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Construction on Trans Mountain pipeline to proceed “along every section of the route” despite UN resolution

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 11, the CBC reported, “Next month, [Trans Mountain Corporation] expects to break ground along the 1,147-kilometre route and begin pipeline construction near Kamloops, B.C. …Trans Mountain officials expect construction to be underway along every section of the pipeline route by the end of the year.”

The Trans Mountain Corporation is a federal Crown corporation. The Canadian government bought the pipeline for $4.5 billion in May 2018.

The company says, “It will create a pipeline system with the nominal capacity of the system going from approximately 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.”

It also has plans for that pipeline to cross 518 kilometres of unceded Secwepemc territory situated in British Columbia, Canada.

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.”

The UN Committee also said it was “alarmed by escalating threat of violence against indigenous peoples, such as the reported violent arrest and detainment of a Secwepemc defender against the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project, on 19th October 2019.” You can read more about that in this APTN news report.

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.

José Francisco Cali Tzay (Maya Kaqchikel), a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination when this resolution was passed, is now the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Peace Brigades International has highlighted that defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. PBI accompanies Indigenous land defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and makes the connections to land rights struggles in Canada.

EDC says it carried out ‘rigorous due diligence’ before loan for Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 4, the Toronto Star reported, “The federal government’s export credit agency [Export Development Canada] will lend up to $500 million to build the Coastal GasLink, a natural gas pipeline that sparked a national protest movement and reckoning over the Liberal administration’s commitment to Indigenous reconciliation.”

That article adds, “EDC says it will lend between $250 million and $500 million to the company building the project, based on an agreement signed April 28.”

On May 11, Le Devoir further reported, “EDC says it carried out ‘rigorous due diligence’ before granting the loan.”

According to that news report, EDC’s funding decision summary says:

“EDC assesses the financial and non-financial risks associated with potential transactions and determines whether they comply with our policies, including those on the environment, climate change, human rights, social performance and corporate integrity.”

“[EDC recognizes that] the project continues to be opposed by a group of hereditary chiefs from the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, who claim to be the legitimate decision-makers of this nation, not to have been duly consulted and not to have consented to the project”

“[However, EDC believes TC Energy] has demonstrated a great ability to manage environmental and social risks.”

In this opinion piece published in The Globe and Mail on March 11, University College London law professor Barnali Choudhury (who also holds a law degree in Canada) argues that Canada should adopt due diligence legislation.

In November 2019, Peace Brigades International helped organize this session at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights that emphasized, “the obligation of states to protect human rights defenders at risk by encouraging and/or mandating robust human rights due diligence by both international and national financial institutions and companies.”

While the Canadian government’s export credit agency has approved this loan for the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to suspend construction on this pipeline.

You can use this Urgent Action petition to send an email to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to encourage him to act on this UN resolution.

The message can be personalized if you wish to add in your own comments in support of due diligence and upholding Indigenous rights.

Photo: On March 4, 350.org, in partnership with Leadnow and Oil Change International, delivered over 35,000 signatures to Export Development Canada saying ‘no to public financing’ for the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

EDC loans up to $500 million for Coastal GasLink pipeline despite UN resolution on Wet’suwet’en land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 4, the Toronto Star reported, “The federal government’s export credit agency [Export Development Canada] will lend up to $500 million to build the Coastal GasLink, a natural gas pipeline that sparked a national protest movement and reckoning over the Liberal administration’s commitment to Indigenous reconciliation.”

“EDC says it will lend between $250 million and $500 million to the company building the project, based on an agreement signed April 28.”

“Na’Moks, a hereditary chief of the Wet’suwet’en nation in northern British Columbia [says] that the hereditary leadership of the Wet’suwet’en remains staunchly opposed to the project that crosses territory the nation has never ceded to settler governments.”

That article adds, “EDC spokesperson Jessica Draker said by email that the loan was approved after a ‘rigorous due diligence review’. The review included an assessment of the project’s impact on ‘First Nation relations’ … according to a synopsis EDC posted online.”

And yet in this resolution the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to stop construction on this pipeline.

In December 2019, this UN Committee of independent experts said it was “disturbed by forced removal, disproportionate use of force, harassment and intimidation by law enforcement officials against indigenous peoples who peacefully oppose large-scale development projects on their traditional territories.”

It then called on Canada “to immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

PBI-Canada has provided this online Urgent Action platform to enable people to send an email to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to take action in accordance with the UN Committee’s resolution before June 17th. That’s the date the Canadian government hopes to win a vote for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) outlines state and corporate responsibilities to protect human rights.

These Guiding Principles affirm that: “States should take additional steps to protect against human rights abuses by business enterprises that are owned or controlled by the State, or that receive substantial support and services from State agencies such as export credit agencies and official investment insurance or guarantee agencies, including, where appropriate, by requiring human rights due diligence.”

Two Canadian oil companies could be involved in fracking pilot projects in Colombia where social licence is in question

By
Brent Patterson
-

On May 7, this feature article about fracking in Colombia was published by Semana Sostenible of Colombia and Mongabay Latam:

Toronto-based Sintana Energy and the VMM-37 block in in Santander

“Currently, there are 25 families in Terraplén who survive by cultivating plantain, cassava and corn, in addition to raising pigs, chickens, goats and buffalo. The buffalo were given to them by ExxonMobil, which owns a well less than 500 m (1,640 ft) from the settlement. The corporation intends to use the well to extract oil and gas by fracking.”

“The well, called Manatí Blanco-1, is in Block VMM-37, where up to 12 additional wells could be drilled. The Manatí Blanco-1 project spans more than 154 square kilometers (about 60 square miles), or the equivalent of nearly 29,000 American football fields. A separate fracking pilot project recommended by a committee of fracking experts may also be conducted there.”

“According to [Ciro Salvador Ruiz, a member of the Community Action Board of Terraplén], ‘The truth is that we have never agreed with fracking in our territory because the big [entities] always take advantage of the smallest [people]. They have told us that this is a simulation, but we know that it is not. When a company makes such a large investment, it does not just hope to explore and then leave if people don’t accept it. We know that they will proceed anyway.’”

VMM-37 is reportedly a joint venture between ExxonMobil and Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc. and its subsidiary Patriot Energy Oil & Gas Inc.

Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd and the VMM-2 and VMM-3 blocks in Cesar

“Cesar-Ranchería Basin, where at least one of the pilot studies would be conducted, contains Block VMM-2 and Block VMM-3, which are owned by ConocoPhillips and Calgary-based Canacol Energy. Activity in these blocks would interfere with four municipalities in the department of Cesar (San Martín, Aguachica, Río de Oro and Gamarra) and one municipality in the department of Santander (Puerto Wilches).”

“The fight that San Martín residents have put up against fracking has led them to educate themselves and others on the topic, adding even more voices to the discussion. Their municipality, located in the southern part of the department of Cesar, was the first in the country to raise its voice strongly against fracking.”

“The spark that ignited the municipality was the arrival of U.S.-based multinational corporation ConocoPhillips in 2015 when the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) declared the company the operator of Block VMM-3, a nearby drilling site that spans 330 km2 (127 mi2).”

‘[Carlos Andrés Santiago, the spokesman for the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking] a native of San Martín, recalled that a wave of resistance began at that time. This touched off a number of protests beginning on March 17, 2016, and another exactly a month later. On April 17, about 300 protesters prevented machinery from entering the Pico Plata-1 well in the community of Pita Limón, which is also in San Martín municipality but located 35 km (22 mi) from its urban area.”

“According to Santiago, the oil industry’s main strategy so far has been to divide communities. ‘These companies play with people’s needs,’ he said. ‘They arrive with the promise of employment, and that causes many people — although they know that fracking is something negative — to end up involved in the industry.’”

“Santiago said he believes there is no ‘social license,’ or widespread public acceptance, for fracking in his municipality or in the nearby Magdalena Medio region.”

“Mongabay Latam and Semana Sostenible contacted Canacol Energy but did not receive a response by the time of this article’s original publication in Spanish.”

PBI and human rights concerns

Social licence (a term first used by a Canadian mining executive and later embraced as a policy statement by the Trudeau government) refers to the idea that beyond a government permit, community permission is also needed for an extractive project.

Peace Brigades International notes that if social licence for fracking is absent in communities where Canadian-backed fracking pilot projects may take place then there is the potential for social conflict, repression and human rights violations.

In 2018, 24 environmental defenders were killed in Colombia. Others experience threats, harassment, criminalization and judicialization.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) outlines state and corporate responsibilities to protect human rights.

The UN’s Guiding Principles include: “In order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts, business enterprises should carry out human rights due diligence. The process should include assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed.”

The Voices at Risk guidelines for Canadian missions notes, “Canadian companies operating abroad are expected to respect human rights and to operate lawfully and in consultation with the host government (national and municipal) and local communities.”

It further highlights, “While, in international law, the ‘right to a clean or healthy environment’ is not generally recognized, and while this right is not protected in Canada’s domestic law and constitution, Canada has recognised several rights related to the environment (for example, the right to safe drinking water and basic sanitation). All sections of Canadian missions abroad can advocate in support of human rights defenders working on land and environmental issues. As always, missions should consult headquarters as required.”

PBI accompanies human rights defenders in Colombia who are profoundly concerned by Canadian extractive activities in their country. In November 2019, PBI hosted a visit to Canada by Corporación Regional Para La Defensa De Los Derechos Humanos (CREDHOS) and Corporación Colectivo de Abogados Luis Carlos Pérez (CCALCP) who raised these concerns with Canadian officials.

Reclaiming Mother’s Day as a day to oppose war and injustice

By
Brent Patterson
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Mother’s Day is this Sunday May 10th.

What is sometimes forgotten at this time of the year is that Mother’s Day has its roots in the feminist struggle against militarism and war.

Slate reports, “The women who originally celebrated Mother’s Day conceived of it as an occasion to use their status as mothers to protest injustice and war. In 1870, after witnessing the bloody Civil War, Julia Ward Howe – a Boston pacifist, poet, and suffragist – proclaimed a special day for mothers to oppose war.”

Her original proclamation for the day states, “From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.’ Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.”

National Geographic adds, “Howe promoted a Mothers’ Peace Day beginning in 1872. For Howe and other antiwar activists, Mother’s Day was a way to promote global unity after the horrors of the American Civil War and Europe’s Franco-Prussian War.”

And Jacobin magazine notes, “At its 1874 anniversary, participants sang songs and read papers, including one calling for the abolition of standing armies and war armaments and the creation of a system for universal peace arbitration.”

While Mother’s Day was recognized officially in the United States in 1914, the message behind the day appears to have been largely lost by 1917.

Time reports, “When the United States joined World War I in 1917, and the war propaganda machine revved up, the burst of patriotism came with a renewed appreciation for mothers. Women were hailed both for raising the soldiers who were on the front lines and for the work they were doing on the home front, such as running fundraisers for the Red Cross. Mother’s Day was a way to thank these women for their service.”

Over the past 100 years, the day has become increasingly commercialized and sentimentalized. It has been estimated that Canadians spend about $492 million on flowers, cards and gifts for Mother’s Day each year. Imagine if even a fraction of that was spent on challenging patriarchy, militarism, weapons and war.

This Mother’s Day let us work to reclaim the radical origins of the day, challenge war and militarism, and strive to deepen our understanding of the intersectionality between feminism, social justice, care for Mother Earth, and peace.

Canada should act on UN resolution on Wet’suwet’en land defenders before June 17th vote

By
Brent Patterson
-

Canada is vying for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (pictured above) for a two-year term beginning in January 2021.

The election is scheduled to take place on June 17.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally announced Canada’s bid for this seat in March 2016 and has spent at least $1.5 million in pursuit of it.

And yet the Trudeau government has not complied with a resolution of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In December 2019, this UN Committee of independent experts said it was “disturbed by forced removal, disproportionate use of force, harassment and intimidation by law enforcement officials against indigenous peoples who peacefully oppose large-scale development projects on their traditional territories.”

It then called on Canada “to immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

It also said that construction on the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline and the Site C hydroelectric dam should be suspended.

The Wet’suwet’en have not given their consent to this megaproject and construction on it continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

To add your voice to the call from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, please send an email to the Prime Minister via our Urgent Action platform.

You can also personalize it with your own message.

For the latest updates on the Wet’suwet’en land defence struggle, please see the Unist’ot’en Camp Facebook page.

Canada spends $762.16 million on the F-35 fighter jet

By
Brent Patterson
-

On May 6, the Canadian Press reported, “The federal government has made another multimillion-dollar investment into the development of the [Lockheed Martin] F-35 stealth fighter jet, even as it weighs a new extension to the $19-billion competition to replace Canada’s aging CF-18s [that it recently spent $3.8 billion on].”

“Canada made the annual F-35 payment to the U.S. military last week, spending US$70.1 million to remain one of nine partner countries in the fighter-jet project.”

The article adds that this payment brings Canada’s total investment in the F-35 to US$541.3 million since 1997. In Canadian dollars, that’s about $762.16 million.

The Canada Pension Plan is also deeply invested in Lockheed Martin, the transnational corporation behind the F-35 fighter jet.

On February 14, Fintel, which “provides advanced research tools for data-driven investors”, posted that the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) now holds USD $53.7 million in holdings in Lockheed Martin as of December 31, 2019.

But increasingly questions are being asked about spending money on fighter jets and armaments especially given the pandemic and climate change.

On April 8, George Monbiot highlighted in his column in The Guardian newspaper, “The UK is acquiring 138 new F-35 aircraft.”

He then comments, “Can it bomb the coronavirus? Can [it] defeat climate breakdown? It is of as much use in solving the world’s complex and pressing problems as a jackhammer is to a watch-mender.”

Monbiot concludes, “If ever there were a time for brokering peace, this is it. If ever there were a time to reassess the genuine threats to our security and separate them from the self-interested aims of the weapons industry, this is it.”

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, further comments, “Wars and the military render impossible the aspirations contained in the Green New Deal. And slashing the out-of-control military budget is crucial to provide the billions of dollars we need to create a sustainable and egalitarian economy.”

The Trudeau government has stated it is committed to a feminist foreign policy.

Last month, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom highlighted, “A feminist approach to peace and security is one that defines true human security not by stockpiling weapons or issuing threats, but by dismantling structures of oppression and injustice through negotiation, cooperation and redistribution of resources.”

The three transnational corporations bidding to win $19+ billion in public dollars to sell 88 fighter jets to Canada are Lockheed Martin (with its F-35 Lightning II), Boeing (with its F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III fighter jet), and Saab (with its Gripen-E fighter jet).

The Canadian Press article adds, “The three companies were originally supposed to submit their bids at the end of March, but that was pushed back to June 30 following a request by Saab. Despite the pandemic, the federal procurement department insisted last month that it still expected companies to meet that deadline.”

Reuters has reported, “A winner [is expected to be] named early in 2022, and the first aircraft delivery to be scheduled for as early as 2025.”

Peace Brigades International was founded in 1981 to undertake the task of peace-keeping, peace-making and peace-building under the discipline of nonviolence. PBI is convinced that enduring peace and lasting solutions of conflicts between and within nations cannot be achieved by violent means.

Will Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc. be involved in a fracking pilot project with ExxonMobil in Colombia?

By
Brent Patterson
-

On May 1, Colombia Informa reported on the fracking pilot projects that are expected to begin in Colombia in 2021.

The article notes that a potential site is the VMM-37 block:

“In the VMM-37 block granted to the North American company ExxonMobil, in Puerto Wilches (Santander), it would contemplate the cutting of 109 hectares of forest, the capture of an average of more than six daily pools of water in the Magdalena and Sogamoso rivers, and a polygon area comparable to 21,655 soccer fields, which will impact five townships.”

The infographic produced by la Corporación Podion indicates that a Canadian company partners with ExxonMobil in the VMM-37 block. And Podion notes that the VMM-37 block “may possibly be classified as Integral Research Pilot Projects (PPII).”

More about Sintana Energy Inc.

In November 2012, Oil & Gas Journal reported, “Subject to approval by Colombia’s ANH, ExxonMobil will take a farmout from Patriot Energy Oil & Gas Inc., a subsidiary of Sintana Energy Inc., Toronto, to earn a 70% interest in the 43,000-acre VMM-37 block.”

As noted on its website, “Sintana Energy is a public Canadian oil and natural gas exploration company listed on the Canadian TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol SEI. With offices in Toronto, Ontario and Dallas, Texas, the Company’s primary asset is ownership interests in the VMM-37 block located in Colombia’s prolific Magadalena Basin.”

A Sintana media release from May 2018 notes, “The Company’s private participation interests in Colombia, held by Patriot Energy Sucursal Colombia (‘Patriot’), wholly owned by Sintana include 100% of the conventional and 30% of the unconventional resource in the 43,158 acre VMM-37 Block which is located in the Middle Magdalena Basin.”

ConocoPhillips and Canacol Energy Ltd.

Another Canadian oil and gas company has also been in the news in relation to the fracking pilot projects in Colombia.

In November 2019, La Republica reported, “ConocoPhillips Colombia plans to invest up to US $100 million in two pilots at Cesar. …With two projects in Cesar (VMM-2 and VMM-3), the multinational is ready to take the next step.”

Those two pilots have been understood to be a partnership between ConocoPhillips and Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. through its Bogota-based subsidiary CNE Oil and Gas given this Reuters article and other news reports about their previous joint application for the controversial Piranga and Plata projects.

Concerns in the fishing village of Puerto Patiño

In March, EFE reported, “[Social leader Javier Vega] fears that the project that the Canadian oil company ConocoPhillips plans in the area will dry up the Doña María swamp [part of the Magdalena River], from which the fishing village [Puerto Patiño] has been feeding for more than fifty years and is vital to its traditions.”

Concerns about the safety of social leaders opposed to fracking

Colombia Informa also reports, “Óscar Sampayo, social leader and spokesman for the Colombia Free Fracking Alliance, expressed the concern that it generates for leaders and social leaders to oppose these fracking projects: ‘What will be the security of the farmers who oppose it? This is going to intensify the violence, the violation of human rights and the deepening of other conflicts caused by the pilot projects of integral investigation’.”

And the article notes, “According to Gabriel Rojas Andrade, Professor at the Law School of the Universidad de los Andes and who has been monitoring the issue, there is an inability of the Colombian State to guarantee the integrity of those who protect life and territory. The professor explained that the assassination of social leaders in Colombia should be called ‘systematic’, a humanitarian crisis declared by social and political movements such as the Peoples Congress, since last year.”

The full Colombia Informa article titled ‘Duque backs fracking contracts with Exxon and Ecopetrol‘ can be read here.

PBI-Colombia concerned by military intelligence files on the José Alvear lawyers’ collective

By
Brent Patterson
-

On May 3, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted, “We are concerned about the news in @RevistaSemana #CarpetasSecretas [secret folders] that members of our accompanied org @Ccajar have been subjects of military intelligence.”

CCAJAR refers to the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective Corporation, a non-governmental organization with over 35 years’ experience defending human rights and fighting impunity in Colombia.

CCAJAR has also tweeted, “We demand disciplinary and judicial sanctions against members of the public force involved in espionage against the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective.” The full statement from the lawyer’s collective can be read here.

The Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted its concern that those 130 people include, “international and national journalists, judges, human rights defenders, lawyers who handle cases of extrajudicial executions, politicians, as well as former officials and government officials.”

The article in Semana reports, “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, “In these missions, using computer tools and software, they carried out searches and massively and indiscriminately collected as much information as possible about their objectives to prepare military intelligence reports.”

“Phones, residence and work addresses, emails, friends, family, children, colleagues, contacts, traffic violations and even polling places are part of these profiles.”

“One of the first victims of these irregular activities was the American journalist Nick Casey, correspondent for The New York Times.”

“On May 18 of last year, he published an article in which he reported the existence of formats that military commanders had to fill out to project the number of casualties, among other variables. Those documents generated great controversy because they lent themselves to be interpreted as the return of the so-called false positives.”

That May 2019 New York Times article can be read in full here.

“The profiles extended beyond the communicators. In the folders are several members of the José Alvear Collective, some of whom are the lawyers of victims of false positives or are bringing proceedings against retired generals accused of these practices.”

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.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CCAJAR since 1995.

Image from Semana article.

PBI-Colombia expresses concern about repeated threats against social leader Jani Silva

By
Brent Patterson
-

On April 24, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project published their latest Human Rights Update (January to April 2020).

It notes: “On 9 April, several organizations accompanied by PBI Colombia and other national and international organizations (CEJIL and WOLA), filed a public complaint with President Iván Duque, the Attorney General [regarding several matters including calling] attention to the 26 March assassination plan against Jani Silva.”

“[Jani is the] leader of the Peasant Reserve Zone- Perla Amazónica (ZRCPA) and legal representative of the Association for the Sustainable and Comprehensive Development of the Perla Amazónica (ADISPA), which promotes peace, environmental protections, and voluntary crop substitution plans.”

“Jani Silvia had already received repeated threats and is a beneficiary of precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in addition to receiving support from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP).”

On March 26, PBI-Colombia had previously tweeted, “@Justiciaypazcol [the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace] has been informed of an assassination plan against female social leader Jani Silva from #Putumayo. We call for protection guarantees for social leaders in the light of the high risk situations and threats they are facing.”

Then on May 1, Amnesty International Canada noted in their Urgent Action 67/20,  “On 17 April, at around 2:30pm, Jani Silva heard 6 gunshots at less than 30 metres from her residence in Puerto Asís in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia. On 22 April, she again heard three gunshots at less than 50 meters from her residence and noise from the movement of people and a motorcycle around her house.”

AI adds, “She has also denounced the socio-environmental effects of oil operations, including those of Amerisur. Amerisur is a hydrocarbon exploitation company operating mainly in Putumayo basins [whose partners include] Canacol Energy Ltd. (Canada) [and] Pacific Exploration & Production (Frontera Energy, Canada).”

Peace Brigades International, Amnesty International and other organizations continue to keep a close watch on this situation.

Photo: Javier (PBI), Jani Silva (ZRCPA), Carlos Fernández (J&P) y Sandra Lagos (ZRCPA). Photo by PBI-Colombia.

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