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The relationship between Canada’s free trade agreements and human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Bertha Oliva Nativí founded the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) after the disappearance of her husband Tomás Nativí.

The impact of Canada’s free trade agreements on human rights defenders in Latin America is perhaps not discussed often enough.

Honduras

Stuart Trew, an Ottawa-based senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, notes: “During debates on [Canadian prime minister] Stephen Harper government’s market-opening (and pro-mining) trade deals in Latin America, [Conservative leader Erin] O’Toole showed little patience or respect for human rights defenders. He was instead skeptical of the severity of human rights abuses in countries like Honduras.”

“In one disturbing case, O’Toole asked a Honduran human rights activist, Bertha Oliva — whose husband, Tomás Nativí, a professor and political rights activist, was disappeared by the Honduran state in 1981 — what courses her husband had taught at university. The question seemed to insinuate that this information was pertinent to — or may even have justified — his targeting by the state.”

Trew further notes: “The NDP opposed the Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement, but it passed into law [on October 1, 2014] under Harper’s Conservatives with the support of Liberals [led by Justin Trudeau] in Parliament.”

Colombia

In May 2009, Colombian lawyer Yessika Hoyos Morales stated: “If Canada ratifies the free trade agreement it will give a message to Colombians and to the whole international community that Canada supports a government that violates human rights.”

Despite this plea, the agreement came into force in August 2011.

Trew now notes: “Just this month, an ISDS [investor-state dispute settlement] tribunal ruled in favor of a Canadian firm operating in Colombia under a Canadian free trade deal with strong investment protections. The tribunal determined that, although the Colombian government’s efforts to protect a sensitive wetland area from mining were legitimate, the government nonetheless violated the firm’s rights to ‘fair and equitable treatment’.”

Trew is referring to a challenge by Vancouver-based Eco Oro in relation to its Angostura gold concession in Colombia. The company withdrew from the mine in 2019 after Colombia prohibited mining in the high-altitude wetlands of the Santurban paramo.

A significant part of this story, as told by the Colombia Working Group, is that Eco Oro, then known as Greystar, had previously made a pact with the army and paramilitaries following the kidnapping of one of its contractors in 1999.

The working group highlights: “[The company] paid for the installation of a military base and also bought land in the zone. Greystar provided logistical support to establish a security operations base, and part of the troops’ mandate is to ensure the viability of the company’s mining operations.”

Mexico

Trade expert Scott Sinclair has also written: “While Canada and the U.S. agreed to terminate ISDS between themselves, the Mexican government of Enrique Peña Nieto settled for a more complicated arrangement.”

“ISDS is no longer available between Canada and Mexico through CUSMA [Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, that entered into force in July 2020], though it remains in place in the CPTPP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, that entered into force in December 2018].”

Sinclair highlights: “U.S. investors with government contracts in a range of key sectors, including energy, will retain full access to old-style, unreformed ISDS.”

This summer, at a “three amigas” summit with her Mexican and US counterparts, Trade Minister Mary Ng reiterated Canada’s “ongoing concern with the investment climate in Mexico specifically in energy and mining sectors,” while welcoming the expected reopening of the San Rafael mine operated by Canadian miner Americas Gold and Silver Corp.

Guatemala

In December 2018, Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) filed a $300 million claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank arbitration mechanism, claiming its investor rights under the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) had been violated.

This relates to the El Tambor mine in an area known as La Puya, just north of Guatemala City, that community members began to blockade in March 2012 when it was owned by Vancouver-based Radius Gold Inc.

While Canada does not have a trade agreement with Guatemala (despite previous efforts) and Radius Gold sold the mine to KCA in August 2012, the company retains an interest in the mine (including quarterly royalty payments on gold production from the mine) and, as such, would also retain an interest in the outcome of this investor-rights challenge.

What’s needed?

Several years ago, Michel Forst, at that time the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, wrote: “Trade agreements with countries where environmental defenders are under threat should contemplate measures to prevent, investigate and remedy violations against activists.”

And Manuel Perez Rocha, an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, has argued: “Human rights in the broadest sense — including economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights — must have primacy over corporate and investor rights, and there needs to be legally binding obligations on transnational corporations.”

Among the proposals suggested by Perez Rocha are “eliminate ISDS … and establish binding investor obligations” and “recognizing indigenous title to land and resources and the right to free, prior, and informed consent.”

Canada-Pacific Alliance free trade agreement

Canada is currently pursuing the Canada-Pacific Alliance Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Peru. Guatemala has expressed interest in joining the Pacific Alliance, while Honduras has formally applied for membership in the alliance.

It’s not clear if any analysis has been done on the impact or potential implications of the Pacific Alliance on defenders in these countries.

We will continue to study these issue and make advocacy interventions in light of the dangers faced by human rights defenders in these countries.

Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanies Yessika Hoyos, a human rights lawyer with José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR). In 2009, she visited Canada to speak against the passage of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Family members of #CasoDiarioMiitar victims who now live in Canada tell their stories

By
Brent Patterson
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Luz Haidee Mendez Calderon, Orencio Sosa Calderon, and Hector Rolando Valdez Guzmán were disappeared in Guatemala and are listed in the Military Diary.

On September 18, the CBC reported about three women who moved to Canada after loved ones were disappeared by the Guatemalan military between 1983 and 1985 in what is referred to as the Military Diary case.

That article by Erin Ellis explains: “In 1999, families of the disappeared received the first evidence their loved ones had been captured, likely tortured and then killed, when the so-called Military Diary was leaked to researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based National Security Archive, a repository of declassified government documents from around the world.”

“The Military Diary is a disturbing catalogue of 183 entries containing photos, political party and labour connections of mostly young activists, along with the date and location of their capture. The code ‘300’ at the end of entries is understood to mean they were executed, although the location of their remains is unknown.”

“In June of this year, a judge ruled that 12 former members of the Guatemalan military will be tried in court on charges connected to the diary, including torture, murder and forced disappearance. The trial will start to hear evidence in a Guatemala City courtroom on Sept. 21, amid an ongoing campaign by army veterans and some politicians to issue a sweeping amnesty for crimes committed during the war.”

Wendy Mendez, Vancouver

“[Wendy] Mendez was nine years old on March 8, 1984, the day a group of men abducted her and her mother, Luz Haidee Mendez Calderon [who worked for a university newspaper and promoted organized labour], and took them to a clandestine detention centre. That day, Mendez not only witnessed her mother being tortured but was sexually assaulted herself.”

Maria Consueleo Pérez, Hull

“Maria Consueleo Pérez remembers the day that left her family broken. At 11 a.m. on Oct. 25, 1983, panicked staff at a hospital in Chimaltenango, west of Guatemala City, called her with the news: her husband, 39-year-old Dr. Orencio Sosa Calderon, had been taken in a van after gunshots were fired. Sosa had been wounded, they said. And he was now gone.”

Annabella Jiménez, Montreal

“In October 1983, Annabella Jiménez, then a 22-year-old private school teacher, was staying at her mother’s house because her foot was in a cast. One Sunday, her husband, 25-year-old Hector Rolando Valdez Guzmán, picked her up along with their young son and dropped them off at a circus in Guatemala City. But Valdez Guzmán, who was also a teacher, never came back.”

The full CBC article by Erin Ellis can be read at Still Missing.

PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying lawyer Edgar Pérez and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at the preliminary hearings of the military officers accused of forced disappearance, murder and crimes against humanity in the Military Diary case.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris at forum on IACHR ruling on LGBTQI+ rights

By
Brent Patterson
-

On September 17, PBI-Honduras posted: “PBI accompanied the Asociación LGTB Arcoiris at the forum on the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that declared the State of Honduras responsible for the death of Vicky Hernandez, trans woman activist after the coup in 2009. The event focuses on the trans situation in Latin America and the challenges of the Gender Identity Act that LGTBIQ rights defenders are promoting.”

This past June, The Guardian reported: “In a landmark ruling for transgender rights, the Honduras government has been found responsible for the 2009 murder of the trans woman and activist Vicky Hernández.”

“Hernández was killed on the first night of the June 2009 coup d’état, in which the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya.”

“Lawyers working on Hernández’s case argued that state agents actually committed the murder. …The court ruling, which ordered Honduras to restart its investigation into Hernández’s death, found ‘several indications of the participation of state agents.’”

“The court [also] ordered Honduras, which has the world’s highest rate of murders of trans people, to pay reparations to Hernández’s family and implement a sweeping range of measures designed to protect trans people, including anti-discrimination training for security forces and state collection of data on violence against LGBTQ+ people.”

“[And the IACHR] ruled that the state must allow people to alter their gender identity on identification documents and public records.”

The Trans Legal Mapping Report notes that in Honduras it’s “not possible” to change your name and that it’s “forbidden by law to make any modification of the sex assigned in the original birth certificate.”

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

PBI-Honduras: “It is urgent to make known the sentence against David Castillo”

By
Brent Patterson
-

Quote: “It is urgent to make known the sentence against David Castillo, found guilty as co-intellectual author of the murder of the defender Berta Cáceres.” PBI at the United Nations. Banner: “Berta, word and seed We will do you Justice”

On September 16, Peace Brigades International presented during the Interactive Dialogue with Fabian Salvioli, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

In that presentation, Geneva-based PBI advocacy coordinator Kim-Mai Vu highlighted:

“In Honduras, it is urgent to make known the sentence against David Castillo, convicted as co-intellectual author of the murder of the defender Berta Cáceres. It is essential to continue the processes legal proceedings against the other alleged masterminds of the murder.”

The following day, PBI-Honduras reiterated on social media:

“During the interactive dialogue … PBI stressed the need to continue to advance justice for the crime against Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres and to continue the proceedings against all suspected intellectual perpetrators of the murder.”

Their post also noted their: “Concern about the few and slow advances in the fight against impunity as Honduras runs for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council.”

Following that, Berta’s daughter Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres tweeted:

“It is urgent to make known the sentence against Roberto David Castillo Mejía, co-perpetrator of the crime against my mother, Berta Cáceres. The victims continue to demand access to the justice.”

On July 5, Castillo was found guilty of being a co-collaborator in order the murder of Berta, but he has not yet been sentenced.

You can watch the video of Kim-Mai’s presentation in Spanish here. You can also watch it with English interpretation here (starting at 02:18:45).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies media conference on Bernardo Caal Xol’s cassation verdict

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 17, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Today we accompany the press conference that announced the negative response of the Supreme Court of Justice of Guatemala to the appeal for cassation [annulment] raised by the defence of the criminalized defender Bernardo Caal Xol. The appeal sought a review of the legal process for the series of faults and irregularities that occurred in the course of the criminal prosecution against the Q’eqchi ‘leader.”

El Periodico further reports:

“The Council of Ancestral Authorities Q’eqchi’ and the Communities in resistance of Santa María Cahabón, expressed their indignation at the ‘unjust sentence of the cassation process issued by the Criminal Chamber’, in relation to the conviction of Bernardo Caal Xol.

The organizations point out that corruption and impunity allowed the criminalization, false accusations and conviction against Professor Bernardo Caal, who defended the territory and the Cahabón River following the teachings and norms of his ancestors.

They said, ‘The case reached the last instance of cassation where the Criminal Chamber ratified the sentence to 7 years and 4 months despite the procedural defects in form and substance,thus condemning it unjustly.’

In a statement, the organizations demand that the Supreme Court of Justice annul the conviction for the crimes that were charged through ‘false accusations, and in processes with obvious procedural defects.’

In addition, they demand that the Public Ministry investigate and deduce responsibilities from those who, through acts of corruption, have authorized and favored extractive projects in Alta Verapaz.

Finally, they call on the population to ‘continue demonstrating against corruption and influence peddling in the powers of the State to demand transparency in the application of justice, prompt and fulfilled.’”

Background

Caal Xol is a leader of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, a collective of 38 Maya Q’eqchi communities, that was formed to oppose the construction of the Oxec and Renace dams on the Cahabón River and its tributaries.

PBI-United Kingdom has noted: “In August 2017, PBI provided security support to the good-faith consultation in which the 195 communities of the Cahabón River overwhelmingly rejected the Oxec hydroelectric projects.”

The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC) highlights: “A few months later [in December 2017], Bernardo was arrested [in] a clear act of retribution for the defense of his community’s water rights.”

In November 2018, Bernardo was sentenced to seven years and four months in jail.

In July 2020, Amnesty International declared that Caal Xol is a prisoner of conscience who has been wrongfully imprisoned.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied Bernardo and the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón since 2017.

El Periodico photo.

PBI-Guatemala at the cassation hearing on June 21, 2021.

U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposes three amendments on Colombia in the National Defense spending bill

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 16, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued this media release that highlights three amendments she has proposed in relation to Colombia and next week’s vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

1- Report on human rights

“First, she called on the Departments of Defense and State to produce a report on the status of human rights in Colombia within 180 days, given reports that as many as 63 people were killed this year during demonstrations against anti-working-class reforms.”

2- Prohibit sale of weapons

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez also submitted an amendment that would prohibit the sale of military aid, weaponry, and training to Colombia’s Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron, which was directly responsible for egregious abuses during the April 2021 protests.”

3- Prevent funds for aerial fumigation

“The Congresswoman reintroduced her amendment to prevent any U.S. funds from supporting aerial fumigation, which has been used in an attempt to decrease cocaine production; but instead has resulted in devastating health and environmental consequences for the Colombian people.”

The National Defense Authorization Act specifies the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense.

This past May, the Biden Administration submitted to Congress a budget request of $752.9 billion for national defense, $715 billion of which is for the Department of Defense.

Earlier this month, the House Armed Services Committee endorsed a plan to add $23.9 billion more than President Biden had requested. If approved, Department of Defense spending would increase to $740 billion in 2022.

The measures proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may also be of interest to Members of Parliament in Canada concerned about human rights in Colombia.

The Canadian government has approved the sale of armoured vehicles to both the Colombian Army and the National Police, and it provides about $40 million per year to Colombia in international assistance, including through the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program that involves the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence.

The Canadian government has committed to expand its “national defence” budget from $18.9 billion in 2016-17 to $32.7 billion in 2026-27. On a cash basis, that would total military spending in Canada at $553 billion over a 20-year period.

The federal election in Canada will take place on September 20 and the House of Commons is scheduled to resume sitting on October 18.

PBI-Honduras accompanies journalist Dina Meza at police station after arrest of Bryan Hernández

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 16, PBI-Honduras posted: “PBI accompanies the journalist Dina Meza after the arrest of the communicator Henry Hernández. We show our concern about the use of force during the arrest by the police.”

Paso de Animal Grande reports: “A delegation of Peace Brigades International (PBI), the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre) and the Association for Democracy and Human Rights (ASOPODEHU) arrived at the police station to manage the freedom of the journalist along with social activists, journalists and militants of the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE).”

What happened?

Proceso Digital reports: “Journalist Bryan Hernández was violently arrested on Thursday by members of the National Directorate and Transportation Highways (DNVT) for an alleged traffic violation in the center of the Honduran capital.”

That article adds: “Several videos were released showing how a DNVT agent grabbed the journalist and threw him towards the back of a police patrol car. Then when the vehicle starts, it can be seen that officers push the journalist and even kick him.”

It also notes: “The Association of Journalists of Honduras (CPH), demanded the Public Ministry, DNVT and the Directorate of Police Disciplinary Affairs (Didadpol), to initiate an investigation to clarify the detention of the journalist.”

That CPH tweet says: “We ask @dnvt_honduras, @Didadpol, @MP_Honduras [Public Ministry] to immediately initiate an investigation aimed at clarifying the shameful events carried out by police elements against the journalist Brayan Hernández. Physical abuse against citizens is reprehensible and unjust.”

Vigil and release

And El Pulso tweeted: “Journalists from different media outlets got ready at the El Manchén police post, demanding the release and respect of the rights of the communicator Brayan Hernández.”

Just before midnight on September 16, C-Libre tweeted: “After being detained for about nine hours, they release the #Periodista Bryan Hernandez of @STNHonduras. He was received by colleagues from different media who stood guard at the facilities of the Barrio el Manchen Police Station in Tegucigalpa.”

NOMADESC upholds the right of mural painting in Cali, denounces police violence and genocide

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 15, the Association for Research and Social Action (NOMADESC) posted:

“In recent months, the various scenarios of peaceful mobilization that took place in the city, such as the muralist day on 5th Street, conceived from the dignity and respect for the memory of the victims, have been spaces of harassment by various officials of the mayor of Cali violating freedom of expression. This is why we make a public complaint about the imposition of impunity and failure to clarify the genocidal acts committed by the security forces.”

In this 7-minute video, Lina Pelaez of NOMADESC says:

“Interested in this exercise of the defence of human rights and within the framework of the muralist minga that took place this weekend in the city of Cali, we come to denounce the threats that the mayor’s office against the muralists.

 Also against all the mobilized citizens who have been accompanying these exercises in fact before the media and is a threat that violates freedom of expression saying that it is going to erase the murals with political content without clarifying what is the political content to which it refers, putting at risk all the people in the exercise of our fundamental right to a social protest to a mobilization are in these actions within the framework of the national strike.

With brushes with colours show that there is something some facts to report police brutality we will continue to denounce police violence. We will continue to denounce it. We will continue to say stop the genocide because it is an action that claims the lives of many who have died not only in this national strike but in the context of all the violence that has occurred in this country, and we continue to fight for our lives.

We do not want the security of the secretary of security and justice in the head of the man continues to affect our right to freedom of expression when we are intervening. There is no reason to approach citizens who are in their free exercise.

Today we as human rights defenders denounce the pressure of the mayor’s office, we declare that we will take legal action if necessary and we stand in solidarity, we support of all artists and the artists from Cali who have made this same muralist a peaceful and dignified scene of mobilization and who respect and remember the victims.”

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

Another video about the painting of the murals can be seen here.

PBI presents on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence in Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
-

On September 16, Peace Brigades International presented during the Interactive Dialogue with Fabian Salvioli, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

You can watch the video of the presentation in Spanish here. You can also watch it with English interpretation here (starting at 02:18:45).

Geneva-based PBI advocacy coordinator Kim-Mai Vu stated:

“In Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras there is concern about the increase in attacks against independence justice, defenders, journalists and justice operators. The fight against impunity is key to accessing truth, justice and reparations.

In Guatemala, the decision of the Constitutional Court to eliminate criminal and enable commutation of prison sentences for corruption cases, the new attempt by Congress to ratify a complete and retroactive amnesty for crimes against humanity, as well as the change of the right to compensation to a welfare program.

In Colombia, we regret the lack of guarantees for victims and litigating organizations in the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Repetition. Threats against organizations DH Colombia, CCAJAR and CCALCP among others, attacks, intelligence actions illegal state, the persistence of paramilitary groups and the worsening of the conflict hinder access to the System.

In Honduras, it is urgent to make known the sentence against David Castillo, convicted as co-intellectual author of the murder of the defender Berta Cáceres. It is essential to continue the processes legal proceedings against the other alleged masterminds of the murder.

It is essential that the international community demand that these states comply with the Agreements of Peace, guarantee access to truth, justice and reparation, veto all amnesty for crimes of against humanity and clarify the responsibility of all intellectual authors in cases of serious violations.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanied AVECHAV shares story of Chicoyogüito displacement with University of Victoria students

By
Brent Patterson
-

On September 15, Domingo of the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV) presented to 4th year students at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

The university is situated on the territory of the Indigenous WSANEC and Lkwungen peoples, whose relationships to the land continue to this day.

Domingo, along with Silvia Weber (PBI-Guatemala), Heather Neun and Brent Patterson (PBI-Canada), joined via Zoom at the invitation of Sebastian Bonet, a professor of environmental studies at the university.

Domingo spoke about the displacement and dispossession of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito from their ancestral lands by an army base then known as Military Zone 21 in Alta Verapaz.

More than 200 families were displaced on July 28, 1968, by the military.

Domingo shared that after the displacement of the community, the military base became a clandestine centre for illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance, and rape committed from 1978 to 1990.

At least 565 Indigenous people were disappeared at that base. The bodies identified are of Mayan Achí, Q’eqchi’, Pomochí, Ixil, and Kiché peoples.

On this PBI-Canada organized webinar on July 15, Domingo also highlighted: “We know Canada has provided a lot of support for [the Creompaz peacekeeping base on our land]. But where is the peace that they say they are creating?”

The military base that displaced his community was rebranded in 2004 as Creompaz, a training base for UN peacekeepers funded by Canada and other countries. A timeline of Canada’s history and funding of this base can be read here.

That timeline also notes the Canadian government’s reticence to Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz and his commitment to agrarian land reform that would have begun to address the deeply unequal access to land rooted in centuries of colonization.

The overthrow of Arbenz and the end to his land reform program can be connected to the armed conflict (1960 to 1996), the establishment of Military Zone 21, as well as the estimated 1,000 land conflicts now happening in Guatemala, and the systemic poverty and repression that drive migration across militarized borders.

On June 9, in the lead up to the July 28 anniversary of their displacement, the community organized a demonstration. Before it could even begin, 21 community members were arrested on the charge of “aggravated usurpation” as they gathered for this protest.

The next hearing for these defenders will be in October.

For updates, we encourage you to follow @CasoCreompaz on Twitter and/search the hashtags #ChicoyogüitoEsNuestro, #Chicoyogüito and #CREOMPAZ.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV) since 2015.

To watch the PBI webinar with two Chicoyogüito leaders, click here.

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