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The invitation letter that led to the formation of PBI was sent on January 12, 1981

By
Brent Patterson
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The Mutual Support Group for Families of the Disappeared and the Detained (GAM) protest on October 12, 1984 with PBI volunteer observing at top left.

On January 12, 1981, a letter was sent to several organizations inviting them to attend a conference to explore the idea of an international organization committed to unarmed third party interventions in conflict situations.

That letter led to the meeting on Grindstone Island just south of Ottawa and the formation of Peace Brigades International on September 4, 1981.

The founding statement that day highlighted: “We are forming an organization with the capability to mobilize and provide trained units of volunteers. …We are building on a rich and extensive heritage of nonviolent action, which no longer can be ignored.”

In 1982, PBI co-founder Hans Sinn sent out a mailing to over 1,000 people asking for money and volunteers. Sinn was also working at that time on the formation of PBI-Canada, which was to become PBI’s first country group.

By November 1982, PBI’s Central America Project Committee met face-to-face in Philadelphia and its office was later established in Toronto.

PBI placed its first team in Guatemala on March 21, 1983 in a vacant home in Guatemala City.

On October 12, 1984, hundreds of Guatemalans walked from San Lucas to Guatemala City, the first mass protest in years. The 32-kilometre march was accompanied by a team of peacekeepers trained by, and including, PBI volunteers.

Then when the body of Mutual Support Group/GAM founder Maria Rosario Godoy de Cuevas was found on April 4, 1985, the idea of personal accompaniment began to form. PBI made sure that high-level authorities knew it was now escorting the GAM and the political costs that further attacks would carry.

In 2019, 465 volunteers from 28 countries accompanied 1,360 human rights defenders.

PBI-Canada celebrates the 40th anniversary of PBI’s global commitment to peace, human rights, and non-violent action.

With 304 human rights defenders killed in 2019, it is also our hope that one day these killings will stop and that PBI accompaniment will no longer be needed.

PBI’s founding statement was adopted on September 4, 1981 at the Quaker Peace Education Centre (pictured below) on Grindstone Island, which is situated about 110 kilometres south-west of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The Canadian-backed General Mining Law and the criminalization of the Guapinol water defenders in Tocoa, Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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The families of the Guapinol water defenders wait for justice outside the courthouse in Tocoa, Honduras. Photo by Radio Progreso.

The criminalization of the Guapinol water defenders in Tocoa, Honduras can be related back to the Canadian-backed General Mining Law.

MiningWatch Canada has stated: “The General Mining Law was developed with technical assistance paid for with Canadian overseas development aid. Its passage in 2013 lifted a seven-year moratorium on any new mining projects.”

It has also noted: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

Among the concerns expressed by Honduran groups including PBI-Honduras accompanied CEHPRODEC: “The law fails to ensure the protection of natural areas and water sources vital for human consumption and other uses health” and “imposes limits on citizen participation and contradicts provisions for environmental conservation by prohibiting areas free of mining from being created for any length of time.”

The General Mining Law was approved on January 23, 2013.

By April 2013, Emco Mining (now Inversiones Los Pinares) requested two mining concessions in the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park.

On December 16, 2013, the Honduran Congress cut 217 hectares from the core zone of the park from which construction was prohibited. On January 28, 2014, the first licence was granted to Emco Mining for their planned open-pit iron oxide mine.

By 2017 the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Public and Common Goods had been created and called for public consultations so that community members could decide whether they wanted a mine in their area.

Then in March 2018, the company began building an access road to the planned mine site and community members reported that the Guapinol River, a vital source of drinking water for them, had become muddied.

By August 1, 2018, the community established an encampment that blocked the construction of the access road.

Then on October 27, 2018, more than 1,500 police officers and military personnel began the forceful expulsion of the protest camp from the road worksite.

The criminalization and judicialization of 31 Guapinol water defenders that we continue to see to this day followed from this.

On January 20, 2019, PBI-Honduras observed the Municipal Summit for Water and Life that was organized by the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods in Tocoa. The 2,000 people from 24 communities gathered at that Municipal Summit declared their opposition to the Inversiones Los Pinares mine.

On December 18, 2020, eight criminalized Guapinol water defenders were in court regarding the pre-trial detention measures against them (seven have been held in jail since September 1, 2019, an eighth since December 8, 2018).

On December 19, 2020 the judge ruled that they would remain in jail.

PBI-Canada continues to watch with great concern the criminalization and judicialization of the Guapinol water defenders.

PBI-Honduras observed the Municipal Summit for Water and Life in January 2019 that affirmed the rejection of the Inversiones Los Pinares mine.

Toronto-based Frontera Energy co-owned pipeline could move fracked oil from the Middle Magdalena region in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from a Global Day of Action against Fracking protest in Bogota on December 11, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the conclusion of the Paris climate summit.

In August 2019, Reuters reported that Natalia De la Calle, the Chief Executive Officer of Colombian Oil Pipeline (Oleoducto de Colombia), said that the pipeline company is “ready to move increased crude output from the center of Colombia to the Caribbean if the use of fracking is approved in the Andean country.”

The CEO of the company stated: “The evacuation and transport systems of the pipeline are ready to receive an incremental production via fracking. …An increase in capacity for Oleoducto de Colombia could be something that we review in the future given the results of non-conventional deposits if that’s the case.”

That article further references a 236,000 barrel per day pipeline that is co-owned by Toronto-based Frontera Energy. That pipeline moves oil 483 kilometres from Vasconia Station (Boyacá) in the Middle Magdalena region through Antioquia department to the coastal city of Coveñas (Sucre) on the Atlantic Ocean.

When that pipeline was built in 1990 it caused extensive environmental damage in northern Antioquia.

Colombia Reports notes: “ODC [Oleoducto de Colombia] stripped all the trees from along the pipeline corridor, leaving it without vegetation, and exposing it to water and wind erosion. The earth moving operations caused avalanches, blocked springs and diverted streams. Works for the pipeline destroyed 150 water sources along the Zaragoza section. ODC’s restoration work was conducted poorly and topsoil was not replaced. Sacks of earth rotted away within a few months and farm animals that ate the synthetic sacking were poisoned. The peasants lost their fruit trees and other crops.”

Fracking remains a controversial issue in Colombia.

Despite this, Canadian companies including Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. (in partnership with ConcoPhillips), Toronto-based Sintana Energy (and its Colombian-based subsidiary Patriot Energy in partnership with ExxonMobil), and Calgary-based Parex Resources are reportedly interested in the fracking pilot projects in Colombia.

Colombia’s proven oil reserves sit at 1.7 billion barrels, but the Colombian government estimates the use of fracking could triple those oil reserves.

This letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres signed by 450+ organizations and individuals, including Canadian author Naomi Klein, calling for a global ban on fracking highlighted: “There are numerous proven risks and impacts related to the development of fracking projects, such as heavy freshwater consumption, water and soil contamination, public health impacts and the significant contribution to global warming.”

PBI-Canada continues to watch this situation closely as it relates to the concerns about the human rights violations and environmental consequences of fracking being expressed by PBI-Colombia accompanied defenders.

Chart: Frontera Energy Corporation Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2018, page 21.

Equity interest is the ownership share of a shareholder in a business. In April 2014, Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (the former name for Frontera Energy Corp.) reported that it had sold its 5% interest in the Ocensa pipeline for US $385 million.

Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. waiting on regulations to frack in the Middle Magdalena Valley in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: A community blockade in 2016 protested against the Canacol and ConocoPhillips owned Picoplata 1 fracking project near San Martin, Cesar.

As noted on its website, Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. is “the largest independent onshore conventional natural gas exploration and production company in Colombia, supplying approximately 25% of the country’s gas needs.”

On December 17, Valora Analitik reported that in 2021 Canacol Energy will be focused on drilling 12 exploration wells, expanding its inventory of exploration prospects, building a new pipeline from Jobo to Medellin, and strengthening its commitment to its environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.

The 264-kilometre gas pipeline from the gas fields of Jobo, Córdoba (near Monteria) on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to Medellin, Antioquia is part of the larger 508-kilometre Northwestern Gas Pipeline (Gasoducto Noroccidente) project that would eventually extend to the capital city of Bogota.

Valora adds: “The first wells in the program will be the Flauta-1 exploration well and the Oboe-2 development well, both scheduled to begin drilling in the first week of January 2021.” Those wells are believed to be in the Lower Magdalena Valley region.

The article also notes that a milestone for the company in 2021 will be to demonstrate zero tolerance for human rights violations.

That said, it does not appear that Canacol Energy has ruled out fracking in Colombia.

In December 2019, Canacol Energy CEO Charle Gamba told La Republica: “Colombia is a little behind on the issue of fracking, as there are communication problems between the industry, the Government and the communities.”

He highlighted: “We must wait for the fracking regulation to come out…”

Then again in September of this year, Gamba told La Republica: “Yes, we have two unconventional oil blocks that we have eight years ago located in the Middle Magdalena to make fracking pilots. We are waiting for the regulatory framework, but we hope to implement these pilots in the next two years.”

In 2015, CNE Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Canacol Energy, signed a “non-traditional” exploration agreement with the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) for two fracking projects in the department of Cesar.

The Canacol website would suggest these are the VMM-2 and VMM-3 blocks in the Middle Magdalena Valley region.

By September 2016, Carlos Santiago of the Water, Territory and Ecosystems Defence Corporation (CORDATEC) said: “At noon yesterday, a caravan of ConocoPhillips vans arrived [at the Picoplata 1 exploration camp], escorted by armed army and police personnel, intimidating the population and preventing them from taking videos of what was happening, in order to disperse the protest of the villagers.”

The PBI-Colombia accompanied CCALCP legal collective worked with CORDATEC in 2017 to launch a popular action in court to protect the collective rights of the community that would be violated by this fracking project.

Then by March 2019, Reuters reported that ANLA had shelved those projects because they failed to meet minimum environmental requirements.

At that time, Reuters noted: “The companies did not meet minimum conditions for the Piranga project, a source from the licensing authority said, while the Plata project raised possible water protection concerns.”

Significantly, that article also highlighted: “U.S.-based ConocoPhillips and Canada’s Canacol can request to re-open the licensing process for the projects in the future, the source said, adding the decision is not a definitive no.”

It would appear from the interviews that the CEO of Canacol Energy has done with La Republica that it is likely to seek a reopening of those projects.

PBI-Canada continues to follow closely the human rights impacts of Canadian oil and gas companies in Colombia, notably in relation to fracking pilot projects.

Source: This chart is from the Canacol Energy Ltd. website.

PBI-Canada following today’s court hearing on pre-trial detention measures for the Guapinol water defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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The eight Guapinol water defenders will be in court today at 9 am Honduras time (10 am EST) in the city of Tocoa in northern Honduras.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted: “This Friday, December 18, the hearing to review measures for the defenders of the Guapinol River will be held, they have been in custody for more than 15 months. It is essential to ensure the publicity, transparency and observation of this process.”

PBI has also tweeted: “We’ll be following the hearing of the HRDs in the Guapinol Case. Int’l observation is necessary to support their demands for justice.”

Yesterday, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) asked the State of Honduras to revoke the pre-trial detention measures for the defenders. CEJIL said the detention of these human rights defenders constitutes an “arbitrary measure contrary to international human rights standards and due process guarantees.”

EFE reports: “According to the Regional Agricultural Platform of the Aguán Valley, Colón, the conflict in Guapinol arises ‘because of the illegality of the granting of the mining operation to the company Inversiones Pinares (formerly Emco Mining Company), owned by Lenir Pérez and Ana Facussé (daughter of the late tycoon Miguel Facussé)’.”

“This project affects Carlos Escaleras Park, since through a decree presented in 2012 the core area of the protected area has been reduced from 24,223 to 24,006 hectares.”

“[CEJIL says] the communities of Guapinol and San Pedro, in Tocoa, have been ‘systematically criminalized and harassed’ since the Camp for Water and Life was installed in 2018 in defense of its territories and natural property.”

That EFE article adds: “The Center for Justice and International Law also called on Honduras to ensure ‘international publicity and observation’ of judicial proceeding hearings against water defenders and demanded ‘a total cessation of harassment’ against the community of Guapinol and San Pedro.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying various processes in relation to the defenders of the Guapinol River for the past 22 months.

The eight water defenders have been imprisoned since the end of August 2019.

On August 26, 2019, PBI-Honduras posted: “This morning we were present at the hearing for the presentation of the accused of 7 new defendants (for illegal association, robbery and aggravated fire) in the Guapinol case for the defence of natural assets.”

The eighth water defender, Jeremias Martinez, was put in jail on December 8, 2018.

Help PBI-Canada find field brigadistas for PBI’s frontline projects physically accompanying human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Field brigadistas play a crucial role in fulfilling the mission of Peace Brigades International to physically accompany threatened human rights defenders.

This week, PBI-Colombia posted about the new field brigadistas that have just arrived in Colombia to do this work over the next 18 months.

We welcome and extend our best wishes to Gemma (Spain), Alexa (Germany), Lena (France), Giulia (Italy) and Elise (Norway) as they embark on this work.

PBI project groups post for new volunteers on a regular basis.

This past year, PBI-Canada helped to amplify the calls by PBI-Colombia in October, PBI-Guatemala in May, PBI-Honduras in April, and PBI-Mexico in January.

We do so through articles on our website, and with our weekly e-newsletter, social media posts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and by word of mouth.

Most recently, Javier Ignacio Hoyos from Montreal was a field brigadista with PBI-Colombia in 2019-2020.

There have also been many volunteers from Canada over the years including Marianna Tzabiras, Heather Neun, Brad Hornick, Heidi Mitton, Sophie Mailly, Mélisande Séguin, Brandon McNally, Justin Mohammed, Scott Pearce, Mitchell Goldberg, Steve Law, Evelyn Jones, Rusa Jeremic, Barb MacQuarrie, and Karen Ridd to name just a few.

We see it as a crucial task in 2021 to increase our outreach efforts so that we can continue to directly contribute to the frontline physical accompaniment of defenders.

This will include focused outreach to university and community college students across this country, faith communities and activist movements, along with other strategies.

To help equip us with the resources needed to reach these communities in innovative ways, please consider making an online donation to PBI-Canada here.

In February 2019, Javier Ignacio Hoyos from Montreal (on the right in the photo) joined the PBI-Colombia team along with volunteers from Italy, Spain and France.

PBI releases new 14-minute documentary on police executions, social justice and the human right to water in Nairobi

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project and Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom have just released a new 14-minute documentary titled Ghetto Justice. That documentary can be seen by clicking here.

It raises many issues including mobilizing for social justice, the human right to water, and police killings in the informal settlements of Nairobi.

The film notes: “The Missing Voices Coalition has documented 119 victims of police killings and enforced disappearances from January to September 2020.”

The Mathare Social Justice Centre previously documented police killings between 2013 and 2015 in the informal settlement of Mathare in this landmark report.

In the documentary, Steve Kinuthia of the Mathare Social Justice Centre says: [PBI was] there in 2015 when we started and they have been part of the journey. [They gave] us protective accompaniment when we are going to police stations.”

There is also an inter-relationship to the human right to water.

In the documentary, Gacheke Gachihi of the Mathare Social Justice Centre says: “Even if there is a major crisis of lack of water … citizens don’t rise up because every time, and the police use this, anyone who raises a voice is criminalized.”

The cost to access water through a metred dispenser in an informal settlement is about 0.50 shillings for 20 litres of water. But given water may only be available that way two or three times a week, a resident is more likely to have to pay 2 shillings for a 20 litre jerry can of water. As such, even a basic allocation of 100 litres of water a day would cost roughly 10 per cent of the daily income for many living in the informal settlements.

PBI-Kenya continues to work with the Social Justice Centres Working Group, the collective voice of 24 social justice centres, which is demanding that “the government restore the water supply to all slums and crack down on the water cartels that extort Kenyans.”

PBI-Kenya is also part of the Missing Voices Coalition noted above, a group of organizations that work to end enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

PBI-Kenya was established in December 2012.

To watch the documentary, click on Ghetto Justice.

 

PBI-Honduras calls for transparency in the bail hearing for the defenders of the Guapinol River

By
Brent Patterson
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On December 16, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “This Friday, December 18, the hearing to review measures for the defenders of the Guapinol River will be held, they have been in custody for more than 15 months. It is essential to ensure the publicity, transparency and observation of this process.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying various processes in relation to the defenders of the Guapinol River for the past 22 months.

On the evening of December 14, Honduras Solidarity tweeted: “The Guapinol water defenders & political prisoners have been unjustly in prison for 15 months. Their legal team was just notified that they will have a bail hearing this Friday, Dec 18 at 9 am local time. WE DEMAND FREEDOM FOR THE GUAPINOL DEFENDERS!”

The past April, 20 Members of the European Parliament signed this letter to the President of Honduras and other officials expressing concern about the pre-trial detention with no sound legal justification of these water defenders.

Then in September, MEP Tilly Metz nominated the Guapinol water defenders (along with slain Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras leader Berta Caceres) for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize that honours exceptional individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.

At the time of their nomination for the Sakharov Prize, the Brussels Times reported: “The Guapinol activists have been imprisoned after taking part in a peaceful protest against a polluting mining company in Tocoa, Honduras.”

Today, Metz tweeted: “The eight Guapinol defenders have been in pre-trial detention for more than 15 months for protecting their river from the activities of a mining company. On Friday, a hearing could finally decide to set them free. Liberty for the Guapinol defenders!”

In August 2018, the Guapinol Camp in Defence of Water and Life was established in opposition to the Inversiones Los Pinares mine. The mine is located near the source of drinking water for 42,000 people. The camp lasted for 88 days until it was evicted by 1,500 military and police officers who used tear gas and live ammunition.

PBI accompaniment

On February 20, 2019, PBI-Honduras accompanied community members to a government office where they filed a complaint about the lack of transparency around the mining concession granted to Inversiones Los Pinares.

On March 5, 2019, PBI-Honduras was present when twelve Guapinol water defenders received a dismissal of the charges against them.

On August 26, 2019, PBI-Honduras was present at a court hearing for the eight defenders.

On September 5, 2019, PBI-Honduras was present at the Constitutional Chamber when papers where an appeal in favour of the defenders was filed.

For more, please see: These are the eight water defenders imprisoned in Honduras for protecting the Guapinol River.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH law firm at court hearing of former Deputy Secretary implicated in the Hogar Seguro fire

By
Brent Patterson
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On December 15, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “Yesterday PBI accompanied the Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos [BDH] in the #CasoHogarSeguro hearing to review the coercion measures applied to Anahí Keller, former Deputy Secretary of the Secretariat of Social Welfare, and Santos Torres, former director of the Safe Home. The judge decided to change her measures and grant house arrest.”

Prensa Libre reports: “Anahí Keller, a former employee of the Ministry of Social Welfare during Jimmy Morales’ administration, was awarded house arrest. The Seventh Court granted the measure without bail to Keller, former Undersecretary of Protection and Foster Care, who is awaiting trial for the crimes of abuse of authority, breach of duties, wrongful death, wrongful injuries and mistreatment of minors.”

Republica adds: “It should be remembered that Keller, who was appointed during the administration of Jimmy Morales, had managed to get Judge Carlos Guerra to close the case against her, but on December 4, 2017, the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals reversed the resolution and ordered a trial against her.”

Forty-one girls, who were 14 to 17 years of age, died in a fire at the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion shelter south-east of Guatemala City on March 8, 2017.

The Guardian has reported: “It has emerged that 56 girls had been locked inside a room measuring 6.8 metres by 7 metres as punishment for organising a protest the day before against cramped conditions and abuse by staff. More than 700 children lived at the home, which had capacity for 400-500.”

That article adds: “The fire, which began in the early hours, [has prompted anger] over the government’s failure to protect young people in its care. Complaints about abuse at the centre had been made, but not followed up. A month before the fire, Guatemala’s human rights commission had asked for it to be closed.”

In March 2019, Al Jazeera reported: “Several government employees, including police, are now on trial for their role in the fire. The girls were locked in a room and shelter officials waited for nine minutes as the girls burned before they unlocked the door.”

“Some of the victims of the March 8, 2017 fire in the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion shelter had run away from home, fleeing abuse and sexual assault by relatives. But many faced more of the same inside the shelter.”

That article adds: “For years, girls reported being raped and forced into prostitution inside the state-run facility, but their protests were ignored.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained on its website: “Édgar Pérez Archila and BDH provide pro-bono [free] legal representation to victim organizations in judicial proceedings for human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict and other human rights violations past and present.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied Édgar Pérez Archila since August 2010 and then extended that accompaniment to the other lawyers at BDH in 2013.

Faced with the judge’s decision to give house arrest to Anahí Keller and Torres, implicated in the death of the 41 girls from the Hogar Virgen de la Asunción, the lawyer Edgar Pérez says that they are surprised and that they will analyze to see if it is contested.

PBI-Colombia accompanied Berenice Celeita on megaprojects, Indigenous rights and violence in southwestern Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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In a new PBI-Colombia video, NOMADESC president Berenice Celeita talks about the role megaprojects and the lack of respect for Indigenous rights play in the level of violence happening in southwestern Colombia.

That area of the country includes the departments (provinces) of Valle de Cauca (where Buenaventura is located), Cauca, Nariño and Putumayo.

NOMADESC (the Association for Research and Social Action) is a human rights organization that advises and accompanies organizations working on social, trade union, civic, Indigenous, Afro-descendant, agricultural and women’s issues.

In the PBI-Colombia interview, Celeita says: “The southwest has been the stage for large-scale megaprojects, particularly mining and energy, megaprojects where the Colombian state has violated free, prior and informed consent.”

She highlights: “Let’s remember that, starting last year, at the end of the year a wave of violence began against the Indigenous Guard who are territorial authorities who perform very important protection activities, defending life and the territory.”

In October 2019, PBI-Colombia was accompanying NOMADESC when Cristina Bautista Taquinas and four unarmed Indigenous Guards were killed in an attack in the village of La Luz in the Tacueyó reservation in southwestern Colombia.

CUPE president Mark Hancock was in Colombia at that time and you can read his reflection on that experience in Courage and resilience in Colombia.

In October of this year, NOMADESC took part in the Minga mobilization in which thousands of Indigenous people traveled to the capital city of Bogota to demand a meeting with President Ivan Duque about the rise in murders of Indigenous leaders and the right to free, prior and informed consent on major development projects.

At the time of the Minga mobilization, Joe Sauca from the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) told El Espectador: “The risks of the territory have been raised, guarantees are required to be able to be calm and free from the issue of mega-mining, ‘fracking’, from all that situation that affects our peoples.”

In the PBI-Colombia video released on December 14, Celeita says: “We think that it’s important to take up the Minga’s demands again. The first point is the defence of life, the defence of life is connected to the defence of territory, peace and democracy. These are the rights that are most often violated today.”

It is with this context that we note that Canadian companies figure prominently among the foreign investors engaged in resource extraction in Colombia that can conflict with Indigenous rights and the peacebuilding process.

Notably, Canadian mining companies increased their assets in Colombia from $30 billion to $210 billion between 2005 and 2015. And Canadian oil and gas companies – including Gran Tierra Energy, Parex Resources, Canacol Energy and Frontera Energy – also have significant operations in the country.

To watch the 5-minute PBI-Colombia interview with Celeita, please click here.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied Celeita since 1999 and NOMADESC since 2011.

In the most recent International Solidarity Report from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Mark Hancock and Charles Fleury highlight: “The struggle for recognition of Indigenous rights in Canada is related to Indigenous resistance to land grabs in Colombia and Guatemala.”

Victor Hugo Ospina (NOMADESC), Marta Giraldo (MOVICE Valle de Cauca), Yuliana Veléz (NOMADESC), Mark Hancock (CUPE), Berenice Celeita (NOMADESC), Betzayda Dominguez (NOMADESC), Olga Araujo (NOMADESC) in October 2019.

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