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PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS issues Urgent Action for the protection of Afro-fishers in Barrancabermeja

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Police assault human rights defenders from CREDHOS on July 23. ESMAD ammunition abandoned in the area where the protesters are.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanied CREDHOS has issued an Urgent Action calling for the life and integrity of the Afro-descendant and fishing community to be safeguarded as they exercise their right to social protest and right to territory.

On July 28, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Important report by @Credhos_Paz about the community of Afro-fishers in #Barrancabermeja and the effects on the organization due to its accompaniment of the community.”

This Urgent Action released by CREDHOS highlights that:

1- On Saturday July 24 at 8:30 pm there was an attack with firearms against the Afro-descendant and fishing population of the El Llanito district of Barrancabermeja. This is a population exercising the right to social protest to avoid the eviction of approximately 350 families that have established a settlement on what they argue is part of their ancestral and collective territory. The attackers wounded 50-year-old Rosmira Olaya Cabarca in her right leg. She is an Afro-descendant woman and fisherwoman who is at the protest claiming her right to territory.

2- At the time of the attack, four people entered the sector on two motorcycles taking advantage of the nighttime and the inexplicable shutdown of public lighting.

3- On June 25, after the community had settled claiming the right to land, Afro leaders claim that Ramon Escobar arrived with two of his sons and that they were armed and burned several of the belongings of the families in the settlement. That same month, Escobar accompanied by the national police and ESMAD riot police attempted to evict the families. Subsequently Ecopetrol officials were present at the scene arguing the company is the owner of the land.

4- On Friday July 23, there was a new attempt by the national police and ESMAD to evict the population. There was the indiscriminate use of force and arbitrary acts on the part of the public force resulting in several people injured, including human rights defenders from CREDHOS.

5- The leaders of the Afro-descendant and fishing population of Llanito claim that their ancestral and collective territory has been damaged, mainly to the water sources (such as the Llanito ciénaga/wetland), by the hydrocarbon industry and are the responsibility of Ecopetrol. This impacts their fundamental right of subsistence.

CREDHOS has called on the Public Ministry to guarantee a mechanism to safeguard the life and integrity of the Afro-descendant and fishing population exercising their rights. They also demand that the commanders of the police forces stop the repression and abuse of authority against the protest. CREDHOS has also called on the Mayor of Barrancabermeja to help protect the community and support the demand that the police stop the repression. And it calls on the Attorney General to launch a criminal investigation into the attacks against the population.

Furthermore, to international human rights organizations, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations, CREDHOS asks that they inform the Colombian state that they are monitoring this action and ensure the life and integrity of the Afro-descendant and fishing population of Llanito exercising their right to social protest and right to territory along with the human rights defenders who accompany them.

The full Urgent Action by CREDHOS can be read here.

Canada set to buy armed drones in 2022-23 that the military says are capable of “pinpoint strikes”

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 27, Daniel Hale, a 33-year-old former United States Air Force signals intelligence analyst who helped locate targets for drone strikes when he was deployed in Afghanistan, was sentenced to 45 months in prison for leaking classified information in 2013-14 exposing the U.S. drone and targeted assassination program.

The Intercept has reported: “By some estimates, U.S. drone operations abroad, conducted by both the military and the CIA, have killed between 9,000 and 17,000 people since 2004, including as many as 2,200 children and multiple U.S. citizens.”

Hale has stated that the U.S. military has a practice of labeling all individuals killed in drone strikes as “enemies killed in action” unless proven otherwise. He highlighted: “With drone warfare, sometimes nine out of 10 people killed are innocent.”

Echoing this, Edward Snowden tweeted: “His crime was telling this truth: 90% of those killed by US drones are bystanders, not the intended targets.”

Hale also reportedly helped expose that “nearly half [more than 40 per cent] of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group.”

Meanwhile, the Canadian government is set to request bids this fall from two consortiums for a contract of up to $5 billion to build armed drones for the Canadian military. It is believed the air force intends to purchase 12 armed drones.

In August 2020, Vice reported: “In 2015, not long after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected, Ottawa signalled interest in purchasing armed drones.”

In May, the Canadian Press reported: “The government and military say the unmanned aircraft will be used for surveillance and intelligence gathering as well as delivering pinpoint strikes from the air on enemy forces in places where the use of force has been approved.”

The Calgary Herald has also noted: “The contract is expected to be awarded in 2022-23, with the first system delivery anticipated in 2024-25.” The Canadian Press add: “[There are] plans to establish a central hub in Ottawa where pilots will fly the drones.”

A Democracy Now! story on Daniel Hale from earlier this week can be seen here.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission at pedagogical workshops in Cacarica

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 28, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Within the framework of pedagogical workshops on global humanitarian agreements in the territories in Cacarica, PBI has been accompanying @Justiciaypazcol [the Justice and Peace Commission].”

Cacarica, an area of more than 25,000 acres, is in the northwest region of Colombia in the department of Chocó.

In 1997, the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in Cacarica bore the brunt of a historic military offensive – Operation Cacarica and Operation Genesis – by the Colombian Army with United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.

A resident recalls F-21 Kfir fighter jets flying overhead as the offensive began.

PBI-Colombia explains: “The supposed objective of these missions was to attack the strongholds of the guerrilla, but it ended up seriously affecting afro-descendant communities from the territory: 3,500 people were forcefully displaced and another 85 were killed.”

Two years after their displacement, the communities of Cacarica obtained collective ownership of their lands and returned in 2000.

PBI-Colombia accompanied this return and accompanied the communities until 2011.

For a 2-minute video of Ana del Carmen Martinez of the Community of Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity of Cacarica (CAVIDA) speaking about the dangers in the area and the importance of accompaniment from the Justice and Peace Commission and PBI, please click here.

And on Instagram.

PBI-Colombia accompanies dhColombia in Antioquia, organizations raise concerns about Ituango dam

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 28, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Last week PBI accompanied @dhColombia [the Associated Network of Human Rights Defenders] in Toledo in #Antioquia. On July 16, several local organizations, affected by the megaproject #Hidroituango, gave an account; the next day they delivered a report to the #CommissionDeLaVerdad [the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition].”

Toledo is about 50 kilometres south of Hidroituango, a hydroelectric dam megaproject on the Cauca River in northwest Colombia.

This also comes at a time when more than 4,000 people have been displaced from 31 villages in the area since July 21 because of the threat of armed conflict between FARC dissidents and the Clan del Golfo paramilitary. The delivery of aid to the displaced has been made more difficult by heavy rains causing nearly 50 landslides.

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

Significantly for people in Canada, Marie-Ève ​​Marleau of the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL) has highlighted: “The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Export Development Canada are financing this project.”

Above Ground has also noted: “EPM, a Colombian state-owned enterprise, has twice benefitted from the support of Export Development Canada (EDC) in recent years. In 2016 and 2017, EDC provided EPM with financing totalling between 500 million and one billion dollars.”

In June 2018, The Guardian reported: “Zuleta worries about the security of those who campaign against the dam: two other Ríos Vivos members in Antioquia were murdered last month, part of a worrying trend in Colombia.”

Frontline Defenders has posted: “On 2 May 2018, human rights defender Hugo Albeiro George Pérez was shot and killed by an unknown individual, while he was participating in a peaceful protest to oppose the impact of Hidroituango… The human rights defender’s nephew, Domar Egidio Zapata George, was also killed in the attack.”

And in September 2013, Radio Mundo Real reported that Rios Vivos leader Nelson Giraldo Posada was brutally killed. “He was found by the shore of river Cauca with his throat slit and bullets in his chest and legs.”

Preliminary construction on the dam began in September 2011 and the in-service date is expected to be June 2022 (for one turbine), December 2023 (with four turbines) and 2025 (for the remaining four turbines).

Isabel Zuleta speaking in Ottawa in November 2019.

Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito seeks their land back on the 53rd anniversary their dispossession by a Guatemalan army base

By
Brent Patterson
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Today is the 53rd anniversary of 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 (now rebranded as Creompaz) in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

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

At a media conference this morning, community leader Olivia Sierra said: “We demand that the government give us back our territory, to continue working. #ParoNacional29J is because the government does not give us what is ours, like our territory.”

(#ParoNacional29J refers to a major Indigenous protest planned for July 29 that is demanding the resignations of President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras following the dismissal of Juan Francisco Sandoval, the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI) anti-corruption unit.)

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.

This morning, another community leader, Don Mauro, said: “The military took advantage, dispossessed, killed, raped in this place … many were left in the street, without land, without anything, my father, my mother suffered in this place.”

They made these comments at a media conference in Cobán, Alta Verapaz this morning that can be seen in the video here.

Two weeks ago, Olivia and another community leader Domingo spoke on this PBI-Canada organized webinar about their struggle to reclaim their land.

Domingo 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? Peace doesn’t continue, the military continues.”

The military base that displaced his community was closed in 2004 and reopened/rebranded 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.

In the lead up to this anniversary, the community organized a demonstration last month. On June 9, 21 community members were arrested on the charge of “aggravated usurpation” as they gathered for this protest.

Eighteen of the defenders were held in jail until June 21 when they were released on a 5,000 Quetzal (CAD $800) bond, while the other three were held with additional charges until when they were released on July 12 on a Q4,000 (CAD $650) bond.

The next hearing for these defenders will be in October.

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.

As Canada spends billions on the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam project, Innu and Inuit land defenders concerns continue

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Allyson Gear of Postville, Nunatsiavut drums in the middle of the highway as about 60-70 people blockade the entrance to the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador. October 19, 216. Photo by Justin Brake.

The Canadian government is finalizing an agreement with the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to financially restructure the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

The federal government will reportedly give an annual cash transfer to the province totalling $3.2 billion over the remaining lifespan of the Hibernia oil project.

The federal government-owned Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation owns 8.5 per cent of Hibernia, a large oil rig stationed 315 kilometres offshore of St. John’s. ExxonMobil is the largest shareholder in Hibernia. The platform produces 220,000 barrels of oil per day. As of December 2016, Hibernia had produced one billion barrels of oil over a 20-year period. In 2017, the underwater drilling was expected to produce for another 15 to 20 years (though the province now says it should continue operating until 2047).

The agreement also includes $2 billion in federal financing, with $1 billion of that a loan guarantee and the other $1 billion an investment in the transmission line that links the Muskrat Falls project to Newfoundland.

While the media coverage has focused on the $13 billion cost of the project, and the impact on electricity rates in the province without federal assistance, the story of the Innu and Inuit land defenders who have opposed the cultural and environmental impacts of this megaproject has not garnered the same attention.

Yesterday, an Innu Nation media release said, despite promises, it had been left in the dark about the announcement. Their statement highlighted: “Our voices will be heard and our rights will be respected. Our land is not a commodity to be sold to solve (Newfoundland and Labrador’s) economic crisis.”

The megaproject

The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric generating facility is comprised of the 32-metre high North Dam, the 29-metre high South Dam and the reinforced North Spur landmass on the lower Churchill River on traditional Innu territory in Labrador. About 2,000 Inuit and settlers live downstream of Muskrat Falls.

The megaproject was first proposed in 2010 by Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams. It was to cost $6.2 billion. In November 2012, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper agreed to guarantee up to $5 billion of the project’s debt.

While the Nunatsiavut government (of the self-governing Inuit region of Labrador) and NunatuKavut Community Council (representing the Inuit-Métis of southern Labrador) opposed the project from the start, the Innu Nation (who later said they had been misled about its impacts) signed an Impact Benefit Agreement.

Construction on the dam began in 2013.

Innu and Inuit opposition

In February 2016, Innu Elder Tshaukuesh (Elizabeth) Penashue stated: “Muskrat Falls is not finished yet. I can see a big change in the trees, a lot of trees are dead. I can see the big machine, big trucks. There are so many things they’re going to kill in the environment. I’m very sad. I sit down sometimes, thinking about what’s going to happen.”

By June 2016, the Innu Nation, the Nunatsiavut government and the NunatuKavut Community Council came together to express concern about the toxic impacts of the dam. They noted the methylmercury levels that would be generated in the waters by the trees, plants and soil when the basin was flooded. Notably, Lake Melville is where many Indigenous people fish, hunt and gather their traditional foods.

Project site occupied in 2016

In October 2016, Innu and Inuit land defenders, along with settler allies, occupied the project site to protect their traditional foods and way of life.

The RCMP arrested 28 people in relation to that occupation with a variety of charges including disobeying a court order, mischief and mischief over $5000.

Despite this, the Trudeau government increased its loan guarantee for the Muskrat Falls project by an additional $2.9 billion in November 2016.

In June 2017, Inuk land defender Beatrice Hunter was jailed for 10 days in a men’s prison for refusing to stay a kilometre away from the construction site, a violation of the undertaking she had signed when she was arrested at the occupation in October 2016.

UN concerns

In June 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, Baskut Tuncak, urged Canada “to use its leverage as the largest investor in the project to review whether UNDRIP [the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] compatible procedures were followed for all affected indigenous peoples, and to prevent the release of methyl mercury.”

In August 2019, the provincial Crown corporation Nalcor Energy began raising the water levels in the 59-kilometre-long reservoir.

Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe stated: “With reservoir impoundment under way, the time bomb is ticking on the future of those who depend on the Churchill River and Lake Melville for sustenance, and on the health, culture and way of life of many Labrador Inuit. …If this is what reconciliation is all about, then we want no part of it.”

The megaproject is now expected to become fully operational this November.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA at Human Rights Commission meeting in Northeast Antioquia

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has tweeted: “On July 20, a Human Rights Commission was held in Northeast Antioquia with the presence of @CAHUCOPANA with the accompaniment of PBI. On the previous two days, a community strengthening workshop with a territorial approach was held.”

The Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (CAHUCOPANA) report on the meeting can be read here.

Excerpts from it include: “There has been evidence of an increase in human rights violations with murders, threats, extortion and violations of International Humanitarian Law, thus generating a difficult and complex situation that has left the civilian population and the community leaders, human rights defenders, who have seen limited, persecuted and stigmatized their leadership work.”

“This is not only related to the breach of the peace agreement, but also to the historical debt that the State has with the communities, the abandonment and lack of guarantees to live in a peaceful territory with social investment.”

“We appeal to those who dispute control of our territory, to respect for life and liberty, as well as for the Colombian State to carry out an integral presence and not only armed, through the implementation of the spaces and tools defined in the final agreement, such as PEDTS [Territorially Focused Development Plans].”

The report also includes this ask: “To the international community, we request support, vigilance and oversight of current situations, as well as, where possible, an intermediation to be able to overcome violence.”

Also in attendance at that meeting were the Small-Scale Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) and the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL), two groups also accompanied by PBI-Colombia.

The ACVC report highlights: “The most relevant conclusion of this important space was to establish that the difficult human rights situation through which the territory passes is due in large part to the non-compliance by the national government with the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement, especially points 1 [comprehensive rural reform], 2 [political participation] and 3 [end of the conflict].”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CAHUCOPANA since 2013.

PBI-Honduras accompanies LGBTQI+ defenders celebrating IACHR ruling and call for Gender Identity Act

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 27, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “PBI accompanies organizations defending LGTBIQ+ human rights who celebrate the sentence of Vicky Hernández in which the State of Honduras [was found responsible] for violation of the right to life and remember that historically they experience violence, stigmatization and discrimination.”

Yesterday, the Arcoiris LGBT Association posted on Facebook: “We call you tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to join us for the press conference on the IACHR court ruling to the State of Honduras for the hate crime of Vicky Hernandez and the need for a Gender Identity Act. The conference will be held in front of the Supreme Court Justice.”

The IACHR ruling

Last month, 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.”

“The ruling, at the inter-American court of human rights [IACHR], was published on [June 28] the 12th anniversary of Hernández’s death, and marks the first time the highest regional human rights court has held a state accountable for failing to prevent, investigate and prosecute the death of a trans person.”

“The court has 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.”

“Several indications of the participation of state agents” in Vicky’s death

The article adds: “Hernández was killed on the first night of the June 2009 coup d’état, in which the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya and enforced night-time curfews across the country.”

“Hernández, who relied on sex work to survive, had been on the streets with two other trans women when they saw a police car coming towards them. Fearing violence, they ran in different directions. The next morning, Hernández was found dead.”

“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.’”

Gender Identity Act

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

The Brussels-based International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association explains in its Trans Legal Mapping Report 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.”

On July 21, Arcoiris posted: “A work meeting was held today to assess the actions in the National Register of Persons, conducted by the Colectiva de Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoiris [the Collective of Rainbow Trans Dolls], with the support of the Asociación Somos CDC and Futbo Litos.”

PBI-Honduras accompanied that meeting.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris

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.

Mexican environmental secretariat denies permit to Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver for expansion of San José mine

By
Brent Patterson
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The Mexican Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has denied an environmental permit requested by Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán, a subsidiary of the Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines, for its proposed San José II project.

Mongabay has previously reported: “According to the last MIA that the company delivered in September 2020, they intend to continue with their gold and silver extraction activities in the municipality of San José del Progreso until 2029.”

The environmental permit was reportedly for a 7,000-hectare expansion of the existing 700-hectare mine.

But in its rejection of this permit, Semarnat stated that the company had failed to comply with the provisions of the original permit issued in 2009, by building 75 irregular works without authorization.

La Coperacha reports: “The No to Mining Front, composed of 12 communities in the Central Valleys, [has now] reiterated its demand for the total cancellation of the mining project, because, it recalled, for 10 years the Canadian mining company has systematically violated the human right to a healthy environment.”

On March 11, Peace Brigades International and Amnesty International co-hosted this webinar that featured Neftali Reyes of Educa Oaxaca and representatives from Magdalena Ocotlán discussing the impacts of this mine.

This Educa Oaxaca report on the webinar highlights: “The representatives of the community located just a few meters from the San José mining project, owned by the FSM company, reiterated that ‘the mining company is affecting us a lot’ with water pollution, mine waste, constant noise and the shortage of water.”

For more on this, please see the Educa Oaxaca website here and Oaxacan Collective in Defence of Territories here.

PBI-Mexico began accompanying Educa Oaxaca in May 2013.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm at hearing of police officers in the deaths of Q’eqchi’ community members from Samococh

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 26, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm at the hearing on the Samococh case. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unavailability of rooms to start the stage of oral and public debates, the hearing was postponed to December 12.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained: “More than 20 PNC officers are accused of extrajudicial execution, non-compliance with duties and abuse of authority for having caused the death of three Q’eqchi’ community members from Samococh village in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, during a demonstration [on August 15, 2014].”

And Prensa Comunitaria has previously noted: “As a result of the PNC’s actions, three community members were assassinated: Sebastián Rax Caal, 29, Luciano Can Cujub, 40, and Óscar Chen Quej, 22.” The three died from gunshot wounds.

Prensa Libre further notes: “The events date back to the violent eviction carried out by the PNC on August 15, 2014… The confrontation occurred when dozens of police tried to evict peasants who had blocked the road from Chisec to Raxruhá, Alta Verapaz, to prevent the transfer of two leaders of the Peasant Development Committee [CODECA].”

“The PNC agents who arrived came from Cobán, where the Public Ministry successfully evicted some 160 families who were occupying the Santa Rita and Santa Rita Xalahá Canguini farms. In the first community [Santa Rita], families lived to avoid the construction of a hydroelectric plant [that lacked their free, prior and informed consent].”

That article adds: “The PNC tried to capture local leaders Rafael Chub and María del Carmen del Cid, which generated discontent among the residents and the confrontation.”

The first hearing was to begin on July 5 but was delayed until July 26 because two defendants have COVID-19. TN23 reported that defence lawyers asked that the trial be postponed until 2022. As noted above, the next hearing date will be December 12.

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