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PBI-Nicaragua shares Galeano passage from ‘The emigrants, now’ as the new year begins

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Nicaragua Project, which is based in Costa Rica, has shared a new year’s message for 2021 featuring an excerpt from ‘The emigrants, now’ by the late Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano.

The passage reads:

“Since always, butterflies and swallows and flamingos fly away from the cold, year after year, and whales swim in search of another sea and salmon and trout in search of their river. They travel thousands of leagues, on the free paths of air and water.

On the other hand, the paths of human exodus are not free.

In immense caravans, the fugitives from the impossible life march.”

The full text by Galeano can be read in Spanish here.

In 1990, when the Sandinistas lost a national election after 10 years of the US-financed Contra insurgency, Galeano wrote: “The authors of war and hunger are now celebrating the result of the elections, which punish the victims. The next day, the US government announced the end of the economic embargo against Nicaragua.”

Galeano had been a supporter of the Sandinista revolution, but parted ways in 2008 in solidarity with the former Sandinista minister of culture Ernesto Cardenal.

More than 100,000 people have left Nicaragua in recent years, a large majority of them to Costa Rica where PBI-Nicaragua is based.

This year will be a crucial one in Nicaragua as a presidential election is now scheduled for November 7. PBI-Canada will be following updates from PBI-Nicaragua and the defenders it accompanies as the year unfolds.

PBI-Colombia accompanied J&P raises concern about the forcible recruitment of an Indigenous man by National Army

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 7, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted: “What happened? Indigenous peoples are special subjects of protection and are exempt from military service at all times in Colombia.”

The PBI-Colombia tweet amplified a post by the Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace (J&P), an organization it has accompanied since 1994.

The J&P statement highlights the forced recruitment by the Colombian Army of Nayiritau Bailarín Domicó, a young Indigenous man, in the city of Bucaramanga.

That statement further notes: “Members of the [Indigenous Embera]  Alto Guayabal community [in the Bajo Atrato region] are exempt from military service because of their status as ethnic peoples who have been victims of armed conflict, and that much of their impact has been precisely caused by military agents in recent years.”

PBI-Colombia has previously explained that the Bajo Atrato region has recently seen the recruitment of young people, the confinement of Indigenous peoples who face a serious humanitarian situation, and threats to social leaders.

War Resisters International has further noted: “Indigenous people who live in their territory and preserve their cultural, social and economic integrity” are exempt from military service.

However, it adds: “The process is not so easy [because] the military judges the veracity of claims to indigenous status. They use either an outdated census, or a certificate issued to an individual by their community, which the authorities do not always recognize.”

Overall, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) has noted: “Almost a third of the national territory is categorized as indigenous reserves.”

It adds: “[Most of those reserves] have to face serious environmental conflicts and land grabbing due to extractive activities in the zone.”

This past August, Indepaz reported that at least 1,000 Colombian human rights defenders and community leaders have been assassinated since late 2016

According to Indepaz, 37.6% of the assassinated victims played a leading role in their Indigenous communities, while 54.3% were a member of the National Organization of Colombia’s Indigenous (ONIC).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Creompaz case in which hundreds of Indigenous peoples were killed at military base

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 6, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted this 4-minute video (in Spanish) about the Creompaz case.

That day was the 5th anniversary of the arrest of fourteen former military on charges of forced disappearance and crimes against humanity. At least seven other people related to the Creompaz case remain fugitives from justice.

That army base, then known as Military Zone 21, was the site of extreme violence against men, women and children in the 1980s.

It was there that 84 mass graves containing 565 bodies were found.

The Caso Creompaz video notes that hundreds of victims have been identified as Indigenous Maya Poqomchi, Q’eqchi’, Achi, Ixil and K’iche peoples.

The military base is considered the largest clandestine cemetery in Latin America.

In Creompaz: Guatemala’s ‘Little School of the Americas’, Canadian journalist Dawn Paley writes: “Evidence uncovered by forensic anthropologists shows that people disappeared from various regions were later brought to the base at Coban by soldiers for interrogation and torture, followed by extrajudicial execution and secret burial.”

Indigenous people were targeted during the armed conflict that began in 1960 and formally ended in 1996.

An estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed with 93 per cent of the executions of civilians carried out by government forces. Of the 42,275 individual cases of killing and disappearances documented by the Commission for Historical Clarification, 83 per cent of the victims of the armed conflict were Indigenous Maya.

Military Zone 21 is now the United Nations Creompaz (Regional Training Command for Peacekeeping Operations) training base for peacekeepers.

Paley has commented: “Regardless of the mass graves at the base, military and police training continues there, supported by countries like the US and Canada.” The support from Canada has included a CAD$250,000 grant in 2009 and the purchase of specialized equipment in 2014 for a training program at Creompaz.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) at hearings of several of the officers indicted in the crimes against humanity committed at this base.

PBI-Guatemala also accompanies the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association (AVECHAV) which represents the 250 families displaced by the construction of the base on their lands. The survivors and relatives of the displaced families continue to ask that their lands be returned to them and that their dispossession by the military end.

Environmentalists express concern that Calgary-based Parex Resources could frack the VSM 25 block in Tolima, Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 5, El Nuevo Dia reported that environmentalists in the Colombian department (province) of Tolima are concerned that a contract awarded to Calgary-based Parex Resources Inc. to extract oil by conventional methods could be extended to fracking.

The contract is for the VSM 25 block in the Upper Magdalena Valley basin. The municipalities in the area include Alvarado, Coello, Ibagué, Piedras and San Luis.

While the contract does not explicitly mention fracking, environmentalists are concerned that the language in it suggests the possibility remains open.

The environmentalists are further concerned by the pattern of Parex providing aid to the municipalities where it has an economic interest.

El Nuevo Dia reports that Parex installed 230 metres of pipe for the community aqueduct in the municipality of Doima, which is located near VSM 25.

Parex reportedly did this work on the aqueduct without previously consulting with the Board of the aqueduct or its users.

Doima is a municipality in the municipality of Piedras.

Following these claims, the community of Doima achieved a commitment from the mayor of Piedras not to accept any contributions from Parex.

And yet, El Nuevo Dia reports, the municipality of Alvarado has had work done to improve its aqueduct seemingly with the support of Parex.

The environmentalists have written to the mayor of Ibagué to determine his position, but no one in that municipality’s administration has responded to them yet.

The former mayor of Ibagué, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, has commented: “The Ibagué plateau has the fourth most important aquifer in the country, it is clean and necessary water for the future of a city since surface water is scarce. What would happen if there is an oil exploitation that contaminates those aquifers for us?”

El Nuevo Dia previously reported on the situation in Doima (in Piedras) in July 2020.

The context of that report was that residents of the municipality had voted in a popular consultation against extractivism in their territories:

“Camilo Cifuentes, a resident of Piedras, said that people do not understand why despite the fact that there is a popular consultation that said no to mining and extractive activities Parex insists on operating in a municipality that is supposed to have been protected from this type of activity for about [the last] seven years.”

And last year, Piedras councillor Nelson Ariel Jiménez expressed concern that Parex wants to drill at the head of the Opia River, the main source of water in the area. He highlighted: “[Parex is] trying to enter and convince people whatever, but the same communities have stated that not a step back will be taken and that they will go to the last consequences of defending the territory and enforcing the consultation where the people spoke.”

Parex describes its ‘Water for All’ program on its website: “Through these projects, Parex has managed to convey to the community that oil projects can contribute to the provision of clean water where the Company operates.”

PBI-Canada notes that the United Nations General Assembly has recognized clean water as a fundamental human right essential to the realization of all human rights. The right to water is also recognized in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The El Nuevo Dia articles: In Doima they closed once again the doors to the Parex oil company (July 17, 2020); Environmentalists say that Parex project in Tolima opens the door to fracking (January 5, 2021).

Photo credit.

PBI-Honduras accompanied Lenca leader María Felícita López on the struggle for free, prior and informed consent

By
Brent Patterson
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Indigenous feminist leader María Felícita López is the women’s coordinator with the Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz, Honduras (MILPAH).

MILPAH was established in response to the irregular concessions of rivers and territories to mining companies and hydroelectric projects – and the Lenca demand for the right to free, prior and informed consent on their territories.

It is supported by the Honduran Centre for Communal Development (CEHPRODEC), which has been accompanied by PBI-Honduras since 2014.

López has noted: “PBI helps us when there are difficulties with instances like the police or when communication no longer works. We are very grateful for this.”

PBI-Switzerland has noted: “López grew up in an indigenous community called San Isidro del Volcán.  …MILPAH was founded to defend the river that flowed through López’s village. López was part of the fight to defend the river from the beginning.”

The Irish Examiner has explained: “Her community near La Paz in western Honduras was divided in two when work on the hydro-dam first began in 2009. …López knows that her life would be much easier if she hadn’t stood up to the hydroelectrical company that encroached on the indigenous territory surrounding the Chinacla River.”

In the department of La Paz, there are currently four hydroelectric concessions and at least 26 management plans and environmental permits for the exploitation of wood.

In these cases, López explains, the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) grants permits without consulting communities and without finding out the environmental impact this will have on the community’s water sources.

Last April, the Irish Examiner reported: “Recently, María Felícita passed by a gatepost with a skull painted on it. Underneath it said ‘Felícita — death’. Her family has also been the victim of smear campaigns. Her husband was forced to flee to El Salvador due to false accusations levelled against him.”

She told the newspaper: “You risk your life by challenging economic power here. It’s difficult, but we must do it.”

To read the fuller article by PBI-Switzerland on the PBI-Honduras website, please see The fight for the next generation.

Update on TMX pipeline and climate ambition summit

By
Brent Patterson
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Thank you for supporting our urgent action petitions. Our most recent ones, Canada must uphold Indigenous rights at the Climate Ambition Summit and Help stop the criminalization of Secwepemc land defenders, generated hundreds of emails to the Prime Minister.

This is a brief update on those actions.

In a 98-second pre-recorded video played at the Climate Ambition Summit on December 12, Prime Minister Trudeau stated: “We will raise our emission reduction ambitions. And in partnership with provinces and territories, we as a country will strive for the upper end of a range of 32 to 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.”

If he were to have used the more common global baseline of 1990 levels, that promise equates to a 17.7 to 27.4 per cent reduction by 2030. In comparison, the European Union has pledged to reduce their carbon emissions by 55 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Significantly, the Prime Minister did not include in his message, as we had asked, to note that four land and environmental defenders have been killed every week since the Paris climate summit five years ago and that the protection of frontline activists is crucial.

Just a few weeks before the Climate Ambition Summit, many of you had also asked the Crown corporation that owns the Trans Mountain pipeline to speak to the United Nations resolution calling on Canada to stop the construction of the pipeline until free, prior and informed consent had been granted by the Secwepemc peoples.

The CEO of Trans Mountain did not respond to that question at the Crown corporation’s virtual annual meeting on November 17.

Significantly, after a two-week safety shut down in December, construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline was set to resume yesterday, Monday January 4.

In their media release on this Trans Mountain noted: “Next year, 2021, will see peak construction for the Project, with thousands of people working in hundreds of sites across Alberta and British Columbia.”

This remains a serious concern given 518 kilometres of this 1,150 kilometre pipeline is set to cross unceded Secwepemc territory without their consent. This creates a situation in which the Secwepemc defending their land and water from this unwanted megaproject will face continued risk and criminalization.

As the new year begins, we ask that you continue to follow these issues with us. There will be many more moments when our solidarity is needed.

We will also be closely following the lead-up to the UN COP26 climate summit in Scotland this coming November 1-12.

Climate breakdown is a massive threat to human rights, and we continue to assert that global forums such as COP26 must do more to address the security situation of human rights defenders given the crucial role they play in protecting vital ecosystems.

For daily updates on these issues and more from the countries where we accompany frontline defenders, please see our website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

PBI-Honduras volunteer Mieke Wolter on accompanying defenders in the struggle against mines, dams and energy companies

By
Brent Patterson
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Our colleagues at PBI-Deutschland have just published this firsthand account from Mieke Wolter and we present these excerpts in English:

“At the end of March 2019, I went to Honduras as a PBI volunteer for a year. The house of the volunteers in which I lived and worked is in the capital Tegucigalpa where the offices of four of the six organizations currently supported by PBI are also based.

The accompaniment of local human rights defenders was often very inspiring, invigorating and encouraging. I asked myself: How can it be that a person who has already experienced so much hostility from different quarters can still be so humorous and unswerving?

There was always feedback from the human rights defenders we accompanied that the presence of PBI was very valuable. We were often told that without our presence they would be exposed to far more attacks and hostility or even be dead.

The accompaniment of PBI creates a shelter in which the activists can campaign for human rights in their country. Through the international interest, which can obviously be recognized through the physical presence, they experience an appreciation of their work for human rights. It becomes clear that human rights are taken seriously here.

In addition to the accompaniment to various events (rallies, court hearings, etc.) and the meetings with national and international authorities (mayor, police, military, national alliance for human rights, embassies), there was also a lot of work in the office – this included extensive work decision-making processes, in particular the meticulous recording of all relevant information.

A large part of the accompaniments of human rights defenders took place in the capital Tegucigalpa, but there were also requests for accompaniments from rural regions of the country. This is how I remember the accompaniment of CEHPRODEC (the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development).

CEHPRODEC offers technical and legal advice to rural and indigenous communities and facilitates organizational, training and protection processes through its work. The major problem facing many rural communities across Honduras is that mining projects and dams are often built without an adequate, free and informed process of prior consultation with the affected population.

[Likewise] the CNTC (National Union of Rural Workers) accompanies farmers who are being prosecuted for refusing to leave the land they have been cultivating for decades. Often it concerns areas that are to be sold to transnational energy companies, for example, and that are cleared with the help of private security personnel or the police.

We have therefore often accompanied CNTC members in court proceedings. In doing so, I often felt faint, because dates for the announcement of the verdict were regularly postponed; a common tactic to continue harassing farmers.

I am glad that organizations like PBI help to preserve and protect these spaces and that I was able to contribute to this as part of my volunteer work.”

The full article in German can be read on the PBI-Deutschland website at: Honduras: Tortilla y frijoles – Ein Jahr als Freiwillige für pbi.

Amnesty International releases new video about Colombian human rights defender Jani Silva

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 2, Amnesty International released this new 1-minute video about Colombian environmental human rights defender Jani Silva.

Silva is the president of the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Perla Amazónica (ADISPA), the association that manages the Perla Amazónica Peasant Reserve Zone (ZRCPA).

Jani is accompanied by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, which in turn has been accompanied by PBI-Colombia since 1994.

The ZRCPA is located near Puerto Asis in the department of Putumayo, which is situated in south-west Colombia near the border with Ecuador.

PBI-Colombia has noted: “Over the years, one of the great challenges they have faced has been the arrival and expansion of oil companies.”

Amnesty International adds: “Her work placed her at loggerheads with the Ecopetrol oil company, which won a license to operate in areas overlapping with the reserve in 2006. In 2009, the license was transferred to the Amerisur oil company. Since then, at least two oil spills have poisoned the water sources that local communities depend on.”

And Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli of WOLA further notes: “Silva persistently fights for the conservation of the Amazon ecosystem and the rights of campesinos in Putumayo department. Oil slicks pollute the soil and drinking water of hundreds of farmers, animals, and plants, which is why Silva has campaigned for years against oil extraction.”

She adds: “In 2017, as a result of death threats in response to this work, Silva and her family were internally displaced from their community.”

PBI-Colombia has also noted: “Silva and her husband Hugo Miramar packed up all their belongings, got on a boat and travelled down the river to Puerto Asis, where they sought refuge. After so many threats and so much stress it was no longer possible to stay on the farm.”

In November 2019, Amerisur (that had been listed on the London Stock Exchange) was purchased by GeoPark (listed on the New York Stock Exchange).

Several Canadian oil and gas corporations also operate in the Putumayo basin, including Calgary-based Gran Tierra Energy.

You can read more from Amnesty International Canada on how to take action to support Silva.

Secwepemc land defenders continue to resist as Trans Mountain prepares for “peak construction” in 2021

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from Kanahus Manuel.

Work on the 890,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline expansion is expected to resume this Monday January 4.

About half of the 1,150 kilometre-long pipeline is set to cross unceded Secwepemc territory without their free, prior and informed consent.

On December 17, the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Corporation announced a “voluntary project-wide safety stand down” following the death of Samatar Sahal on October 27 at the pipeline work site near Edmonton and the serious injury of an unnamed worker on December 15 at the Burnaby Terminal work site near Vancouver.

Despite this temporary shut down, that media release also highlighted: “Next year, 2021, will see peak construction for the Project, with thousands of people working in hundreds of sites across Alberta and British Columbia.”

As of December 30, the Crown corporation’s website noted in its construction schedule:

Blue River to Vavenby ROW [right of way] Preparation (March 2021 – April 2021): “Work at this site may begin as early as January pending all necessary permits and approvals.”

Valemount to Blue River ROW Preparation (August 2020 – March 2021)

Valemount Camp Community (July 2020 – August 2022): “The camp community will house up to 600 people working on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project…”

On November 17, the CEO of Trans Mountain Corporation highlighted that “camp communities” had been opened in Valemount and Clearwater.

This despite the final report by National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluding: “Work camps, or man camps, associated with the resource extraction industry are implicated in higher rates of violence against Indigenous women at the camps and in the neighbouring communities.”

The Secwepemc Declaration also expresses profound concerns about camps resulting in increased sexualized violence against Indigenous women.

On December 13, 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination passed a resolution expressing its concern about “the approval of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Extension project without free, prior and informed consent by all the indigenous peoples affected.”

It then called upon the State party (Canada) “to immediately cease construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project and cancel all permits, until free, prior and informed consent is obtained from all the Secwepemc people, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

The full resolution from the UN Committee can be read here.

For more on the Secwepemc Tiny House Warrior land defenders seeking to stop the construction of this pipeline on their unceded territories, click here.

Kanahus Manuel: “The rcmp came at night to tell us to ‘watch your dogs’ among other taunting terrorizing statements, while flood lighting us up the whole time… This is happening while the global indigenous peoples human rights community is mourning the loss and the murder of yet another Indigenous Land Defender in the south.”

The destructive impact of fighter jets on migratory birds

By
Brent Patterson
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“Two CF-18s on a taxiway at CFB Bagotville, with a flight of birds in the background. If the wildlife gets too close it can result in catastrophe for the animals, the planes and the pilots.” Photo by Vicky Boutin/Radio-Canada.

The United Nations has noted that 40 per cent of all migratory birds are seeing their numbers in decline, with one in eight threatened with extinction. Notably, the bird population in Canada has declined by about 12 per cent over the last 40 years.

Among the major threat birds face are habitat loss and degradation.

Canadian Forces Base Bagotville, one of the two air force bases for CF-18 fighter jets in Canada, is situated in a migratory bird corridor.

CBC recently reported: “In autumn, snow geese and Canada geese find the long grassy verges next to the runway irresistible.”

That article notes that the air base is also surrounded by farms.

The Canadian Wildlife Federation has highlighted: “In Quebec, about 15 species of farmland birds are now considered at risk.”

While Canadian figures aren’t readily available, the US Department of Defense says the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps report up to 3,000 bird strikes a year.

The Marine Corps Times has further reported that between 1995 and 2019, the US Air Force recorded more than 69,000 wildlife-aircraft strikes.

Furthermore, a research study that looked at 286 serious bird-related accidents to military aircraft from 32 countries between 1950 and 1999 found that most cases involved fighter jet or attack aircraft (at least 179 accidents).

AeroTime Hub has also highlighted: “Perching birds, sparrows, and starlings account for 22 per cent of strikes.”

Most media coverage has focused on the damage a bird can cause to an aircraft, including the world’s most advanced fighter jet. In May 2019, an F-35 fighter jet struck a bird on a runway preventing it from taking off and causing $2 million in damage.

The CBC article noted above is mostly a feel-good story on how ‘the bird man of Bagotville’ uses crow sounds amplified through a speaker on his pick-up truck along with a saker falcon to hunt or scare off geese and sparrows from the air base.

But not enough attention is given to the importance of migratory birds.

Last year, Amy Fraenkel, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals, commented: “Given that destruction of nature has also been linked to the kinds of infectious diseases we are now combating, taking actions to protect migratory birds and their habitats is more important than ever.”

As the Canadian government prepares to spend $12.1-million on a new infrastructure at CFB Bagotville to house the fighter jets it plans to spend billions more to purchase and operate, greater attention should be given to the impact warplanes have on migratory birds, their habitat, biodiversity, and the interconnectedness of ecosystems.

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