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Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation rejects the arbitrary detention of two of its members by the Colombian national police

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 27 (at 8:40 pm), the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation tweeted: “URGENT! We reject arbitrary detention of two members of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, by the Police, in the middle of #SemanadelDetenidoDesaparecido. Police have the duty to respect the right to liberty and memory of the victims’ relatives and their organizations.”

#SemanadelDetenidoDesaparecido refers to the International Week of the Disappeared, which runs from May 25 to 30 this year.

We will update this as more information become available.

Update: On May 27 (at 11:09 pm), the Foundation tweeted: “We inform that the two members of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation are well and free. But what happened is an affront to the international week of the victims of Forced Disappearance.”

Performance earlier this week

On May 25, the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation organized the performance noted in the poster at the bottom of this article. The key phrases on it include:

#nomasmujeresdesperacidas – no more missing women

Dia Nacional por la Dignidad de las Mujeres victimas de violencia sexual – National Day for the Dignity of Women Victims of Sexual Violence

Arbitrary detentions and sexual violence during the national strike and armed conflict

The Colombian organization Temblores (Tremors) has reported that between April 28 (the first day of the National Strike) and May 24, there have been 1,388 arbitrary detentions of people participating in the strike and 22 victims of sexual violence committed by the Public Force (police and military).

This week, the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation also noted: “Impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence in the armed conflict is the responsibility of the state (25% state agents, 5% guerrilla, 51% paramilitary with the tolerance of the state).”

The armed conflict in Colombia began in May 1964. While a peace agreement was approved in November 2016, armed fighting involving the state, paramilitary groups and splinter guerilla groups continues.

The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation (FNEB)

PBI-Colombia has explained: “The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation for Human Rights is an organization of relatives of the victims of forced disappearance from five regions around the country and an interdisciplinary group of lawyers, social workers and experts in social archives and communication, who accompany people who have suffered the disappearance of one or several loved ones.”

“A specific focus of the Foundation are cases of enforced disappearances of girls and women in the armed conflict and as a result of socio-political violence in the country, in which signs of gender violence have been identified.”

PBI-Colombia adds: “FNEB wants to draw attention to the differential impacts that enforced disappearances have left on the lives, bodies and rights of female victims and of the women who seek missing relatives. In its work with victims of enforced disappearance, the organization prioritizes meeting the specific needs of women.”

Yanette Bautista has been fighting against forced disappearances in Colombia since the disappearance of her 32-year-old sister Nydia Erika on August 30, 1987. Members of the Battalion of Intelligence and Counterintelligence of the Colombian National Army have been named as responsible for the disappearance of Nydia Erika.

Yanette established the Foundation in 1999 while in exile from Colombia.

PBI-Colombia began accompanying the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation occasionally in 2007 and then in full since 2016.

The US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) withdraws financial support for the Jilamito dam in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 27, Vice News reported: “The U.S. government withdrew financial support this week from a proposed dam in Honduras that is at the center of a simmering conflict between local residents and developers. Two opponents of the project have been killed. “

“Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) co-founder Martín Fernández said that the proposed dam would deprive as many as 30,000 people of drinking water and pointed to similar dam projects that he said privatized access to water.”

US and Canadian financing of the dam

The article adds: “The decision by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, (DFC) marked a victory for the activist groups in Honduras and the United States that had urged the agency to drop the project.”

“The Biden Administration’s about-face eliminated almost half the funding for the $75.6 million-dollar dam project. A division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a multilateral financial institution, has pledged another 27 percent of the dam’s cost in loans. The division, IDB Invest, had no comment on the DFC’s withdrawal.”

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has previously noted: “[Communities have expressed] the rejection of financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, the company Ingelsa and the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and demand that the NO to extractive projects in the territory be respected.”

The Honduras Solidarity Network has also noted: “It’s not just the DFC that’s involved in funding this project, but also the Canadian government and the private arm of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB).”

PBI accompaniment

On May 15, PBI-Honduras accompanied the fourth anniversary event for the Defence of the Jilamito River, where the communities ratified that “the river is for our community water project and that defending the right to water is defending life”.

The Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) set up the ‘dignity camp’ on May 15, 2017 in opposition to the construction of a dam on the river.

Movimiento Amplio has also tweeted: “On the fourth anniversary of Camp Worthy for the Defense of the Jilamito River. From the communities we say: ‘The people of Arizona will continue fighting for our Jilamito River as long as necessary.’”

Last month, 60 organizations, including our colleagues at PBI-USA, School of the Americas Watch, and the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective, signed this letter calling on the US Treasury Secretary to oppose financing for the dam.

We continue to follow this.

The reaction from PBI-Honduras to the news:

One month into the national strike, what’s next for Colombia?

By
Brent Patterson
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The national strike that began on April 28 continues with no end in sight.

We wanted to explore these questions with you: What are the reasons for the national strike and broader social protests? Where is this heading? How is state violence being challenged? What role is Canada playing in this?

Join us on Thursday June 3 at 3:30 pm EDT for a webinar with simultaneous translation in English and Spanish that will discuss these questions and more.

The webinar will feature:

-Oscar Ramirez of the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP)

-Berenice Celeita of the Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc)

-Danilo Rueda of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace.

Our colleagues at PBI-Colombia have been accompanying these organizations on the front lines of social protests in Cali and Bogota, notably the Portal Americas humanitarian space.

To register for the webinar, click here.

Service Employees International Union expresses solidarity with the National Strike in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

The American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have sent a joint letter to the Biden Administration on the situation in Colombia.

SEIU Healthcare is a healthcare union in Canada with more than 60,000 frontline workers.

Excerpts from the AFL-CIO, IBT and SEIU letter include:

“For decades, the Colombian labor movement and many democracy and human rights defenders have suffered threats and violence for exercising their fundamental rights of freedom of expression and association. Unfortunately, the Colombian government, especially the Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron (ESMAD), have consistently been a major actor in perpetrating this violence.

Since the current protests began, reports from trade unions and civil society organizations in Colombia indicate a militarization of the country through the repressive crackdown on protests by the ESMAD.

The Administration should immediately suspend all forms of security assistance not related to human rights training to the national police and set clear time-bound benchmarks for improvements before assistance can resume.

As close allies of the Colombian labor movement, we note that ESMAD has a long history of being deployed by the government to undermine worker rights mobilizations, as documented in the 2016 petition filed by Colombian unions and the AFL-CIO regarding Colombia’s failure to comply with the labor standards in the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Recent measures adopted by the Duque Government, including its 2020 Development Plan, Decree 770 and Decree 1174, have weakened labor rights and undermined the Labor Ministry’s ability to enforce labor law across the country.

The U.S. labor movement stands in solidarity with the National Strike Committee (Comité Nacional del Paro) and the Colombian people as they continue to mobilize and protest in support of their full demands, including negotiating an agreement with the Colombian social movements on tax reform that motivated the recent protests, and negotiations over the Unified Emergency Proposal of the National Strike Committee.”

Their full letter can be read here.

For additional statements from the labour movement in Canada in solidarity with the national strike in Colombia, please click on these links: Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), United Steelworkers (USW), Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC),  National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE),  Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Union of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and British Colombia General Employees Union (BCGEU).

Webinar on June 3

To hear more about the current situation with the national strike in Colombia, please join us on Thursday June 3 for a webinar with Berenice Celeita (Association of Research and Social Action/Nomadesc), Oscar Ramirez (Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners) and Danilo Rueda (Justice and Peace Commission).

You can join this bilingual (English/Spanish) webinar by registering here.

PBI-Canada Board member Marianna Tzabiras recalls accompaniment of FAFG exhumation in Guatemala

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI accompanied this FAFG exhumation in January 1998.

On May 26, PBI-Canada Board member Marianna Tzabiras tweeted: “First got to know the amazing @FAFGuatemala [Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala] in 1997 when my @PBIcanada team accompanied their exhumation in Chel, Quiché. Their work to identify the remains of #Guatemala ‘s forcibly disappeared continues.”

Marianna’s tweet links the BBC article Guatemala disappeared: Reuniting families with the remains of loved ones.

That article reports: “Almost 25 years on from the signing of a peace agreement which put an end to Guatemala’s bloody armed conflict, thousands of families have yet to find the remains of their missing relatives.”

“More than 200,000 people were killed during the 36-year civil war between the military and left-wing rebels which ended in 1996. Of these, an estimated 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared, their bodies buried in unmarked pits or dumped in mass graves.”

It also highlights: “Over the years, the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) has tried to locate and identify the remains of the victims of forced disappearances. They collect DNA samples from family members, carry out exhumations and return the identified remains of victims to their relatives for a dignified burial.”

Marianna has also shared the photo above of the PBI accompaniment of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation team at the exhumation of a mass grave in Chel, Quiche in January 1998. Marianna notes: “People hadn’t gone to the site or spoken about the killing since it had happened in 1982 so this was incredibly healing.”

In August 2019, Aljazeera reported: “Over the course of several years, the foundation exhumed the remains of 565 people, including at least 90 children, from clandestine mass grave sites within the Creompaz military base, 170km north of Guatemala City.”

In October 2019, PBI-Guatemala posted on its Facebook page the photo below and noted: “Last week we attended an exhumation with Conavigua Guatemala [the National Coordination of Widows of Guatemala] and the Forensic Anthropology Foundation [in the Carrizal community of the municipality of Chiché el Quiché].”

CREDHOS at permanent assembly of Petroleum Workers Union (USO) at entrance to the Ecopetrol refinery in Barrancabermeja

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 25, the Barrancabermeja, Colombia-based Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) tweeted: “A blockade at the refinery of Barrancabermeja by the social and popular organizations of the region in unity with the Petroleum Workers Union (USO) within the framework of national strike taking place throughout the country against the disastrous policies of the Government of Ivan Duque.”

Later CREDHOS tweeted: “We participate in the National Strike Day as a verifier and observer organization of the scene of mobilization and social protest. At this moment, we make the respective rounds at the different refinery gates in Barrancabermeja”

The following day, El Espectador reported: “Since yesterday, Tuesday, May 25, members of the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) have been located at the entrance to the Ecopetrol refinery in Barrancabermeja and declared themselves in a permanent assembly.”

The article also notes: “According to its president, Edwin Palma, they oppose Ecopetrol selling shares [of the state company] to private capital and ask for better working conditions for outsourced employees. They also ask that he refrain from fracking and ask him for concrete actions in the context of the pandemic, such as the creation of social jobs.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.

In November 2019, CREDHOS president Ivan Madero took part in a cross-country advocacy tour in Canada that highlighted his organizations concerns about fracking and the operations of Calgary-based Parex Resources in Simacota, Santander.

Most recently, Madero participated in a PBI-Canada organized webinar in April 2021 on the risks faced by environmental defenders in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia.

We also note that Unifor, Canada’s largest energy union, has called for a Canada-wide moratorium on all new oil and gas fracking due to its safety and environment risks and the lack of free, prior and informed consent from First Nations.

We continue to follow the USO action with interest.

The ongoing national strike in Colombia began on April 28. 

In this video, USO president Edwin Palma explains the reasons for the permanent assembly and participation in the national strike.

PBI-Colombia accompanies NOMADESC as it presents report to embassies on rights violations by Public Force in Cali

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by NOMADESC.

On May 26, Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted: “The Association for Research for Social Action (NOMADESC) and victims of police violence in Cali receive valuable support from the Embassy of Germany in Colombia and the European Union in Colombia. Today delegates received a report on violations of human rights within the framework of the national strike in Cali.”

NOMADESC tweeted: “Delegation of the German Embassy and the European Union visiting NOMADESC receives a detailed report of serious violations of human rights, committed by the Public Force in the city of Cali from April 28, 2021 to date.”

State violence in Cali

Indepaz has documented that 31 people have been killed between April 28 and May 4 during the national strike. 24 of those were killed in Cali. Civil society organizations have now recorded 51 deaths in the context of the protests.

ABC News has reported: “Among the dead is 17-year-old Marcelo Agredo who was allegedly fatally shot by a police officer on April 28 in Cali, Colombia. Video from the incident shows Agredo appearing to kick a police officer sitting on a motorbike before the officer opens fire. A government agency is now investigating his death.”

BBC has also reported: “Local media named on of those who died in the city’s protests as Nicolás Guerrero, a 27-year-old artist. The mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina, said Guerrero had died of a gunshot wound to the head.” The Mayor said: “I condemn this and I ask of all police to not even think about using guns in these protests.”

And the Associated Press has reported: “The United Nations human rights office said it was ‘deeply alarmed’ over violence against protesters in Cali, where ‘police opened fire on demonstrators’ and allegedly killed and injured several people [on May 3].”

The situation overall

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued this statement that “at least 1,038 demonstrations have resulted in deaths, disappearances, injured persons and sexual assaults as a result of the disproportionate and illegitimate use of force.”

“The Inter-American Commission finds the complaints of 132 persons who remain missing extremely serious and for whom the Attorney General’s Office keeps the urgent search mechanism active.”

“The IACHR [also] expresses alarm and denounces at least 87 acts of sexual violence allegedly committed by law ensuing agents against female protesters, such as the case of the teenager who reported being sexually assaulted by several law authority agents in the city of Popayán and who subsequently committed suicide on 12 May.”

Webinar with Berenice Celeita on June 3

To hear more about the detailed report presented by NOMADESC and other related urgent issues, we invite you to join our webinar with their president Berenice Celeita along with Oscar Ramirez from the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP), and Danilo Rueda from the Justice and Peace Commission.

You can join this bilingual (English/Spanish) webinar by registering here.

PBI-Honduras observes press conference that calls on Honduran Council of Private Enterprise to apologize for comments

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 26, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on Facebook: “[On May 19] we observed a press conference called by the Land and Territory of Common Goods Table of the Coalition Against Impunity Honduras before the Institution of the National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH).”

PBI-Honduras adds: “In their pronouncement, they demanded the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP) offer a public apology for their recent statement that calls for the defense of ‘private property’ and ‘for the repressive forces to undertake evictions, criminalization, persecution and prosecution of people defenders’.”

That post adds that the pronouncement says: “[COHEP] is responsible for ‘the violence that may develop in the territories’ and demands from the State ‘a comprehensive process of equitable distribution of land and territory with a gender perspective’.”

On May 19, this statement by the organizations of the Coalition Against Impunity Honduras was communicated to national and international opinion:

– “We emphasize that the peasant sectors and native peoples are not land invaders, we are defenders of territory and the environment in the face of the extractivist and concessionary policy that has been implemented forcefully by the administration of Juan Orlando Hernández, a government that has executed a vision of development in the country’s business sector.”

– “We reiterate that neoliberal policies implemented over the past 30 years have privatized major public goods and prioritized an agricultural policy focused on agri-export that has benefited, in particular, the business sectors. Official data indicate that these agricultural policies have increased the recentration of land in the hands and benefits for landowners and agribusiness sectors.”

– “[We demand] COHEP publicly apologize to peasant, indigenous and Garífuna organizations that have undertaken land and territory recovery processes, while developing conflict resolution processes, in which territorial organizations can participate on an equal footing. If COHEP continues to make statements disconnected from reality, it will be guilty of the actions of violence that are unleashed in the territories currently fighting for access to land, and will be directly responsible for the attack on the physical and psychological integrity of the defenders of the territory.”

Their full statement is here.

PBI-Honduras accompanies law firm and CEHPRODEC at the filing of an appeal in support of two criminalized defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 26, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project tweeted: “PBI accompanied CEHPRODEC and Bufete Justicia para los Pueblos [Justice for the Peoples Law Firm] in the filing of Amparo appeal for the closure of the criminal proceedings against Víctor Vásquez and José S. Vigil for the crime of forced displacement.”

The PBI-Honduras post adds: “’We are defenders of human rights, not terrorists’, they recall from Simpinula.”

On May 25, lawyer Edy Tabor tweeted: “Let us demand that the Constitutional Chamber order the closure of the criminal proceedings against Víctor V. and José V. since in a racist judicial act the Court of Appeals of Comayagua did not want to resolve the appeal presented by the defense and only resolved the one presented by the MP [Public Ministry].”

Indigenous rights

Last week, PBI-Honduras posted on Facebook: “After the arrest of indigenous leader Victor Vásquez, the Lenca Indigenous Council of Simpinula continues under threats and persecution for defending territory and natural goods.”

“They denounce a two-speed justice; more than 40 complaints have been filed by the Council in the prosecutors of Marcala and Tegucigalpa and none have been investigated.”

The post from PBI-Honduras highlights: “We express concern about the security situation of the people defending indigenous human rights and the land as well as the criminalization and judicial proceedings they face.”

Víctor Vásquez

Front Line Defenders has explained: “Víctor Vásquez is a member of the Consejo Indígena de Simpinula (Indigenous Council of Simpinula) in Santa María, La Paz.”

“He is also the local leader of the Movimiento Indígena Independiente Lenca de La Paz (Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz, Honduras – MILPAH), which advocates for the rights of Lenca indigenous peoples to self-determination and to their ancestral lands.”

That post adds: “The human rights defender has been repeatedly threatened for supporting local small farmers’ groups in La Paz in activities to recover land they consider has been illegally privatised by local authorities.”

Hearing on May 27

Front Line Defenders further notes: “On 27 May 2021, the oral and public hearing of the case of human rights defender Víctor Vásquez will take place at the Regional Court of Comayagua City. The human rights defender was indicted for the crime of ‘injuries’ in 2018. Víctor Vásquez has been detained at the La Paz Penal Centre since 11 December 2020, after being arbitrarily detained by Honduran police officers.”

Video

To watch a short video (in Spanish) produced by the Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz (MILPAH), the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) and PBI-Honduras that tells more of this story, click here.

You can now follow PBI-Honduras on Twitter.

Victor Vasquez

Front Line Moms defend youth from state security forces at the Portal de las Americas humanitarian space in Bogota

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Camilo Rozo from El Pais.

Last year we saw the “Wall of Moms” resist police violence against protests following the police murder of George Floyd in the United States. This year, there is the “Mamás en primera línea” (Moms on the front line) in Colombia.

They are present in the Portal de las Americas humanitarian space in Bogota, a key site of resistance during the national strike that began on April 28. Carlos, one of the organizers in the humanitarian space, says: “For us they are a great support.”

One of the moms, 39-year-old Vanesa, told El Pais: “We had been watching with fear and anguish for several nights how the police attacked our young people who came out to protest their rights. We came to the conclusion that if we were going to do a social job, we should do well: on the front line, putting the body in place to defend the protesters.”

Reuters adds: “Vanesa protects herself from the hail of tear gas, rocks and fire hose streams that often mark protests in Colombia with just safety glasses, a helmet, a bandanna over her nose and mouth and a flimsy black wooden shield.”

“Vanesa said the moms were inspired to take action after they attended a protest where the national riot squad tear-gassed a group of protesting mothers and children.”

“The group has appeared in social media videos, one of which shows a sound grenade thrown by police exploding near them during a demonstration.”

Vanesa says: “We’re a group of single moms who are now trying to fight for the violated rights of young people.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has stated: “At least 1,038 demonstrations have resulted in deaths, disappearances, injured persons and sexual assaults as a result of the disproportionate and illegitimate use of force.”

The IACHR notes that 43 people have lost their lives during the national strike and that there are complaints of 132 people who remain missing, 87 acts of sexual violence allegedly committed by law agents against female protesters, and approximately 979 civilians injured, including at least 33 people with eye trauma.

The Wall of Moms in Portland, Oregon in July 2020. Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP.

To learn more about what’s happening in Colombia, we invite you to join our bilingual (English/Spanish) webinar by registering here.

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