forge ahead with climate actions such as carbon capture and mass reforestation.”

While the announcement to end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022 is welcomed, there are questions about how this relates to carbon capture and storage technology.

The urgent need also remains for EDC to stop supporting fossil fuel projects in Canada, notably the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now being built without consent on Wet’suwet’en territories in British Columbia.

On November 5, 2019, PBI accompanied a meeting at the Ottawa office of EDC where Colombian human rights defenders from CREDHOS and the CCALCP legal collective expressed concern about EDC support for oil and gas operations in Colombia, notably Calgary-based Parex Resources.

PBI COP26 webinar with the participation of Nicaraguan environmentalist Amaru Ruiz, November 6

By
Brent Patterson
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Nicaraguan environmental rights defender Amaru Ruiz Alemán will speak at PBI’s “COP26 and Land Defenders” webinar on November 6.

To register and hear him speak, click here.

Amaru Ruíz is a biologist, researcher, environmentalist, and president of the Fundación del Río, a non-profit organization founded in 1990, focused on sustainable development and the conservation of natural assets in southeastern Nicaragua.

In April 2018, the Fundación del Río warned about the magnitude of a fire that devastated more than 5,000 hectares in the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, one of the most important tropical forests in Central America, and denounced the negligence of the State to address this environmental catastrophe.

In December of the same year, the Fundación del Río suffered the cancellation of its legal status along with 8 non-governmental organizations that publicly denounced the human rights violations committed in Nicaragua. At the end of the month, Amaru Ruíz was forced into exile following warnings about threats of capture and imprisonment under the crime of terrorism, and after suffering an attack on his life in his own home.

From Costa Rica, Amaru Ruíz continues to advocate for the environmental defense of the southeast of the country, accompanying indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, and promoting actions with the Nicaraguan peasant population exiled in the north of the country.

November 2020 hurricanes

In early November 2020, hurricanes Eta and Iota, category 4 and 5 respectively, impacted Nicaragua and affected 60% of the territory.

Although it is unknown how many people from Nicaragua’s Caribbean coastal communities had to be displaced, Ruiz explains: “It is important to say that climate change in the world (…) is generating a displacement of vulnerable populations.”

Charges against Ruiz

Due to the continuous denunciation that Amaru Ruíz has made since recent years for the situation of violation of human and environmental rights on the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast, on September 8, 2021, the Public Ministry of Nicaragua issued an arrest warrant for the defender, accusing him of violating article 30 of Law 1042 or Special Law on Cybercrimes, under the argument of “[spreading] fake news using information and communication technologies”. This shows that the persecution and criminalization of human and environmental rights defenders in Nicaragua continues.

The most recent incident he had denounced was a massacre perpetrated on August 23 by “settlers” (non-indigenous invaders) in the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, a protected rural area of the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast, in which the murder of at least 9 people of the Miskitu and Mayangna indigenous peoples is known. According to an urgent call from the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, “this attack is part of a context of systematic and widespread violence against the Miskitu and Mayangna indigenous peoples, including intimidation and threats, killings, armed attacks and forced displacement.” On October 4, a new attack in the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve left one communityman killed, and at least three people missing.

As reported by the United Nations, the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua have been suffering frequent attacks and lack of protection of their rights,in addition to the environmental deterioration caused by extensive livestock activities, illegal timber extraction and mining. For this reason, the population has been forced to move from their ancestral territories to safeguard their lives. As early as 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the persistent impunity for crimes committed against indigenous peoples in Nicaragua.

Threats against Nicaraguan environmental defenders

In its “Last Line of Defense” report (2021), Global Witness reported the murder of 12 environmental leaders in Nicaragua last year, compared to 5 in 2019, making the country the most dangerous per capita for land and environmental defenders in 2020.

The report highlights that “in Nicaragua […] violence against indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the country’s north-eastern and Caribbean coast regions has accelerated in recent years. The Oakland Institute’s research documents the violence that communities have experienced linked to colonization processes in indigenous territories and the expansion of cattle ranching, gold mining and logging.”

PBI Webinar, November 6

Peace Brigades International will hold a webinar on COP26 and land defenders, which will take place on Saturday, November 6 at 11am CST (Costa Rica) and 1pm EST (Ontario/Quebec) with simultaneous translation into English and Spanish.

It will feature the participation of Amaru Ruiz along with land and environmental rights defenders from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

To register for this webinar, click here.

NOMADESC says police surveilled meeting with national strike participants victimized by state violence

By
Brent Patterson
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Image retweeted by NOMADESC of Cali police monitoring and intercepting communications.

On November 4, PBI-Colombia tweeted an Alert about a “serious complaint by the accompanied organization @Nomadesc: surveillance by police officers while providing legal advice to #ParoNacional [national strike] victims.”

NOMADESC has tweeted: “Illegal surveillance, control and interception by the National Police against the NOMADESC association and the political headquarters of Senator Alexander Lopez who legally advises national strike processes in the city of Cali.”

The full statement/alert can be read in Spanish here.

On November 2, El Tiempo reported: “NOMADESC, Senator Alexander López, 26 national human rights organizations and 5 International ones assure that there would be evidence of illegal monitoring and interception of their activities.”

That article explains:

“In the document they assure that on October 28, 2021, at 10:51 a.m. a motorized one, with two police officers, approach the person who provides surveillance services in this area, on Carrera 9 and Calle 4 in the San Antonio neighborhood, and starts a conversation.

One of the uniformed officers would have given him ‘an electronic device, square, black with green, which is referred to from a distance as a device for signal interception. The agent who was sitting on the motorcycle points with the radio that he has in his hand at address to the office of the Nomadesc Association and the headquarters of Senator Alexander López.’

According to the statement, the guard receives the device and stored it in his personal kangaroo. This situation is registered by the security cameras of the sector and the director of the Nomadesc Association, Berenice Celeita, noticed the situation from within the headquarters.

The complaint states that after 17 minutes, at 11:08 a.m., the same police patrol returns to the site and returns to dialogue with the guard, during which they pointed their hands and their gaze towards the political headquarters of Senator López.

This situation arose when a meeting of relatives of victims of the strike was taking place at the headquarters of the Nomadesc Organization, while a press conference was held at the headquarters of the Senator.”

Last week, El Espectador also reported: “The Association for Research and Social Action leads the legal process of ten cases of human rights violations in the framework of the National Strike in Valle del Cauca.”

That article is titled: “The order was to eliminate those who protested”: NGO Nomadesc.

It adds: “Its director, Berenice Celeita, maintains that there was a coordinated plan from the institutionality [the Colombian state and the ESMAD riot police] for armed civilians to attack the different points of protest. None of the people who shot and blinded the lives of 82 young people in the Valley have been prosecuted or are in detention, she says.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied NOMADESC since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

We additionally note that on July 17, Colombian police stopped delegations travelling to Cali for a popular assembly related to the national strike and social protests. In their operation, the police used a Huron armoured vehicle manufactured by Toronto-based INKAS. More can be read here on that violation of the right to peaceful assembly.

Mayan Poqomchi defender Sandra Calel to speak at PBI webinar on COP26 on November 6

By
Brent Patterson
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To register to hear Sandra Calel speak on November 6, click here.

The Guardian reports: “As world leaders inside the COP26 conference centre in Glasgow boasted about pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions and end deforestation, indigenous delegates gathered across the river Clyde to commemorate activists killed for trying to protect the planet from corporate greed and government inaction.”

That article highlights: “At least 1,005 environmental and land rights defenders have been murdered since the Paris accords were signed six years ago, according to the international non-profit Global Witness. One in three of those killed were indigenous people.”

It further notes: “2020 was the deadliest year on record for environmental and land defenders, with indigenous people accounting for half of the total 227 killed.”

Thirteen of those people were killed in Guatemala, the fourth most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders.

Despite this very dangerous situation, PBI accompanied Mayan Poqomchi defender Sandra Calel says there is no choice but to “continue weaving networks together to defend Mother Nature, to defend the planet, because it is the ship where we live, and if we continue destroying it, it will not only to suffer the Q’eqchí people, the Poqomchí people or the indigenous population of the world, but we will all suffer.”

Calel is a leader of the Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC). The organization has 367 affiliated communities (about 50,000 families), 98 per cent of which are indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’ and Achi.

PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying UVOC since 2005, following threats and serious intimidation against some of its members.

During an advocacy tour in Europe in November 2019 that included Calel, Francesca Nugnes of Peace Brigades International noted: “It must be emphasized that indigenous women who assume leadership are especially vulnerable. In addition to criminalization, sexist and patriarchal violence is added.”

The Guardian highlights the exclusion, marginalization and tokenization of Indigenous peoples at COP26. The full article by Nina Lakhani can be read at: ‘A continuation of colonialism’: indigenous activists say their voices are missing at Cop26.

To hear directly from Sandra Calel, please register now for our webinar on Saturday November 6 that begins at 1 pm Eastern Time (11 am in Guatemala).

She will be joined by other speakers including Amaru Ruiz a Nicaraguan environmental defender forced into exile in 2019 after he denounced a massacre of indigenous people in the communities of the North Caribbean Coast and pointed out “the State and its institutions” of “deliberately omitting the duty to investigate these crimes.”

Colombian defender Danilo Rueda will also participate in this webinar. Rueda has stated: “Forced displacement and territorial dispossession of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities continue today, with agribusiness, particularly palm oil, cattle farming and mining projects in the area. Uncontrolled deforestation in one of the top 10 biodiverse regions of the world is destroying people’s livelihoods.”

Calel, Ruiz, Rueda and others are speaking this Saturday November 6. To register for this webinar, click here.

Webinar de PBI COP26 con la participación del ambientalista nicaragüense Amaru Ruiz, 6 de noviembre

By
Brent Patterson
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El defensor nicaragüense de derechos ambientales Amaru Ruiz Alemán hablará en el seminario web “COP26 y defensores de la tierra” de PBI el 6 de noviembre.

Para registrarse y escucharlo hablar, haga clic aquí.

Amaru Ruíz es  biólogo, investigador, ambientalista, y presidente de la Fundación del Río, organización sin fines de lucro fundada en 1990, enfocada en el desarrollo sostenible y la conservación de bienes naturales en el sureste de Nicaragua.

En abril de 2018, la Fundación del Río alertó sobre la magnitud de un incendio que arrasó más de 5 mil hectáreas en la Reserva Biológica Indio Maíz, uno de los bosques tropicales más importantes de Centroamérica, y denunció la negligencia del Estado para atender este catástrofe ambiental.

En diciembre del mismo año, la Fundación del Río sufrió la cancelación de su personería jurídica junto con 8 organizaciones no gubernamentales que denunciaban públicamente las violaciones de derechos humanos cometidas en Nicaragua. A finales del mes, Amaru Ruíz se vio obligado a exiliarse a raíz de advertencias sobre amenazas de captura y encarcelamiento bajo el delito de terrorismo, y tras sufrir un ataque contra su vida en su propia casa.

Desde Costa Rica, Amaru Ruíz continúa incidiendo en la defensa ambiental del sureste del país, acompañando a comunidades indígenas y afrodescendientes, y promoviendo acciones con población campesina nicaragüense exiliada en el norte del país.

Huracanes de noviembre de 2020

A principios de noviembre de 2020, los huracanes Eta e Iota, categoría 4 y 5 respectivamente, impactaron a Nicaragua y afectaron el 60% del territorio.

Aunque se desconoce cuántas personas  de las comunidades costeras del Caribe de Nicaragua tuvieron que desplazarse, Ruiz explica: “Es importante decir que el cambio climático en el mundo (…) está generando un desplazamiento de poblaciones vulnerables”.

Cargos contra Ruiz

Debido a la continua denuncia que desde los últimos años realiza Amaru Ruíz por la situación de vulneración de derechos humanos y ambientales en la Costa Caribe nicaragüense, el 8 de septiembre de 2021 el Ministerio Público de Nicaragua emitió una orden de detención del defensor, acusándole de infringir el artículo 30 de la Ley 1042 o Ley Especial de Ciberdelitos, bajo el argumento de “[propagar] noticias falsas utilizando tecnologías de la información y la comunicación”. Esto evidencia que continúa la persecución y criminalización contra la personas defensoras de derechos humanos y ambientales en Nicaragua.

El hecho más reciente que había denunciado fue una masacre perpetrada el 23 de agosto por “colonos” (personas invasoras no-indígenas) en la Reserva de Biosfera de Bosawás, zona rural protegida de la Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe Norte, en la que se conoce el asesinato de al menos 9 personas de los pueblos indígenas Miskitu y Mayangna. De acuerdo con un llamado urgente del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos, “este ataque es parte de un contexto de violencia sistemática y generalizada contra los pueblos indígenas Miskitu y Mayangna, que incluye intimidación y amenazas, asesinatos, ataques armados y desplazamientos forzados”. El 4 de octubre, un nuevo ataque en la Reserva de la Biosfera de Bosawás dejó un comunitario asesinado, y al menos tres personas desaparecidas.

Según reportado por las Naciones Unidas, los pueblos indígenas de Nicaragua han venido sufriendo frecuentes agresiones y falta de protección a sus derechos, además del deterioro ambiental causado por actividades de ganadería extensiva, la extracción ilegal de madera y la explotación minera. Por tal motivo la población se ha visto obligada a desplazarse de sus territorios ancestrales para salvaguardar sus vidas. Ya en 2020, la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos expresaba su preocupación por la impunidad persistente de los crímenes cometidos contra los pueblos indígenas en Nicaragua.

Amenazas contra defensores ambientales nicaragüenses

En su reporte “Última linea de defensa” (2021), Global Witness reportó el asesinato de 12 líderes ambientales en Nicaragua el año pasado, en comparación con 5 en 2019, convirtiendo el país en el más peligroso per cápita para las personas defensoras de la tierra y del medio ambiente en 2020. 

El informe destaca que “en Nicaragua […] la violencia contra  las comunidades indígenas y afrodescendientes en las regiones del noreste y la Costa Caribe del país se  ha acelerado en los últimos años. La investigación  del Instituto Oakland documenta la violencia que  han experimentado las comunidades vinculadas con  procesos de colonización en territorios indígenas y la expansión de la ganadería, la extracción de oro y la  explotación forestal.”

Seminario web de PBI, 6 de noviembre

Peace Brigades International llevará a cabo un seminario web sobre la COP26 y las personas defensoras de la tierra, el cual tendrá lugar el sábado 6 de noviembre a las 11am CST (Costa Rica) y 1pm EST (Ontario / Quebec) con traducción simultánea en inglés y español.

Contará con la participación de Amaru Ruiz junto con defensores de los derechos a la tierra y al medio ambiente de Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras y México.

Para registrarse en este seminario web, haga clic aquí.

 

PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris/Rainbow association at media conference on the situation of the LGTBQI+ community

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 2, PBI-Honduras posted: “This afternoon, the Arcoiris LGTB Association of Honduras and Somos- CDC [Center for Development and LGBTI Cooperation] will share about the situation of the #LGTBI community in #Honduras and the need for a human rights approach in media coverage.”

It adds: “Together with other organizations they work on several legislative projects for a more inclusive society without discrimination and without hate speech.”

The 52-minute video of that media conference can be seen here.

A general election will take place in Honduras on November 28 of this year.

On September 14, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “More than 30 human rights organizations ask to prevent and sanction campaigns that promote hatred towards women and LGTB people. In the electoral framework, they ask the @MP_Honduras [Public Ministry] to act ex officio against any incitement to discrimination.”

The Honduran Constitution expressly bans same-sex marriage and refuses to recognize them even if they have been legally sanctioned in other countries, including in Canada where it has been legal since July 2005. Honduras also bans adoption by same-sex couples.

It is also not possible to change your name and it’s “forbidden by law to make any modification of the sex assigned in the original birth certificate.” This past July, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that the Honduran State must allow people to alter their gender identity on identification documents and public records.

And Arcoiris coordinator Donny Reyes has stated: “The biggest problem that we face is the violence of the state security forces towards the LGBT+ community: the armed forces, the police, the criminal investigation police, military police, municipal police.”

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Arcoíris, the LGTB Association of Honduras since July 2015.

Canada’s fossil fuel subsidies include millions to the RCMP that criminalize Wet’suwet’en land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Likhts’amisyu (Fireweed) Clan tweet: “The #CIRG Unit has returned and are testing the waters again. It looks as though things are beginning to escalate again.”

G20 leaders – including Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau – met in Rome on October 30-31, just prior to gathering in Glasgow for the COP26 summit.

The G20 Rome Leaders’ Declaration notes:

“We will increase our efforts to implement the commitment made in 2009 in Pittsburgh to phase out and rationalize, over the medium term, inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption and commit to achieve this objective, while providing targeted support for the poorest and the most vulnerable.”

And yet, The Guardian comments: “In July, a [Bloomberg NEF/Philanthropies] report showed that the G20 countries had subsidised fossil fuels by trillions of dollars since 2015, the year the Paris climate deal was reached [at COP21].”

Notably, in May 2020, the Government of Canada-owned Export Development Canada public finance agency approved a $500 million loan to build the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.

That CGL fracked gas pipeline, being built on Wet’suwet’en lands without their free, prior and informed consent, has been backed by two highly militarized RCMP raids. The first was on January 8, 2019, when 14 land defenders were arrested. And the second on February 6, 2020, in which another 22 land defenders were arrested.

The Environmental Defence PAYING POLLUTERS report released this past April highlights: “A particularly egregious form of fossil fuel subsidy are investments made into policing Indigenous land defenders opposing fossil fuel infrastructure.”

It adds: “For example, over $13 million was spent last year on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to ‘protect’ the Coastal GasLink pipeline – which took the form of harassing Wet’suwet’en Nation community members who oppose the pipeline.”

In October 2020, the CBC specified: “The cost of policing the Coastal GasLink pipeline conflict in northern B.C. between January 2019 and March 2020 was more than $13 million, according to documents obtained by CBC News.”

If we understand that as a 15-month period, that averages at just under $1 million a month (about $873,000. per month).

Given the police presence on Wet’suwet’en territory has continued for the 20 months since that period, it’s possible that an another $17.5 million has been spent on the Canadian police presence on sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory.

And given the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Canada in December 2019 to withdraw the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en lands, it could be estimated that Canada has instead spent more than $19 million on maintaining that police presence over the 22 months since that resolution was passed.

A third RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory is expected now that water protectors have begun blocking Coastal GasLink from drilling under the Wedzin Kwa river.

World Beyond War Canada and Christian Peacemaker Teams are now present on Wet’suwet’en territory. Peace Brigades International-Canada will also be present starting next week as an observer to this land defence struggle.

Global Witness holds memorial service at COP26 summit for murdered land and environmental rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Jo Blackman.

On November 2, Bill McKibben, who is at COP26 in Glasgow, stated: “One of the things I’m doing today is addressing a memorial service for the environment activists that were killed around the world last year, many of them in Latin America…”

Global Witness has documented that there were 227 lethal attacks against land and environmental rights defenders in 2020.

McKibben then noted: “In almost every case, [they were] standing up to defend something — a forest, a place that’s about to be mined — from some large corporation or another.”

He continued: “Now, the corporation didn’t come out and kill them, but their orders trickle down to whoever was there on the ground and whoever pulled the trigger. And all of that is still underway. There’s a kind of ongoing colonialism. Indigenous peoples suffer probably hardest from it than anybody else, and a great percentage of those bodies come from Indigenous communities. So, let’s always remember that those lives are on the line.”

The memorial for murdered land and environment defenders at COP26 was organized by the UK-based NGO Global Witness.

Along with a 12-minute video of the memorial service, Global Witness tweeted: “Over 1,000 Land & #EnvironmentDefenders have been killed for protecting their land and our shared planet since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.”

Webinar with land defenders, November 6

The land and environmental rights defenders killed in 2020 includes 65 defenders in Colombia, 30 in Mexico, 17 in Honduras, 13 in Guatemala and 12 in Nicaragua.

Peace Brigades International provides protective accompaniment to threatened land and environmental rights in these countries.

On Saturday November 6, we are convening a webinar that will feature Danilo Rueda (Colombia), Valeria Villalobos (Mexico), Juana Ramona Zuñiga (Honduras), Sandra Calel (Guatemala), Amaru Ruiz (Nicaragua) and Nelly Madegwa (Kenya). It will also include a special introduction by United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment David R. Boyd.

To register for this webinar, that will have simultaneous translation in English and Spanish, please click here.

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