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PBI-Colombia accompanies Humanitarian Commission meeting with ACVC, CAHUCOPANA and CJL in Northeast Antioquia

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 20, the Small-Scale Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC), a social organization operating in 120 villages in the Magdalena Medio region, participated in the Humanitarian Commission that took place in Northeast Antioquia.

The ACVC report on that meeting notes the participation of many groups including the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (CAHUCOPANA) and the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) along with the accompaniment of the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

The CAHUCOPANA report on the meeting can be read here.

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, 2 and 3.”

The Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace of November 2016 is composed of six parts.

The first three points referenced by ACVC are: 1. Towards a New Colombian Countryside: Comprehensive Rural Reform; 2. Political Participation: A democratic opportunity to build peace; and 3. En of the Conflict.

The Peace Agreement can be read in full in English here.

The ACVC report also expresses concern about: “The almost non-existent guarantees for the exercise of social leadership, the diffuse mining policies, municipal development and the intensification of the conflict, which are contradictory with respect to those signed in the Final Peace Agreement.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the CJL since 2000, ACVC since 2007 and CAHUCOPANA since 2013.

PBI-Canada seeks details on “bilateral police initiative” between Canada and Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Video of then Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing the bilateral police initiative on October 30, 2017.

Peace Brigades International-Canada is seeking details on a “bilateral police initiative” between Canada and Colombia announced in late 2017.

Canada’s “bilateral police initiative” with Colombia

On October 30, 2017, the Canadian Press reported on a “bilateral police initiative” between Canada and Colombia.

That article noted: “Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was reportedly briefed last year on a proposal to contribute up to 10 police officers to peace efforts in Colombia, but it wasn’t clear Monday [October 30] whether the bilateral deployment was a part of that plan.”

At a media conference with then Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated:

“We’ve agreed to work together to establish a bi-lateral police initiative. This effort will support post-conflict policing efforts in Colombia, and will see Canadian police providing training, capacity-building, and strategic advice to our Colombian friends.”

The cost of this initiative, the number of Canadian police officers involved, the police forces involved, the location of this training, the nature of this training, and the length of time this took place is not known.

Given the timing of that announcement – October 30, 2017 – it’s likely that “training, capacity-building, and strategic advice” would have begun in 2018.

UK police and military training Colombian police

There are also recent media reports about UK police providing training to Colombian police beginning in 2018.

On May 1, The Canary reported: “Documents obtained by The Canary can reveal that the UK’s College of Policing has been training Colombian police over the past three years.”

That article adds: “According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the UK’s College of Policing has been training Colombian police. This has been happening over the past three consecutive years – 2018, 2019, and 2020.”

“All of the training took place in Colombia.”

It also notes: “The College has refused to disclose where exactly the training occurred, the nature of the training, and the cost.”

Then on July 22, Declassified UK reported: “The UK military had up to nine soldiers ‘assisting’ the Colombian police force a month before it launched a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters that left 63 people dead.”

“This is the first time the MOD [Ministry of Defence] has revealed the existence of its Colombia police programme.”

That article adds: “Wendy Morton, foreign minister responsible for the Americas, told Parliament in March, the month before protests erupted: ‘Fewer than 10 members of the UK armed forces are deployed to Colombia to assist the Colombian police service.’”

Police violence in Colombia

Earlier this month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern about “the disproportionate use of force, gender-based violence, ethno-racial violence, violence against journalists and medical missions, irregularities in transfers for protection, and reports of disappearance; as well as the use of military assistance, disciplinary powers and military criminal jurisdiction.”

Given the incidences of police violence in both Canada and Colombia, including against social protests, we are looking for more information on this bilateral initiative.

Video of Toronto Police attacking an encampment of homeless people and their allies on July 21. Leilani Farha, the Ottawa-based former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (from 2014 to 2020), tweeted: “Trespass Notices. Barricades. Police. Violence. [The City of Toronto] has lost its way.”

Photo by Chris Young.

Director of Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD) speaks at launch of CREDHOS report forced disappearances in Magdalena Medio region

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 22, CREDHOS tweeted: “Intervention by Luz Marina Monzón, Director of the Missing Persons Search Unit, saluting the work carried out by the Corporation #Credhos in the documentation of Cases in Magdalena Medio.”

Monzón is the director of the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD). She has previously stated: “We are looking for 120,000 missing people.”

Today, the UBPD also tweeted: “Monzón, makes her intervention in the delivery of the report ‘We Are Looking For You: Report on Forced Disappearance in the Magdalena Medio Region’ by @Credhos_Paz to the Comprehensive System for Peace.”

Monzón stated: “This is not only the delivery of a report it is the continuation of the work that we have to continue strengthening in the territory with the participation of civil society organizations.”

She has also written: “Human rights organizations and the families of the victims have mobilized different actions, strategies and alliances to ensure that today there are mechanisms that seek to remedy the historical lack of protection of the State.”

She adds: “The complaints that today are made of the existence of missing persons during the national strike and the uncertainty about the fate of detained persons are a manifestation of the need to reinforce the effectiveness of the mechanisms to guarantee the prevention and non-repetition of arrests and disappearances.”

To watch the video of the event, click here.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

PBI-Honduras observes town hall meeting in municipality of Arizona that rejects ZEDEs economic zones and extractivism

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 22, PBI-Honduras posted: “We observed the open town hall in the municipality of Arizona [in the department of] Atlántida, where the municipality was declared ‘free from #ZEDEs and extractive projects.’”

PBI-Honduras adds: “The municipality expressed concern about the exploitation of the department’s resources, particularly on the north coast due to ‘the great interests in obtaining oil, minerals and the African palm magnates.’”

And PBI-Honduras notes: “Arizona communities have been resisting for years against hydroelectric projects and criminalization of human rights defenders, including the mayor of Arizona for the Dignity Camp in defence of the Jilamito River.”

ZEDEs are Economic Development and Employment Zones. They are also referred to as charter cities, startup cities or free private cities.

On May 19, the Government of Honduras stated: “The ZEDE presents new opportunities for investors, in particular those who are looking to diversify their supply chains; also, help facilitate greater trade between through various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.”

NACLA more critically notes: “The 2013 ZEDE law provided unprecedented legislative, administrative, judicial, and financial autonomy to investors for a wide range of territorial ventures, including urban development and resource extraction.”

On June 19, PBI-Honduras observed the open town hall gathering in La Ceiba where the population of that community said no to ZEDEs.

On June 22, PBI-Honduras was also present at the Supreme Court of Justice in Tegucigalpa when Honduran civil society organizations affirmed their opposition to ZEDEs and their commitment to stop them.

Then on July 3, as noted above PBI-Honduras observed the open town hall meeting in Trujillo where the municipality was declared free of ZEDEs.

And now PBI-Honduras has observed the town hall in municipality of Arizona where the municipality was declared free from ZEDEs and extractive projects.

PBI-Colombia accompanied CCAJAR launches constitutional action against mine that exports coal to Canada

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 22, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR), the Corporación Geoambiental Terrae and local communities of the Guajira peninsula launched a constitutional action seeking the fulfilment of the right to participation for communities affected by the open-pit Cerrejón mine in Colombia.

Their media statement explains: “The tutela action is a constitutional mechanism which allows any person to claim immediate judicial protection of their fundamental rights before a judge, at any time and in any place.”

The mine is operated by Carbones del Cerrejón, a company based in the British West Indies and owned by Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore.

Communities impacted by the mine

About half of the population impacted by the mine are ethnic and Indigenous peoples, including the Wayuu, the largest group, the Wiwa, Arhuaco and Kogui peoples, as well as Afro-descendant and campesino (peasant) communities.

The media release announcing the constitutional action notes: “These communities have suffered serious violations of human rights, affecting their right to a decent life, to water, to health, to food security and sovereignty, to information, to participation and to free prior and informed consent, among others.”

It further notes that impacted communities have been denied participated in an official study (ordered by the Constitutional Court in 2016 and published in 2020) and in the development of a policy on coal pollution (ordered by the court in 2013).

Colombian coal exports to Canada

The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN) and MiningWatch Canada have highlighted that NB Power has been buying approximately 500,000 tonnes of coal from Cerrejón since the mid-1990s. Nova Scotia Power also imports coal from Cerrejón.

In November 2015, Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, a Colombian lawyer and union leader, asked NB Power to put conditions on the coal leaving his country. He further stated that if NB Power cannot guarantee the rights of labour and Indigenous peoples from its current sources, then it should buy from other sources that respect the rights of those affected.

Unfortunately, NB Power continues to import this coal and burn it at its plant in Belledune, which is located north of Fredericton.

CCAJAR calls for an immediate suspension of the mine

Last year, CCAJAR called for “an immediate suspension of the mining operations of Cerrejón” and further stated that “in accordance with its Paris Agreement obligations, relevant to guarantee the human rights of the Wayuu people, the Colombian State should gradually eradicate coal mining.”

CCAJAR has also further highlighted the human right to water and noted: “The impact of the mining operation in the dramatic transformations of the water system of [Wayuu] territory in the last 30 years is undeniable.”

To read the full statement on the tutela action, please see Constitutional Action on the right to participation in mining in Colombia. For more on the connections to Canada, please see Tracy Glynn’s article NB Power asked to put conditions on blood coal from Colombia.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) since 1995.

#LaVerdadDelCarbon

As Canadian companies express interest in fracking in Colombia, activists launch “pilot water” campaign

By
Brent Patterson
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Tweet: “Our source travels in each drop from the future with the best technology processes and an unbeatable flavor. It’s incredible! #TheTasteOfTheFuture. Try our #PilotWater.”

On July 20, RCN Radio reported: “Several environmental activists came to the congressional building to hand out bottles of ‘pilot water’—as a symbol of what the future of the liquid would be after fracking projects in the country.”

Last month, the Colombian National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) and ExxonMobil signed a contract that formally authorizes a fracking pilot project to proceed on VMM-37 (a plot of land co-owned with Toronto-based Sintana Energy Ltd.) near the community of Puerto Wilches. In November 2020, the ANH signed the first pilot project contract with Ecopetrol for its Kalé project also near Puerto Wilches.

The RCN article adds: “Carlos Andrés Santiago, an environmental activist and member of the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking, distributed several bottles of ‘pilot water’ to members of Congress.”

Santiago said: “We come to tell those who make the decisions in Congress that we invite them to take this water. This is a campaign of the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking. This bottle of water is delicious, it has many benefits, such as radioactive pollutants, destruction of biodiversity, of little economic value and violence in the territories.”

Canadian companies on fracking

Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. and Parex Resources Inc. along with Toronto-based Sintana Energy Ltd. appear to be interested in fracking in Colombia.

In March 2019, Colombia’s Mines and Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez stated that Parex was among the companies “seeking to operate” a fracking block. Parex holds the VMM-9 block in the Magdalena Medio region.

This past April, Sintana welcomed the news of ExxonMobil being granted a pilot project contract for VMM-37 (an area of land co-owned with Sintana) and stated that the fracking pilot projects should provide an effective path forward for future operations.

And later that month, Canacol announced that there was “significant potential” for fracking in its VMM-2 and VMM-3 blocks in the Magdalena Medio region.

Last month, the CEO of Canacol also commented: “The objectives of these [fracking pilot projects] are to demonstrate that this important resource can be developed in an environmentally safe way, similar to how the same unconventional resources have been implemented in the United States and Canada.”

The experience with 20,000 fracking wells in the Canadian province of British Colombia tells another story.

The Government of Canada has not taken a formal position on fracking in Colombia (despite the environmental and human rights implications), nor has it encouraged the Colombian government to ratify the Escazú Agreement for the protection of environmental defenders as have the Embassies of Norway, Germany and Sweden in Colombia.

PBI-Canada continues to follow this situation.

To watch a webinar convened by PBI and Above Ground on April 29 on fracking and extractivism in Colombia, please click here.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris trans rights group at meeting on process to change name and gender after IACHR ruling

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 21, the Arcoiris Asociacion (Rainbow Association) 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.”

Somos CDC (Centre for LGBTI Development and Cooperation) also posted on Facebook: “Meeting of experiences of the process lived in the request for change of name before the national registry of trans people.”

In November 2016, the Brussels-based International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association noted 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 June 28 of this year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that Honduras must make systemic changes to assure the rights of transgender people including allowing trans people to legally change their name and gender.

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

Vice also reported: “The adoption of rules that allow name and gender changes could have an important effect on the inclusion of trans people, including in politics. The country’s only trans candidate for political office in the last election, Rihanna Ferrera, said that she lost votes because she appeared on the ballot under her birth name.”

Reuters has noted: “The government did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling, or what its next steps would be.” The BBC adds: “It is not clear how or when [the Honduran government] will enact the court order.”

That IACHR ruling that included these provisions found the Honduran state responsible for the death of Vicky Hernandez, a 26-year-old transgender woman shot dead by security forces on the night of the June 2009 military coup.

The Guardian has reported: “[Honduras] has the world’s highest rate of murders of trans people.” The Honduran LGBTQI rights group Cattrachas says 300 LGBT people have been killed in Honduras since 2009, while Sin Violencia LGBTI says almost 500 trans women have been killed in Latin America from 2014 to 2019.

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

PBI-Guatemala repudiates the murder of CCDA Verapaz member Regilson Choc Cac

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 20, PBI-Guatemala posted: “We repudiate the murder and stand in solidarity with the family of Regilson Choc Cac, member of the CCDA Verapaz.”

On July 20, Regilson Choc Cac, a 16-year-old member of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), was murdered in the community of San Juan Los Tres Ríos, in the Canguinic region of Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

Prensa Comunitaria reports: “According to community sources, it could be paramilitaries who attacked him, since the community lives under permanent threat from a dispute over the lands they inhabit. Until recently it was a finquero [large estate].”

The CCDA says: “He is the third victim of the injustice of a killer system, which strips, criminalizes represses by defending rights, defending its territory, defending life.”

Marcelo Sabuc of the CCDA says: “The community of San Juan Los Tres Rios has filed several complaints about access to land, however, the response has been that criminal groups linked to the alleged owners have violated all their rights and have not only committed violations but also murders, persecution and prosecution of peasant leaders.”

Context

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.

The CCDA

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

Toronto police clear homeless encampment from park, former UN Special Rapporteur says City lacks a right to housing approach

By
Brent Patterson
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Video of police clearing the encampment.

Housing is a human right.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living.

And yet there are more than 8,700 people experiencing homelessness on any given day in Toronto, Canada.

Between 14 to 17 people were living in an encampment at Lamport Stadium Park which is located at King Street and Dufferin Avenue in the city’s downtown area.

Joey Mauger, who has been living at the encampment for the past six months, said: “Me and my friends, we don’t bother anybody. We like it here. We don’t want to go. We don’t know where we’re going to go.”

Those without housing have stated they prefer the park to the city’s crowded homeless shelters over fear of contracting COVID-19, the rise in violent incidents in the shelters over the past five years, and the spot-checks that happen in shelter spaces.

The Centre for Disease Control says: “If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”

Hundreds of police officers dismantled the camp today as a mobilization to stop the forced eviction formed in the park.

More than 25 people were arrested.

Encampment Support Network Toronto tweeted: “People just got beaten, pepper sprayed, kettled and violently arrested at Lamport.”

The clearing of the encampment at Trinity Bellwoods Park last month and Alexandra Park earlier this week also drew criticism for the disproportionate use of force by police.

Long time street nurse Cathy Crowe writes: “The City of Toronto knows how to throw a military operation: employ a police drone and heavy surveillance methods, erect a fence to secure and close a park or kettle people inside, limit journalists’ access, threaten hefty fines or arrest people if they don’t leave, and bring in security guards and police to ensure city staff can remove homeless people plus their belongings and then bulldoze their tiny shelters.”

Leilani Farha, the Ottawa-based former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (from 2014 to 2020), tweeted:

“Trespass Notices. Barricades. Police. Violence. [The City of Toronto] has lost its way. @Make_TheShift proposed a dialogue driven #humanrights approach. Instead the City fueled the fire + took a response that lacks proportionality.  [Toronto Mayor] @JohnTory there’s still time to de-escalate.”

The Shift is a global movement to reclaim and realize the right to housing, which calls housing to be approached as a human right, not a commodity.

Numerous organizations in Toronto have also proposed this 15-point human rights compliant approach towards residents in encampments.

The current UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing is Balakrishnan Rajagopal.

#right2housing

Indigenous Q’eqchi’ peoples of Chicoyogüito ask for global solidarity before July 28

By
Brent Patterson
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Make a sign like this one, take a photo of yourself with it, and send it in before July 28.

This coming Wednesday July 28 will mark the 53rd anniversary of the violent eviction of their community from their territory by the Guatemalan army.

Olivia and Domingo from the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito recently spoke about their land back struggle on this PBI-Canada webinar.

Olivia has stated: “I would like us to return to this land and for the soldiers to no longer be there.”

And Domingo highlighted: “We know Canada has provided a lot of support for [the Creompaz peacekeeping base on our land].”

He adds: “But where is the peace that they say they are creating? Peace doesn’t continue, the military continues. It continues to act as it always has.”

The Colectivo Yooko Esik’b’al is inviting people to express solidarity by sending a photo or video or a pronouncement with the hashtag #ChicoyogüitoEsNuestro. That hashtag (that translates as “Chicoyogüito is ours”) is an affirmation of this community’s demand for their #LandBack.

It should include where (city, territory, country) the message is being sent from and/or with any organizational affiliation you may have.

These messages be emailed to comunicacion4@caldh.org.gt or sent via the Caso Creompaz Twitter and Facebook pages by July 28.

Olivia and Domingo on the PBI-Canada webinar about their community’s struggle.

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