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PBI-Guatemala expresses concern about the eviction of 40 Indigenous Q’eqchi’ families from the Cubilgüitz coffee farm

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC).

On August 16, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “We reiterate our concern about evictions of indigenous peasant families in the Verapaces!”

The Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC) says that 40 Indigenous Q’eqchi’ families occupying the Cubilgüitz coffee farm have fled after an armed group set fire to their homes in the municipality of Cobán in the department of Alta Verapaz.

The families who had been workers on the farm were laid off 15 years ago without full severance and have occupied part of the farm in protest of this.

The CUC says the armed group has acted against other land occupations by campesinos. The CUC notes: “The actions of this group are allowed by the farmers because it serves to justify repression against the peasants.”

The land the Q’eqchi’ families were living is owned by Dorothee Dieseldorff, whose family founded the coffee brand Dieseldorff Kaffee. The company reportedly sells its products throughout Guatemala and owns an upscale cafe in Cobán.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied Verapaz Union of Campesino Organizations (UVOC) has also stated: “We repudiate and demand justice after the cowardly extrajudicial eviction [by] workers and private security of local landowners.”

And PBI-Guatemala accompanied Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has similarly posted: “We repudiate the extrajudicial eviction that occurred at Cubilgüitz.”

In their report on this attack, Reuters provides the context that: “Peasant farmer groups involved in land occupations frequently suffer violence in the Central American nation. Advocacy organization Global Witness in 2019 called Guatemala one of the world’s most dangerous places for land rights defenders.”

That articles also notes: “The UN High Commission for Human Rights has raised alarm over an increase in killing of mainly indigenous rights defenders in Guatemala. In a report last year it counted 39 such killings in 2017 and 2018 alone.”

La Hora now provides the update that: “The Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) reported that the Alta Verapaz departmental office opened a file for the violent eviction [and] that it will send a complaint to the Public Ministry and also to the National Civil Police.”

The CUC statement calls for “solidarity with evicted families and the attention of national and international bodies that care for human rights.”

Repeated security incidents threaten Tiny House Warrior land defenders protecting unceded Secwepemc territory from pipeline

By
Brent Patterson
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The Tiny House Warriors are Indigenous Secwepemc land defenders protecting their unceded territory in British Columbia, Canada against the construction of the 890,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline megaproject that would cross 518 kilometres of their land without their free, prior and informed consent.

They have posted: “[We] have been the target of hate attacks by white Canadian civilians, as well as weekly hate rallies at our back entrance to our homes, as well as constant daily RCMP police interference, surveillance and harassment.”

Just four of the recent incidents they have noted include:

August 15: “[The driver of a truck with concealed licence plates] stopped and got out [then] reached for inside the cab as to intimidate like he was grabbing a weapon but he just drove off when other warriors arrived. The second time this guy was confronted for creeping, the driver said: ‘You All deserve to be beat up’ and sped off.”

August 8: “Skinhead CARRYING AN AXE walked up to tiny house bedroom door violating our Secwepemc safe zone at 2 am. When the women told him to leave, he argued until men voiced up then skinhead softened up saying he was there for our dogs.”

July 20: “Four white men that came to Tiny House Warriors unwanted and flying surveillance drone over our homes without our consent! We are fighting man camps because they bring violence to indigenous women and girls and these white men perpetuate this violence by coming unwanted to indigenous homes of mostly women!”

April 19: “Three white men and one white woman violently attacked the Tiny House Warriors Blue River camp. The men destroyed the memorial of red dresses for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, stole the truck of Kanahus Manuel and rammed it into a Tiny House. The drunk men verbally abused her and threatened her safety.”

Following the attack noted above, this joint statement signed by Russ Diabo, Christi Belcourt, Pamela Palmater, Harsha Walia, Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Irina Ceric, Anne Spice and numerous others affirmed: “Our eyes and ears will protect you.”

The Defending Tomorrow report documents the murder of 212 land and environmental defenders around the world in 2019. The report notes: “Countless more were silenced by violent attacks, arrests, death threats, sexual violence or lawsuits. Women who act and speak out may also face gender-specific threats, including sexual violence.”

That report further notes: “Indigenous peoples are at a disproportionate risk of reprisals. Last year, 40% of murdered defenders belonged to indigenous communities. Between 2015 and 2019 over a third of all fatal attacks have targeted indigenous people – even though indigenous communities make up only 5% of the world’s population.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada affirms that land defenders around the world and in this country need the collective protection of our eyes and ears.

You can do so by amplifying the security alerts posted by Tiny House Warriors on Facebook, and land defender Kanahus Manuel on Twitter and Instagram.

A look back at when the Colombian Caravana of International Jurists visited with CCALCP

By
Brent Patterson
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The Colombian Caravana is a United Kingdom-based charity that works to promote access to justice and uphold the rule of law in Colombia. Since 2008, it has been organizing delegations of international lawyers that visit Colombia every two years.

The Colombian Caravana of International Jurists made its fifth visit to Colombia in August 2016. The delegation included participants from twelve different countries, including Heather Neun from Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada who is also a member of the Board of Directors of Peace Brigades International-Canada.

The delegation in 2016 took place amid expectations that the final Peace Agreement between FARC-EP and the Colombian State would bring substantive change.

The introductory comments in the report on that visit notes: “We were shocked to be told by the respected NGO, Somos Defensores, that in the first six months of this year, no less than 35 defenders were murdered.” There was likely hope that this situation would improve in subsequent years (sadly it has not).

As such, among the 18 recommendations made in the report: “The government must urgently address the increase in reported attacks on human rights defenders against the background of the peace process. This should include prioritising fair and transparent investigations into murders and attacks, to end impunity.”

Interestingly, one of the case studies in the report also highlights the Luís Carlos Pérez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP). The connections made on this visit between Neun and CCALCP helped facilitate their 8-day advocacy visit to Canada in November 2019.

The report notes: “Since 2005, CCALCP and its members have experienced, at least 40 serious security incidents ranging from physical aggression, attacks, threats, harassment, surveillance, thefts, defamation and attacks on the Collective’s infrastructure.”

“The Collective has reported these incidents to the authorities, both formally and publicly including the Attorney General’s Office.”

“Not a single concrete result has flowed from these complaints. Certain complaints such as being followed and harassment have been met with the discriminatory response that the women had been pursued by admirers or spurned boyfriends.”

The report adds: “Among many others, illustrative cases of wrongful prosecutions and/or imprisonment include those of CCALCP Women lawyers’ collective.”

The report also gives special thanks to Peace Brigades International Colombia Project (PBI Colombia) for their support with the delegation.

The information gathered from each delegation is drawn together into a report and used to shine a spotlight on the issues human rights lawyers and their clients are confronting, through awareness-raising, urgent action and advocacy activities.

To read the full 36-page report on the 2016 delegation, please click here.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Caravana delegation has unfortunately been cancelled.

PBI-Mexico accompanied Educa Oaxaca opposes a new permit for the Vancouver-based Fortuna mine in San José del Progreso

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by El Muro.

On July 27, the Oaxacan Collective in Defence of the Territories posted this statement that reports that the Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., has submitted an environmental impact assessment (MIA) for approval by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

That MIA, which has not yet been approved by SEMARNAT, seeks a 10-year extension for the San José Mine situated near the Zapotec village of San José del Progreso in the state of Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.

This mine was first developed in 2009, shifted into production in September 2011, and now the company needs this permit to continue its operations beyond 2021.

The statement posted by the Oaxacan Collective further notes that Fortuna argues in the MIA it submitted to SEMARNAT that the proposed San José II mine, a 7,000-hectare expansion of the existing 700-hectare mine, is not a new project nor an extension of the existing mine, but rather a previously developed project.

The San José mine has a controversial history.

NACLA reports: “In March 2009, a group of residents protested this violation of [their right to free, prior and informed consent by] setting up an encampment at the entrance to the mine. In May, 1,000 state and federal police—acting at the request of the mining company and its local political allies—evicted protesters using helicopters, tear gas, and dogs.”

And El Universal has reported that there has been four deaths and eight people shot in direct relation to the mine between 2010 and 2012.

Those deaths included community defenders Bernardo Méndez who was killed on January 18, 2012 after he and others confronted a municipal crew working on a water pipeline they suspected would divert water for use at the mine and Bernardo Vásquez who was killed on March 15, 2012 as he travelled back home from the Oaxaca airport.

Then in October 2018, residents of the town of Magdalena Ocotlán stated that heavy rains resulted in mine waste overflowing into the Coyote River leaving behind contaminated mud in the vicinity of the community’s drinking wells.

Last month, concerns were raised for a second time that the mine had polluted local water sources, this time a rainwater catchment well in Magdalena Ocotlán.

On February 20 of this year, El Muro reported on the No-to-Mining Front (Frente No a la Minería) announcement that SEMARNAT had denied the authorization of the MIA for the San José II mine. As such, it would appear the MIA submitted by Cuzcatlán/Fortuna on July 7 is a second application for this mine.

The No-to-Mining Front, PBI-Mexico accompanied Educa Oaxaca and others reject both the San José and San José II mines.

The timeline for SEMARNAT’s review and decision on the MIA is not clear at this time.

For more in Spanish, please see this 7-minute video by Codigo DH (which is also accompanied by PBI-Mexico) that features Rosalinda Dionisio Sánchez, a member of the Coordinadora de Pueblos Unidos del Valle de Ocotlán (COPUVO), and that notes that Fortuna, through four subsidiaries, holds 26 mining concessions “with which it has stripped indigenous and peasant peoples and communities of 80 thousand hectares.”

Six Nations land defenders criminalized by court injunctions for protecting ancestral lands

By
Brent Patterson
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Haldimand County Police say: “The situation escalated as demonstrators at the site failed to comply with the injunction.”

It is now Day 27 for Six Nations land defenders who are protecting their territory from a housing development at a site they have renamed 1492 Land Back Lane.

The land defenders began their re-occupation of this land on July 19.

By July 31, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) escorted a court sheriff who read and delivered an injunction against the occupation. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law has commented: “The land defenders, all of whom are Indigenous, were not represented in court.”

On August 5, OPP officers raided the site and arrested 9 land defenders for not complying with the court injunction. The land defenders returned shortly afterwards.

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

The legal fund for 1492 Land Back Lane comments: “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.”

Haudenosaunee lawyer Beverly Jacobs further explains the ahistorical aspect of injunctions against Indigenous land defence struggles in this APTN video clip. The Yellowhead Institute has also commented on the skewed granting of injunctions, as has Kate Gunn of First Peoples Law (who PBI met with in Vancouver in November 2019).

On August 10, the OPP said they did not have an update on when the court injunctions would be delivered. In the meantime, the OPP continue to have a presence near the site.

On August 13, land defender Skyler Williams posted: “After being shot at, beaten and tasered, dragged off our land and criminalized we as community have never been more determined to see our way forward.”

Skyler has also commented: “This is about Haudenosaunee people asserting their rights over their territory and I think the criminalization of that is the crime here.”

Earlier this week, CBC reported: “Williams said he and the other [land defenders] intend to dig in at the development, despite the ongoing police presence and injunctions demanding they tear down their tents and the barricades.”

For additional background on the reasons for the 1492 Land Back Lane re-occupation, you can listen to this 48-minute Warrior Life interview by Mi’kmaq lawyer Pam Palmater with Skyler Williams and Myka Burning.

APTN has also explained that this present-day situation can be traced back to 1784 when Quebec governor Frederick Haldimand granted a tract of land spanning 10 kilometres in either direction from the banks of the Grand River (see map below) after the Haudenosaunee allied with the British during the American Revolution. Throughout the 1800s the Haudenosaunee were dispossessed of this territory and an unresolved court challenge over the legality of that loss of territory began in 1995.

For further updates, you can also visit the 1492 Land Back Lane Facebook page.

To make a donation to 1492 Land Back Lane, you can e-transfer your contribution to landback6nations@gmail.com or click here for their GoFundMe page.

PBI-Guatemala expresses concern about the security situation of Ubaldino Garcia Canan

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 12, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on its Facebook page: “We stand in solidarity with the defender Ubaldino Garcia Canan and join the concern about his security situation.”

Front Line Defenders explains: “On the night of 5 August 2020, unknown persons raided the home of indigenous rights defender Ubaldino García Canan in the municipality of Olopa, Chiquimula, stealing a number of belongings.”

“Indigenous authorities concluded that the theft of personal documents suggests that the incident was motivated by more than economic interest.”

Front Line Defenders adds that it “is deeply concerned by the multiple threats, raids and acts of intimidation against human rights defender Ubaldino García Canan and believes that he is being targeted solely as a result of his peaceful activities in defense of the rights of indigenous peoples.”

Those activities include participation in the peaceful resistance against the mining company Cantera Los Manantiales in Olopa.

A blockade of the Cantera Los Manantiales mine was established in February 2019 because of concerns that the mine violated the Indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent and that its operations were polluting local water sources.

The mine was “provisionally suspended” in late November 2019 by the Supreme Court of Justice because the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines had granted a 30-year mining licence to the company in 2015, without consultation (free, prior and informed consent) with the Ch’orti‘ Indigenous communities of Olopa.

Nuevo Dia, which is accompanied by PBI-Guatemala and in turn accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of Olopa, says that the mine “illegally extracts antimony, contaminating water, cutting down forests, causing strange diseases that especially affect children and removing tranquility, the peace and joy of the communities.”

Nuevo Dia adds: “Leaders and authorities have suffered criminalization, persecution, slander and defamation for opposing the company Cantera Los Manantiales.”

To watch a 5-minute video produced by PBI-Guatemala (and released this past February) about the struggle against the mine, please click here.

PBI-Kenya helps connect Toolkit Organizers and Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 12, the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project posted: “The Women Human Rights Defenders Toolkit Organizers are working in collaboration with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kenya on supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and on monitoring SGBV.”

“On 30 July they held a meeting to discuss the modalities of this collaboration, in which the toolkit organizers will assist survivors to report cases and link them to medical, legal, and psychosocial support. At the meeting, they received Personal Protective Equipment from OHCHR for this work.”

PBI-Kenya adds: “PBI helped to establish contact between the OHCHR and the network of Toolkit Organizers and supported the startup of the partnership. We are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration on this important issue!”

According to this government report, 45% of women and girls aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence since age of 15, while 39% of ever-married women (women who have been married at least once in their lives although their current marital status may not be married) report having experienced spousal physical or sexual violence.

That study further notes that among the women who have ever experienced spousal violence (physical or sexual), 39% reported experiencing physical injuries.

PBI-Kenya developed the WHRD Toolkit in 2016. The Toolkit Organizers are community activists working for women’s and children’s rights in their communities.

PBI established the Kenya Project in December 2012.

PBI-Colombia interviews CCAJAR lawyer Reynaldo Villalba about illegal intelligence operations by the military

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 12, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted this 7-minute video – with English subtitles – of their interview with Reynaldo Villalba of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective Corporation (CCAJAR).

On May 1, the Colombian weekly magazine Semana reported: “Between February and the first days of December last year, the activities of more than 130 citizens were the target of what the military called ‘profiles’ and ‘special jobs.”

That article adds: “Using computer tools and software, [the military] carried out searches and massively and indiscriminately collected as much information as possible about their objectives to prepare military intelligence reports.”

CCAJAR was subjected to those illegal operations.

As noted on this PBI-Colombia webpage, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective Corporation (CCAJAR) “currently has 15 lawyers and about 30 legal assistants. They are working on over 500 cases of human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.”

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Observatory for Lawyers (OIAD), and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Edison Lanza and four United Nations Special Rapporteurs (including Mary Lawlor) have expressed their concern about the illegal surveillance operations.

Despite this, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not raise this issue in his talks with Colombian President Iván Duque on either May 11 or July 31.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CCAJAR since 1995.

To watch the PBI-Colombia video, please click here. For a PBI-Colombia feature article on Reynaldo Villalba, please click here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies residents of Patzicía in their social audit of municipal pandemic aid

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 13, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted about their accompaniment of the residents of Patzicia in their actions against corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PBI-Guatemala article highlights:

“Municipalities are one of the institutions which manage and control aid.

Patzicía, a municipality in the department of Chimaltenango, located just over 60 kilometers from the capital city of Guatemala, is one of the municipalities which has received funds from the central government to implement programs that support the population in addressing the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

This municipality, however, has an asset that many of country’s territories do not: more than 150 residents organized against institutional corruption in the region.

The Neighbors Against Corruption in Patzicía are leading a process of social audit of government aid programs which are being implemented by the municipality, with the aim of preventing possible episodes of corruption.

They asked about the contents of the boxes to be delivered, how many boxes were sent to Patzicía and how many families benefited. They also point out the importance of transparency in the criteria used by the municipal council to choose the families to benefit from the boxes as well as a list of beneficiaries to be broken down by hamlets, villages and areas of the municipality, in addition to how many boxes were finally delivered.

PBI is accompanying the residents of Patzicía in their actions against corruption, seeking to protect the space they work in so that they can continue to carry out citizen audit and reporting actions, which are essential to a democratic system.”

To read the full PBI-Guatemala article in English, please click on The coronavirus has not stopped the fight against corruption for the residents of Patzicía and in Spanish at El coronavirus no frena la lucha contra la corrupción de los y las vecinas de Patzicía.

For more about PBI-Guatemala, please click here.

Canada sends two warships to participate in Rim of Pacific war games near Hawaii

By
Brent Patterson
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The Government of Canada has noted: “The Royal Canadian Navy will send two warships: HMCS Winnipeg and HMCS Regina with embarked shipborne helicopter detachments crewed by approximately 450 sailors and aviators.”

The two warships departed from Southern Vancouver Island on August 7 to take part in the war games that run from August 17-31.

Now, The Guardian reports: “The Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) war games, which run through the end of August, come as Hawaii struggles to contain community spread of the coronavirus amid what has become the highest reproduction rate in the country.”

Significantly, the article highlights: “Critics of the exercise have protested against Rimpac for years, citing environmental degradation, increased sexual exploitation during military ‘liberty’ port visits, the unwanted militarization of indigenous land, water, and air, and now fear of increased Covid-19 risk.”

With respect to human rights violations, the article notes: “[Dr. Emalani] Case [a Kanaka Maoli and member of the Cancel Rimpac Coalition] says Indigenous voices are consistently ignored while Hawaii serves as a venue for training military forces who can export tactics learned at Rimpac as tools of oppression in their own countries. She points to Indonesian troops training at Rimpac and well-documented human rights violations of indigenous people in West Papua as what she calls ‘slow-motion genocide’.”

“Rimpac was established in 1971 as a joint exercise between Australia, Canada, and the US. In recent years, the biennial exercise has grown to include countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region and far beyond.”

The article adds: “Unlike past Rimpac exercises, this year there will be no amphibious assaults, no urban combat or sniper training, and no land-launched artillery, missiles or rockets. Instead, the exercise will focus on multination anti-submarine warfare, maritime intercept operations, and at sea live-fire training events that include a sinking exercise in which a decommissioned ship is fired upon and sunk in deep water.”

The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace has highlighted: “The Canadian government should be focusing time, resources, and money on citizens struggling during a pandemic rather than on a military show with other countries.”

VOW adds: “Canada has stated its full support of the United Nations call for a global ceasefire in order to combat COVID-19, yet still plans to participate in RIMPAC 2020. The global ceasefire was called by the UN to mobilize countries to focus on the current global pandemic which requires resources, money and consistent monitoring in order to be managed to lessen mortality rates.”

Last year, the Canadian Press reported that the Parliamentary Budget Officers estimated Canada’s plan to build 15 new warships starting in 2023-2024 will cost $69.8 billion over the next 26 years.

The full Guardian article can be read at ‘Bombs can’t kill viruses’: Hawaii faces backlash as international war games approach.

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