Home Blog Page 312

PBI-Guatemala accompanies law firm at hearing of 26 police officers accused in the death of 3 Q’eqchi’ community members

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 5, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Today, PBI accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at the debate hearing on the Samococh case.”

PBI-Guatemala then explains: “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].”

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.”

Lawyers Without Borders Canada also provides more background on what happened in this article from June 2015.

As for the present hearings, TN23 reports: “This July 5, the trial against 26 police officers was to begin in High Risk Court B. However, the oral and public debate was canceled because two defendants have COVID-19. Some defense lawyers asked that the trial be postponed until 2022 due to the conditions in the country due to the pandemic. The court judges decided to postpone the start of the trial to July 26, 2021.”

PBI-Mexico accompanies the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre in its search for the remains of disappeared persons

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 5, PBI-Mexico posted: “PBI accompanies the human rights advocacy work performed by the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre Ciudad Juarez [in the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico that borders Texas and New Mexico].”

PBI-Mexico adds: “We recognize your unrelenting work in search of missing persons in the state of Chihuahua and will continue to be present in tracking.”

The Intercept recently reported: “At the very minimum, nearly 90,000 people and counting have disappeared in the past 15 years, a tally that exceeds the Cold War totals of desaparecidos in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala combined.”

“Add in unreported cases and those involving Central American migrants who have vanished — by some estimates as many as 120,000 people in a single decade — and the picture turns staggeringly grim.”

“The current iteration of disappearances in Mexico is linked to former President Felipe Calderón’s 2006 deployment of thousands of troops into the streets in a supposed war on drug trafficking organizations. The following year, the Bush administration threw its support behind the campaign through the Mérida Initiative, a security program that to date has provided more than $3.3 billion in assistance to Mexico.”

That article then notes: “The 2009 military raid that killed [drug trafficker] Arturo Beltrán Leyva, for example, was based on U.S. intelligence. …The killing splintered Beltrán Leyva’s organization into smaller, warring outfits; among them was Guerreros Unidos, the organization widely believed to have collaborated with Mexican security forces in the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa [on September 26, 2014].”

Echoing this, David Jiménez of the Fray Juan de Larios Centre for Human Rights has commented: “Putting the truth on the table about all the murders and disappearances would expose the role played by the military and the authorities. And still playing.”

NBC News has reported: “The majority of disappearances have been reported since 2006 and 40 percent were recorded since December 2018, since the start of the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

In the first five months of 2021 alone, 605 victims were recorded.

PBI-Mexico notes: “We stand in solidarity with families that require transparency, inclusion and diligence in search and identification processes.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Paso de Norte Human Rights Centre since 2013.

PBI-Honduras at courthouse as DESA dam company executive found guilty of murder of Lenca defender Berta Cáceres

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project was present outside the courthouse in Tegucigalpa today awaiting the ruling on David Castillo in the murder of Lenca land defender and COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres.

The Guardian now reports: “A US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer who was the president of an internationally-financed hydroelectric company has been found guilty over the assassination of the indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres.”

“Caceres, winner of the Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead two days before her 45th birthday by hired hitmen on 2 March 2016 after years of threats linked to her opposition of the $50m Agua Zarca dam.”

The article adds: “[The court ruled that Castillo] coordinated, planned and obtained the money to pay for the assassination of the internationally acclaimed leader, which was carried out by seven men convicted in December 2018.”

And Hola News reports: “The ruling was notified by the Sentencing Court ‘by unanimous vote’ and the prison sentence to which Castillo will be sentenced will be known on August 3, the spokesperson for the Judiciary.”

This afternoon, COPINH commented: “This damning ruling means a popular victory not only for COPINH, the Lenca people and the family of Berta Cáceres, this is a popular victory for the Honduran people. It means criminal power structures failed to corrupt the justice system. Berta lives, the fight continues!”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied COPINH since May 2016. It has also accompanied COPINH at the courthouse during the 49-day trial of Castillo that started on April 6.

PBI-Canada to highlight Q’eqchi’ community seeking return of their land from a Canadian-backed military base in Guatemala

By
Brent Patterson
-

“We only demand what is ours, our lands.”

Join us on Thursday July 15 at 3 pm EDT for a discussion with a representative from the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV) and lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila of the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH). Rachel Small from World Beyond War Canada will also be speaking.

To register for this webinar, click here.

This July marks the 53rd anniversary of the Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito being displaced from their land for the construction of a military base in Coban, Alta Verapaz. That community continues to live in poverty and without access to land.

That military base became a place for illegal detention and extrajudicial killings during the Guatemalan genocide against Indigenous peoples.

Since 2012, 565 bodies have been exhumed from 85 unmarked graves. The bodies identified are of Mayan Achí, Q’eqchi’, Pomochí, Ixil, and Kiché peoples.

Last month, 21 residents of Chicoyogüito were arrested as they prepared to participate in a demonstration to demand their land back. The police used excessive force and those injured were taken to prison without treatment.

That military base on their land, now a training centre for UN peacekeeping missions, has been supported by the Canadian Armed Forces. The Canadian government has not yet supported the Q’eqchi’ community’s call for their land back.

Édgar Pérez Archila

Lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila represents the families displaced by the military base.

He is also the lawyer for Q’eqchi’ defender Bernardo Caal Xol and for the families impacted by the military violence against the community of Dos Erres and the disappearance of union and student leaders in the Military Journal case.

Rachel Small

World Beyond War has noted: “From Panama to Guam to Puerto Rico to Okinawa to dozens of other locations across the world, the military has taken valuable land from local populations, often pushing out indigenous people in the process, without their consent and without reparations.”

Rachel Small from World Beyond War Canada will be joining this webinar to situate the struggle of the community of Chicoyogüito in this global context.

Join us!

Join us for this discussion on how a Q’eqchi’ community displaced from their land and subjected to a genocide are seeking justice and their land back. Learn what you can do solidarity with this struggle.

To register for this webinar, with English/Spanish translation, click here.

PBI-Guatemala accompaniment of the community on a walk marking the anniversary of their displacement, July 28, 2019.

Haudenosaunee land defenders persevere through 350-day reoccupation to stop the further theft of their territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 19, 2020, Haudenosaunee land defenders began a reoccupation of a 25-acre area of land about an hour southwest of Toronto.

Foxgate Developments planned to build at least 218 houses on this land. The Haudenosaunee asserted it was their territory through the Haldimand Treaty of 1784 that granted them an area of 950,000 acres in southern Ontario.

350 days after the reoccupation began, the developer backed down.

Land defender Skyler Williams says: “I’m happy and excited about the announcement. We do need to take time to celebrate these wins when we have them.”

A lot happened over those 350 days:

On July 31, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) escorted a court sheriff who read and delivered a court injunction against the reoccupation.

On August 5, police raided the camp and arrested 9 people and used tasers and rubber bullets against the land defenders.

On August 7, an Ontario Supreme Court judge issued two more injunctions and extended a third injunction against the land defenders.

The land defenders were undaunted and stayed. They commented: “These injunctions only serve as a colonial mechanism to disposes us of our lands and resources, which fundamentally violates our rights as sovereign Indigenous people.”

On October 9, an Ontario Superior Court judge gave the land defenders until October 22 to vacate the land.

Hours after that judge granted a permanent injunction against the camp on October 22, pallets and tires on the road were set on fire. The police used a Taser on one person and fired rubber bullets near Elders and women.

On October 23, the land defenders used construction equipment to dig up the paved roads to prevent the police from entering the site.

That evening, Williams posted: “Massive OPP presence. One guy hit with a rubber bullet after several shots were fired. One guy tasered. Another arrested. …There was no need for any of this. Though it comes as no surprise to any of us. Here we are again. Barricades are up. Roads are dug up. Our people will not continue to let the OPP and most certainly not a Cayuga Ontario court judge dictate what happens on unceded Haudenosaunee territory.”

By this point, the OPP had arrested at least 38 people.

By November 26, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had prepared an intelligence brief labelled “secret” that indicates the spy agency had kept a close watch on the land dispute citing “notable concerns regarding critical infrastructure.”

And by January 2021, the Ontario Provincial Police had spent $16.3 million “policing” this assertion of Indigenous sovereignty.

The land defenders preserved through all this.

Then on July 2, after 350 days, 38 arrests, and more than $16.3 million spent on policing, the land defenders stopped the development on their territory.

Williams says: “I think this is a big statement to Indigenous communities and to all of Turtle Island, these wins are attainable.”

And to governments, he added: “It is in their best interest to start a process that [finds solutions] in a peaceful way, that doesn’t include cops with guns.”

Notably, while Williams was the spokesperson for this land defence struggle, he was not the leader. That was the responsibility of a collective of women in keeping with the Haudenosaunee’s matriarchal society. Those women remained anonymous to shield them from legal ramifications and harassment. Williams faces a judge’s order making him potentially liable for $20 million in legal fees.

What’s next?

Between 1980 and 1995, 29 claims related to the Haldimand Tract have been filed with the Canadian government. The Six Nations council has a court case, filed in 1995, against the federal and provincial governments over the lands taken from them. It is scheduled to go to court in October 2022. If successful, it would result in monetary compensation, not a return of the territory to the Haudenosaunee.

For more on this, you can find many posts from 1492 Land Back Lane on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To support their legal fund, please click here.

A solidarity message from the Guapinol river protectors in Honduras.

Ruling on Monday July 5 in the trial of David Castillo for the murder of Lenca environmental defender Berta Cáceres

By
Brent Patterson
-

Outside the courthouse in Tegucigalpa, April 29.

On July 2, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “The ruling in the trial of David Castillo, accused of the murder of #BertaCáceres, [will be] next Monday, July 5.”

This follows the tweet from the Judicial Power of Honduras (CSJ) that stated: “Room I of the #TribunalSentenciaNacional program for Monday, July 5 at 9:00 am, the corresponding ruling of the Oral and Public Trial in the case filed for Roberto Castillo Mejía, who is linked to the Assassination of the Environmentalist Berta Isabel Cáceres.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying COPINH during the trial of former DESA hydroelectric dam executive David Castillo that started on April 6. He is accused of being an intellectual co-author in the murder of Cáceres on March 2, 2016.

Castillo is alleged to have coordinated with, and provided funds to, the men who were the material authors of the murder of Cáceres.

Cáceres opposed the Agua Zarca dam that DESA was building on the Gualcarque River without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Lenca people. The Intercept has reported that DESA executives had become angry when Cáceres’ protests disrupted their investment in the hydroelectric dam.

In December 2019, when four hitmen were sentenced for this crime, Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres stated: “These sentences are a start in breaking the impunity, but we’re going to make every effort to ensure that all those responsible – the company executives and state officials identified in the trial – are prosecuted.”

She has also commented: “There is only one case open – which has also been extremely delayed – and that is of David Castillo, the president of the company. However, for us, David Castillo is a minor and in fact, the weakest representative of the powerful people that took the decision and economically lent support to this crime.”

PBI-Honduras has echoed her statement by tweeting: “A thorough investigation of all the masterminds of the crime is urgently needed.”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied COPINH since May 2016.

COPINH tweet (April 29): The daughters of #BertaCáceres and the legal team that represents them together with COPINH, ratifies their commitment in the fight for #JusticiaParaBerta. “They have believed that impunity is eternal, they are wrong, the people know how to do justice”

#JusticiaParaBerta

Ottawa Police videotaping of Every Child Matters walk has echoes of the Indian Act’s pass system

By
Brent Patterson
-

The surveillance of racialized peoples has a long history.

The Financial Times recently reported: “The lantern laws of 17th- and 18th-century America, for example, required slaves to carry a lantern or candle if they were walking at night without a white owner.”

In the 19th century, the pass system came into effect in Canada as a security measure to track the movements of Indigenous peoples.

Filmmaker Alex Williams has highlighted that the pass system began after the North-West Rebellion in 1885 and was in place for more than 60 years.

The pass system, stipulated in the Indian Act, meant that an Indigenous person who wanted to leave their community needed a pass approved by an Indian agent stating the purpose and duration of their leave. For example, a parent trying visit their child who had been forcibly taken from them to a residential school would require a pass to travel to see them.

The Canadian Encyclopedia further notes: “It aimed to prevent large gatherings, seen by many White settlers as a threat to their settlements.”

It is in this context that the Ottawa Police Service had several officers videotaping Indigenous peoples and allies at the Every Child Matters walk to Parliament Hill on July 1.

This was a large Indigenous gathering to mourn the children who died in the genocide at residential schools.

Allies who tried to block the cameras with Land Back and No Pride in Genocide signs were subjected to aggressive police actions including the weaponization of their bicycles to push them away from interfering with their filming.

Video surveillance has profound implications for everyone.

Harmit Kambo of Privacy International says: “Imagine going to a peaceful protest and having to show your ID to the police before you can join it. Or having to fill out a form about why you are attending that particular protest. Sounds absurd, right?”

But technology is creating a comparable situation.

Video from protests can be used in conjunction with facial recognition technology and even gait recognition technology (that can analyze the shape of your body and the unique way in which it moves) to identify people without consent or knowledge and without probable cause or indication of wrongdoing.

Kambo comments: “Perhaps you might think twice about even attending a protest because you don’t want to trade your right to protest with your right to privacy.”

Privacy International has also highlighted: “Unjustified interferences with privacy prevent the enjoyment of other rights and they often provide the gateway to the violation of the rest of human rights freedom of movement, principle of non-discrimination, as well as political participation.”

The Ottawa Police Service filming – without adequate transparency and accountability – the stream of an estimated 8,000 people who came to mourn a genocide enabled by the pass system can be understood as both a continuation of Indian Act surveillance and a warning about the technology-enabled infringement of the right to protest.

Photo from the documentary The Pass System.

Peace Brigades International joins with 300+ organizations in call for an end to police violence in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
-

CSPP lawyer Óscar Eduardo Ramírez.

On July 1, Peace Brigades International joined with 300+ organizations – including the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners, Educa Oaxaca, Witness for Peace, FIAN Colombia, Global Exchange, IFOR Netherlands, Protection International, RIDH, Latin America Working Group, and many others – in an urgent appeal to Colombian authorities on the right to life in the context of the ongoing social protests.

The statement was highlighted at the UN Human Rights Council during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

Óscar Eduardo Ramírez (a lawyer with the PBI-Colombia Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners/CSPP) stated:

“As emphasized in the outgoing Rapporteur’s report, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated social and economic inequalities and, if urgent action is not taken, we will face an epidemic of killings perpetrated by the police on an unprecedented scale.

The case of Colombia illustrates this trend. This statement is endorsed by a very large number of organisations around the world, deeply concerned about the brutal repression of protests over the past two months. As of 28 June, 83 people have been recorded as a result of the actions of the security forces and armed civilians in the framework of the National Strike.

Police, the Mobile Riot Squad [ESMAD] and the Army have used firearms with lethal ammunition in a widespread manner against protesters. Indiscriminate and excessive use of ‘less lethal’ weapons, including multiple projectile launchers, has also been documented.

Mr. Rapporteur, members of the Human Rights Council, we make an urgent appeal to urge the Colombian authorities to take the necessary measures to respect and guarantee the right to life in the context of the protests; to document and investigate, in accordance with the Minnesota Protocol, the multiple cases of arbitrary deprivation of life, identifying who was given the orders; and that those responsible be tried by a civilian judge and under no circumstances by a military court.

In the same vein, it is urgent to support the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in clarifying the more thacan 6000 extrajudicial executions under investigation, most of which were committed between 2002 and 2008, in order to ensure that they are not repeated.”

The video of this presentation can be seen on Twitter here or here (at 55:20). The text of the presentation and the list of 300+ organizations can be read here.

Ramírez, who highlighted this statement at the Human Rights Council, also spoke on June 3 at the PBI-Canada webinar about the national strike in Colombia.

PBI and RIDH present to UN Human Rights Council on police and military infringements on the freedom of peaceful assembly

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video of Kim-Mai Vu, PBI-Switzerland advocacy coordinator.

On July 1, Peace Brigades International delivered an oral statement in collaboration with the International Network of Human Rights (RIDH) at the UN Human Rights Council during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

That statement noted:

“PBI and the RIDH welcome the report of the Rapporteur on access to justice in the context of the defense of the rights to peaceful assembly and association.

Mexico

We agree with the Rapporteur that the meetings should not be controlled by armed forces such as the National Guard in Mexico, a military police force that already accumulates 522 complaints before the Commission National Human Rights (CNDH) since 2020.

Likewise, the repression of the protest, defamations and arbitrary arrests that took place against the feminist movement for part of different security forces in Mexico. Only in March 2021, the IM Defenders reported 282 attacks against women defenders in Mesoamerica, resulting in March 2021, the most dangerous, tripling the number of attacks compared to January and February.

Guatemala

In Guatemala, in a context of strong weakening of the independence of justice and the State of Law, the NGO Law came into force on June 21, which, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), restricts ‘civic space, putting the rights to freedom at risk association and freedom of expression hindering citizen participation and the defense of human rights’.

We are very concerned about the threat that this law poses to particular for people and community organizations that work in defense of human rights of the indigenous peoples, the peasants, the territory and the environment. Ambiguous formulations open the possibility of further criminalization and to penalize their organizations and the search of justice.

Colombia

In Colombia, we are alarmed by the unprecedented level of police abuses observed on the occasion of the protests that started with the national strike, unacceptable figures for enforced disappearances, paramilitary practices in the urban context, especially in Cali, and the attack on medical missions, human rights defenders and journalists.

It is urgent that the supervisory bodies act and that the independence of justice against those responsible for said violations is guaranteed.”

To watch the video of this intervention, click here (and go to 02 :27 :20).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the #CasoDiarioMilitar as first statement hearings continue

By
Brent Patterson
-

Image by Telesur.

On July 1, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on Facebook: “PBI accompanies the #CasoDiarioMilitar.”

That post included text from Famdegua (the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala) that noted: “Judge Miguel Angel Gálvez postpones hearing for tomorrow, July 2, 9:00 am, when the Public Ministry will continue to charge against Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano and Eliseo Barrios Soto.”

Canal Antigua further reports: “The judge decided to suspend the first-test hearing for retired military officer Mavilo Aurelio Castaneda, so that it can be verified whether his health condition allows him to face criminal proceedings in the Diario Militar case.”

“This Thursday [July 1] it was intended to start the hearing of first statement for 3 retired military personnel involved in the Diario Militar case accused of crimes of enforced disappearance, duties against humanity and murder.”

“However, the defense of Mavilo Aurelio Castañeda, indicated that this could not be done, since his sponsor suffers from memory loss which makes him unable to face trial, so the judge of greater risk B, Miguel Ángel Gálvez proceeded to suspend the hearing.”

That article adds: “Castañeda has been ordered to have the necessary medical examinations to determine what his real state of health is and thus determine if he can face the process. Meanwhile for Juan Francisco Cifuentes Cano and Eliseo Barrios Soto, the hearing continues, so the Public Prosecutor’s Office has proceeded to charge the respective facts.”

Background

Eleven former military and police officers were arrested on May 27 and a twelfth was arrested when he appeared in court.

Prensa Libre has explained: “These are former military personnel accused of having participated in the disappearance, torture and death of at least 183 people during the years 1983 to 1985, including trade union and student leaders.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanied the seven days of hearings for the first six defendants in the Military Journal Case. On June 9, all six defendants were indicted for crimes against humanity, and five of them were indicted for forced disappearance. They all also stand accused of murder, attempted murder or both, for the killings.

PBI-Guatemala also accompanied the four days of hearings that resulted in the indictment of former Defense Minister Marco Antonio González Taracena on June 25.

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany BDH lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila in August 2010 due to several security incidents he had faced in relation to the high-profile judicial processes he was working on. At the end of 2013, PBI-Guatemala extended the accompaniment to the other lawyers of the BDH who work in high-profile trials to fight against impunity and in defending criminalized human rights defenders.

1...311312313...476Page 312 of 476