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Eight climate activists call on UN and COP26 leaders to condemn the killing of land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Elizabeth Wathuti (Kenya), Xiye Bastida (Mexico) and Laura Verónica Muñoz (Colombia) are among the eight climate activists.

The Independent reports that eight climate activists have written United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and COP26 President Alok Sharma calling on them to “condemn the killing and harassment of land and environmental defenders.”

The letter came from Elizabeth Wathuti (Kenya), Laura Verónica Muñoz (Colombia), Xiye Bastida (an Indigenous Mexican-Chilean based in the United States), Vanessa Nakate (Uganda), Ridhima Pandey (India), Ayakha Melithafa (South Africa), Litokne Kabua (Marshall Islands) and Olumide Idowu (Nigeria).

Global Witness has highlighted: “On average, four defenders have been killed every week since December 2015 – the month the Paris Climate agreement was signed, amid hopes of a new era of climate progress. Countless more are silenced by violent attacks, arrests, death threats, sexual violence or lawsuits.”

And the UN Human Rights Council passed this resolution in 2019 that says defenders “must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

In response to the letter, a COP26 spokesperson says: “No one should face violence or harassment for peacefully standing up for our planet. COP26 will ensure the voices of all are heard in the fight against climate change, which is why the COP26 president-designate has prioritized meeting people on the front line of climate change.”

In countries where Peace Brigades International physically accompanies at-risk defenders, Global Witness has documented that 64 were killed in Colombia in 2019 as were 18 in Mexico, 14 in Honduras, 12 in Guatemala, 3 in Indonesia and 1 in Kenya.

The COP26 summit will take place November 1-12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

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The letter in full:

Environmental defenders are in greater danger than ever. We are being killed, threatened, harassed, criminalised and silenced for peacefully protecting the basis of life that all of us depend on. Since the Paris Agreement was signed in December 2015, at least four environmental defenders have been killed every week – these are just the deaths that have been registered. The violence has only increased since the onset of Covid-19.

It has been a month since environmental activist Joannah Stutchbury, 67, was killed near her home in Nairobi, Kenya. No arrests have been made so far – justice for Joannah is yet to be served. Joannah died because of her tireless fight to protect green spaces. She stood up to developers who were eyeing Kiambu Forest in Kenya. Like Wangari Maathai, she put the protection of Kiambu Forest ahead of her personal comfort – and, in the end, survival.

As young activists from around the globe, we come armed with nothing more than courage. But many of us feel unsafe in our own countries due to killings like Joannah’s. Both climate impacts and legal protections are unevenly distributed – some of us are much more unsafe than others. Today we stand together in solidarity; demanding justice for Joannah and asking leaders – everywhere – to protect us, especially those most at risk.

Environmentalists are the first line of defense against socio-ecological collapse and the climate crisis. We need them. Instead, we allow them to be silenced through violent attacks, death threats, or murder by those who refuse to act responsibly and continue to devastate nature. Defenders need and deserve to feel safe in their own countries. Nobody should be threatened or killed for standing up for life, speaking truth to power, or for choosing to be a part of the solution to address global environmental challenges. We must defend the defenders. There is little hope for our species if we allow the killing of the very people who stand up to protect us.

This situation cannot continue. Today we call on:

The UN secretary-general and the Cop26 president-designate to condemn the killing and harassment of land and environmental defenders in the strongest possible terms, and to call for countries to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.

The UN secretary-general to utilize all tools available to the UN to ensure the protection of environmental defenders, including by supporting the global implementation of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

The Cop26 president-designate to use the significant diplomatic resources at his disposal – through UK embassies and High Commissions around the world – to make this a top priority in his discussions with Government leaders, working with them to strengthen protections for environmental defenders in-country.

-Elizabeth Wathuti, Laura Verónica Muñoz, Xiye Bastida, Vanessa Nakate, Ridhima Pandey, Ayakha Melithafa, Litokne Kabua, Olumide Idowu

Berta Cáceres and COPINH opposed construction of Canjel dam on Lenca territory by Canadian company

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Bertha Isabel and Laura Zuniga Cáceres at Radio Canada Internacional studio in Montreal, Canada, August 2016.

Following the ruling this week recognizing the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) as a victim in the ‘Fraud on the Gualcarque’ trial, we look back at COPINH’s opposition to the construction of a dam on the Canjel River on Lenca territory by Montreal-based Hydrosys.

Less than a year before she was murdered, COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres said she had received death threats related to her opposition to this dam.

Quebec-based CIMA+ merged with Hydrosys in April 2016 and their website suggests that this dam has been completed.

COPINH opposition to the Canjel dam

On January 30, 2015, COPINH issued this condemnation of the dam and named “HYDROSYS (Canada)” along with Blue Energy.

On March 4, 2016, Telesur reported: “Two years after the [Rio Blanco] community set up a road blockade [in April 2013] to resist the foreign-backed Agua Zarca dam project on the Gualcarque River, Caceres and her fellow activists found out that Blue Energy planned to build a dam on another local waterway, the Canjel River.”

That article adds: “The community was never consulted about the project and COPINH publicly opposed the dam.”

Blue Energy said dam was in Santa Barbara

On March 9, 2015, Upside Down World reported: “When Blue Energy filed paperwork with Honduras’ Environmental Ministry, they listed the project as being located in the Municipality of Intibucá.”

“However, when the Environmental Ministry requested the company provide documentation of authorization to construct the dam in Intibucá, Blue Energy responded by simply claiming the dam was now in Santa Barbara. In this way, they avoided consulting the Indigenous people of Intibucá.”

That article adds: “In December 2014, Rio Blanco community members walked the borders of the Rio Blanco territory and found the dam being constructed; the Indigenous elders of Rio Blanco report the dam is partly in Lenca territory, in Intibucá.”

The Canadian company that built the dam

On March 7, 2016, the Honduras Culture and Politics blog also noted: “Recently, a new dam project in the same region, on the Rio Canjel, was awarded to a US firm, Rio Energy LLC, owned by Peter L. Ochs of Capital III, along with Canadian firm Hydrosys Consultants.”

That article highlights: “Hydrosys has sole responsibility for the planning and construction according to their own project description.”

Then on August 9, 2016, Radio Canada International (RCI) reported: “So far, the Canadian government has not made any statement concerning the case of Berta Cáceres, which is surprising since a company from this country, Hydrosys, has directly participated in the feasibility studies, plans and specifications for the construction, supervision, construction management and commissioning of the Canjel River hydroelectric project in the Lenca indigenous territory to which Cáceres was openly opposed.”

Police search for Caceres on bus en route to protest Rio Canjel project

The Honduras Culture and Politics blog adds: “On January 27 of [2016], a bus load of Rio Blanco protestors was stopped on their way to protest the Rio Canjel project by Honduran police in the community of Agua Caliente and the bus was searched for the presence of Berta Cáceres, who fortunately was not aboard the bus but rather back in Rio Blanco.”

Death threats from Blue Energy

Telesur has also reported: “Caceres warned on multiple occasions that she had received death threats and other harassment from state and corporate agents, including Canadian hydroelectric giant Blue Energy, as a result of her activism resisting unwanted development projects on Indigenous territory.”

That article adds: “Caceres made statements [in April 2015] claiming that ‘men close to Blue Energy’, a transnational Canadian company looking to build a dam in the Rio Blanco area in western Honduras, or people ‘close to politicians’ and ‘death squads promoted from government policies’ were behind the death threats leveled against her.”

Questions remain

On April 28, 2016, less than two months after Caceres was murdered, this media release stated: “CIMA+, one the largest Canadian consulting engineering firms, has recently merged with Hydrosys Consultants Inc., a firm specializing in engineering services for hydropower and hydraulic structures.”

Furthermore, CIMA+ notes on its Hydropower Construction, Honduras webpage that its client was “Blue Energy SA” and that “CIMA+ provided a complete range of engineering for the construction of the 3 MW hydropower project.”

That webpage adds: “CIMA+ also ensured work supervision. The final stages of the project were achieved with the support of a local partnership and technology transfer by CIMA+ experts to our client’s local employee. The project included a large concrete weir with a desander and a 4 km penstock leading to the powerhouse located 290 m below.”

It’s not clear if CIMA+ or Hydrosys executives were ever questioned by Canadian or Honduran authorities about the death threats against Caceres or the allegations made about fraudulent claims regarding the location of the Canjel dam.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied COPINH since May 2016.

PBI-Honduras welcomes court ruling recognizing COPINH as a victim in the ‘Fraud on the Gualcarque’ hearings

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 25, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “We welcome the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of Honduras to reintegrate @COPINHHONDURAS as a victim in the ‘Fraud on the Gualcarque’.”

The trial will look at the irregularities in the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, including acts of corruption in which permits and licences were authorized as well as violations of the Indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent.

PBI-Honduras also quotes COPINH responding to the news of this court ruling: “The river told us we were going to succeed. It is a momentous victory; recognizes that human rights of these communities have been violated.”

This tweet from the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) further explains: “Supreme Court of Justice recognizes the condition of Victim of COPINH and Río Blanco in the case of Fraud on the Gualcarque.”

Paradigma also reports: “On the third day of the oral and public trial in the case against Roberto Aníbal Martínez Lozano, Roberto David Castillo Mejía, Carolina Lizeth Castillo Argueta, Luis Eduardo Espinoza Mejía, José Mario Carbajal Flores and Raúl Pineda Pineda, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) decided on an appeal for amparo in favour of COPINH, forcing the suspension of that trial.”

And HCH reports in an article titled Justice restores to COPINH the right to litigate in ‘Fraud on the Gualcarque’ case that “According to lawyer Victor Morales, this decision goes back to the point where the aforementioned parties were affected.”

COPINH further clarifies this by noting: “The ruling of the Constitutional Chamber obliges to suspend the ongoing trial and return the judicial process to the stage in which COPINH was illegally excluded by the Court of Anticorruption Appeals.”

Letters of support

Earlier this month, about 70 organizations highlighted in this letter that Honduran law establishes the right of civil societies to be recognized as victims requested that the Constitutional Chamber “resolve expeditiously and within the framework of legality” the amparo filed by COPINH on this matter in 2019.

One of the signatories to that letter is Lawyers Without Borders Canada.

The PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) also urged Honduran judicial authorities to recognize COPINH as a victim of the acts of corruption being prosecuted.

The amicus curiae letter from CCAJR, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Centre for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) and the Centre for Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH) can be read here.

PBI-Honduras has accompanied COPINH since May 2016.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies CCDA at Mayan ceremony for ancestral authorities and land defenders who have experienced repression

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 25, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “PBI accompanies CCDA Verapaz at a Mayan ceremony for all the attacks, threats and repression suffered by the ancestral authorities and defenders of the land.”

The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) accompanies 150 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities who have been repressed and stripped of their land or who are immersed in conflicts regarding land tenure.

On August 22, the CCDA tweeted: “We condemn the vile murder of community leader ALBERTO TEC CAAL. We demand justice and the prompt capture of those responsible. WE ARE DEFENDERS, NOT CRIMINALS.”

On July 20, Regilson Choc Cac, a Q’eqchi Mayan sixteen-year-old land rights defender and member of CCDA, was shot to death in San Juan Los Tres Ríos, Cobán, Alta Verapaz. He was the third CCDA leader murdered in this community. On June 8, 2016, Daniel Choc was murdered, and on May 13, 2018, Mateo Chaman was murdered. Neither of those cases have been successfully prosecuted.

Two other CCDA members, Q’eqchi Mayan campesinos Jorge Coc Coc and Marcelino Xol Cucul, were unjustly sentenced to 35 years in prison without parole in October 2019.

And CCDA coordinators Lesbia Artola Peyul and Imelda Teyul have continued to face serious security incidents.

The PBI-Guatemala report We Defend Life! The Social Struggles in Alta Verapaz provides the historical context: “The indigenous peoples and campesinos of AV have been subjected to continuous dispossession dating back to the Spanish conquest, when the looting of natural wealth in the region began through the exploitation of raw materials.”

It adds: “Faced with this history of dispossession, the indigenous and campesino population has organized multiple resistances throughout history. …The State’s response to these resistances has been characterized by repression.”

The Guardian has reported: “A peace agreement in 1996 should have led to land redistribution, but a handful of powerful families still dominates the economy, and Guatemala remains one of the world’s least equal and most violent countries, with the largest 2.5% of farms occupying more than 65% of the land.”

That article further notes that foreign-backed mining, dams and other extractive industries have meant the continued dispossession of lands from Indigenous peoples.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied CCDA-Verapaz since July 2018.

PBI-Colombia meets with CCALCP lawyers collective on their work and security situation

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 25, PBI-Colombia posted: “We held a meeting with the Luis Carlos Pérez Collective Lawyers Corporation (CCALCP) in Bucaramanga to follow up on the work they are doing in defense of human rights as well as their security situation.”

PBI-Colombia has previously noted: “The Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers’ Collective Corporation (CCALCP), composed entirely of women, has been working for twenty years on behalf of peasants, indigenous people and communities affected by the armed conflict in the regions of northeastern Colombia and Magdalena Medio.”

On November 2, 2019, Julia Figueroa and Andrea Nocove from CCALCP and Ivan Madero from the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto for an eight-day advocacy tour in Canada. They were accompanied by Javier Garate, the Canada/USA advocacy representative from the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project.

Their events in Toronto and Ottawa and later that week in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Duncan are documented in this article: Photo-journal of 8-day solidarity tour by Colombian human rights defenders from CCALCP and CREDHOS to Canada.

This past February, the German Ambassador to Colombia tweeted: “The situation continues to be difficult in Los Santanderes, especially in Catatumbo! We support Julia Figueroa at CCALCP for her work as legal counsel to victims. It is important to find true substitute alternatives to stabilize this region.”

And in June, Andrea Nocove spoke in this video in “tribute to the women and men who bravely undertake this task; by leaders in the regions who are the reason to persist in the construction of a more democratic and pluralistic country.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CCALCP since 2006.

Channel 2 journalist José Alberto Tejada meets with IACHR Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Pedro Vaca Villarreal is the IACHR Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. In the lower right-hand corner is Javier Garate of PBI-Colombia.

On August 23, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression tweeted: “Today the [Special Rapporteur] listened to the journalist José Alberto Tejada, director of [independent news Channel 2] on the risk reports faced by this communication medium.”

Their tweet highlights: “This Office reiterates its call to the State to respect, protect and guarantee the free exercise of journalism.”

This meeting follows a series of threats against Tejada.

The Medellín-based online newspaper Colombia Reports has commented: “Tejada went from being a local journalist to a national icon after a series of reports in which Canal 2 exposed evidence police colluded with armed civilians and committed all kinds of crimes against humanity to quell anti-government protests in Cali.”

Infobae has reported: “On June 4, the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (Flip) expressed its concern for the safety of the journalists of Channel 2, José Alberto Tejada and Jhonatan Buitrago. In the midst of coverage of demonstrations in Cali, Esmad agents fired in the direction of the journalists, even though they were fully identified as the press.”

That article adds: “In the last few hours, a new alert was released about an alleged sicarial [hitman] plan that was launched against this journalist.”

It also describes security incidents on June 22, June 30, July 2 and July 6.

On August 12, Contagio Radio reported: “One of the most worrying incidents reported by [human rights] organizations occurred on August 7 in the early morning hours. According to the complaint around 1:30 a.m. in the vicinity of Alberto Tejada’s family home, a person on a motorcycle drew a gun when he was identified by security personnel.”

That article adds: “In that same week, the same security team identified a man who was guarding Tejada’s residence and who, when he was identified in June, went to a commercial establishment where several police officers were present who, after the man’s arrival on a motorcycle, left the scene.”

And on August 16, the Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace noted: “On Sunday August 15 at 10:30 a.m. in Cali, at the residence of Channel 2 journalist José Alberto Tejada, two members of the RAP Peace protection group were approached by the patrolman Quiñonez with identification number 531168 and the patrol Mosquera with identification 657773 of the National Police who arrived at the place on a motorcycle and requested a search and identification documents.”

“This new security incident against Tejada indicates the existence of a persecution plan with psychological operations, sabotage, follow-ups and intimidation.”

It adds: “Since April 28, irregular police actions have been filed against the journalist of Channel 2 that seek to limit the right to free expression, question the news information, delegitimize the complaints made, financially stifle this medium.”

On June 16, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Thank you to the European Union Delegation in Colombia and to the Norwegian, Canadian and UK embassies in Colombia, for holding a meeting with the Justice and Peace Commission and Jose Alberto Tejada from Canal 2 TV to address the situation of attacks on press freedom in Cali and direct work with young people in the framework of the national strike.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies criminalized Maya Q’eqchi’ defender Bernardo Caal Xol at court hearing

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 24, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Today, PBI accompanied criminalized defender Bernardo Caal Xol at a hearing in Coban.”

It adds: “In another trial he is accused of scamming the State of Guatemala for having received his salary as a teacher for a while in which he also exercised his duties as a unionist in his profession. The judge declared the provisional closure of the case and gave the MP [Public Ministry] 6 months to seek further evidence. Next audience will be April 2022.”

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.

27-year-old student leader Esteban Mosquera murdered in Popayán, Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Student leader Esteban Mosquera has been assassinated just a few metres from his home in Popayán, Cauca. He was 27 years old.

Infobae reports that on August 23 two armed men on a motorcycle shot the student leader who had been studying music at the University of Cauca.

That article adds that Esteban had become a symbol of peaceful struggle after he lost an eye on December 13, 2018, when the ESMAD riot police threw a stun grenade towards him during a student protest. That protest had been demanding greater government investment in public universities.

Despite that injury by the police, Esteban said: “I live for art and for my family. I don’t want hatred or violence.”

According to his relatives, Esteban was also illegally detained twice by the police during the national strike that began on April 28 of this year.

Periodico Virtual adds: “So far there has been no pronouncement by the judicial authorities in Popayan, The only thing that is known is that hitmen approached him in the La Pamba neighbourhood and shot him several times. According to preliminary information, Mosquera was hit by a firearm in the head, which ended his life at the scene.”

Colombia’s University Students Association (ACEU) has stated: “We will continue Esteban’s struggle. We will carry on in the streets seeking a dignified life for our people.”

 And the alternative media outlet Contra Portada, for whom Esteban covered the social protests this year as a reporter and photographer, commented:

“They will not be able to kill our longing for change, our dream of good living, our conviction of love as a weapon in this fight, we will continue to communicate the truth and multiply the eternal seed of life that Esteban gave us.”

We extend our condolences and solidarity to Esteban’s family and friends.

“Esteban Mosquera, colleague and leader of UniCauca has been assassinated. Not a minute of silence! In 2018 they took his eye, today they took his life.”

PBI-Colombia highlights CCEEU, CJL & CSPP report on illegal state intelligence activities

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 24, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Report delivered to @JEP_Colombia highlights ‘persecution and extermination of groups in #Colombia through the use of intelligence and illegal counterintelligence, which is still current policy’.”

This statement notes: “The Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination network, the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) and the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) will present to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) the report ‘From the Kingdom of Shadows: Covert and Illegal Activities of State Intelligence against Democracy and Human Rights in Colombia’.”

PBI-Colombia accompanies both the CJL and the CSPP.

The statement further explains: “This document gives an account of the illegal conduct carried out by the high military and government commands within the state security forces such as the defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS), currently the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), and Intelligence of the National Army in the period of time from 1989 to 2016 during this period it was possible to demonstrate a line of continuity of the illegal use of state intelligence, in charge of the Army’s intelligence area, which meant the continuity of the actions of the DAS and even the BINCI.”

The BINCI refers to the Battalion of Intelligence and Counterintelligence of the Colombian National Army.

The statement then highlights: “This persecution and extermination of groups through the use of intelligence and illegal counterintelligence, which remains a current policy, has occurred due to the concurrence of different conducts related to the crimes of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution; homicide; enforced disappearance; torture; psychological torture, among others.”

And it concludes: “We insist that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace open a specific case on the illegal use of State intelligence and counterintelligence in the context of the armed conflict, taking into account its fundamental role in the commission of serious human rights violations in Colombia.”

The full statement can be read at Actividades Encubiertas e Ilegales de la Inteligencia Estatal tuvieron su pico máximo en Gobierno de Álvaro Uribe.

International Alert for Donny Reyes, Honduran LGBTQI+ defender seeking the right to same-sex marriage

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 24, the Centre for Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CIPRODEH) tweeted this Alert: “CIPRODEH raises an international alert for the latest events that occurred to Donny Reyes, Executive Director of our organization, we demand the Honduran State to protect the life and dignity of our Director.”

Reyes is also the director of Asociación Arcoiris (Rainbow Association), an LGBTQI+ organization established in 2003.

PBI-Honduras has accompanied Arcoiris since July 2015.

Pasos de Animal Grande reports:

“Donny Reyes, defender of the LGTBI community, councillor of the National Protection Council, Director of CIPRODEH and member of the Rainbow Association, suffered a series of incidents which could have a direct relationship with the defense of his rights and which occurred within the framework of the filing of an Amparo Appeal against the State of Honduras for denying him his right to marriage.

In view of these facts, he asked the National Protection Mechanism to provide him with the necessary measures to protect him.

Reyes and his organization Arcoiris have been suffering a series of attacks for more than two years, which are intensifying as LGTBI community organizations demand the right to marriage and the approval of the Comprehensive Law for the rights of the community.

Secretly filmed by security guard, August 19

He related that last Thursday, August 19, when he was leaving the SOMOS-CDC organization, a security guard was secretly filming him to what he demanded and he hid his mobile device. The organization from which he left has been the object of homophobia actions by private security agents who guard this place and by the board of trustees of the Payaquí colony, in Tegucigalpa, for being an LGTBI organization, as they have denounced it.

Assault and theft of personal documents, August 21

While on Saturday, August 21, Donny Reyes reported being the object of an assault where unknown persons had taken his personal documents, those of his partner and other work items.

He related that that same Friday he filed an Amparo Appeal against the State of Honduras for denying him the right to marriage before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.

Faced with this series of events that would carry a message to demand rights as he has hinted, he reported all the facts to the Police Directorate of Investigations, DPI, so that a thorough investigation of all the facts is carried out, which he points out have a direct relationship to the demand for rights as a person of the LGTBI community in Honduras.”

The Pasos de Animal Grande article can be read at Donny Reyes, defensor de la comunidad LGTBI, sufrió diferentes hechos de violencia.

Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Reyes has suffered attacks, intimidation, threats, and beatings by the police. He was forced to leave Honduras and go into hiding a number of times. Between July 2015 and January 2016, his association has reported 36 security incidents and six of its members have been killed.”

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