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PBI-Mexico accompanies the Fray Juan de Larios Centre for Human Rights at plenary hearing with Governor of Coahuila

By
Brent Patterson
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On February 1, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted, “PBI accompanies Fray Juan de Larios, A.C. and the groups of relatives of disappeared persons in the Plenary hearing with the Governor of the State of Coahuila, Miguel Ángel Riquelme and his team.”

PBI-Mexico adds, “The objective of this hearing is to reach agreements for the development and optimal implementation of a strategy to attend to the problem of forced disappearance.”

PBI-Mexico has previously noted, “In the State of Coahuila in the North of Mexico, for years hundreds of families have organised themselves in order to search for their loved ones who have been forcefully disappeared.”

On August 23, 2019, Reuters reported that 2,144 people reported missing in Coahuila have never been found. That news report adds, “The state has identified the remains of 235 missing people through digs…”

In 2017 a state law was adopted with the aim of identifying “each and every disappeared person as well as remains localized in open fields.”

In turn, that law led to an Exhumation Plan that facilitates coordination between authorities and civil society in the search for and identification of bodies.

PBI is an international observer in the Exhumation Plan.

PBI-Mexico has noted some of the challenges with the Exhumation Plan but has commented that it “at least [offers] a glimmer of hope within the bleak panorama of forced disappearance in Mexico.”

The Fray Juan de Larios Centre for Human Rights provides legal aid, psychological assistance and organizational support for the families of the disappeared.

In her reflection on her year in Mexico as a PBI volunteer, United Kingdom-based Camila Marin wrote, “[I travelled] to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, a city along the US border alongside our accompanied organisation, Fray Juan de Larios. Here, I am observing exhumations of unidentified bodies with families who are missing a loved one, being drastically introduced to the reality of forced disappearance. Seeing bodies dug up from the ground was an experience I am unable to put words to at this moment in time, but it is safe to say that I never looked at Mexico’s landscapes in the same way again.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied Fray Juan de Larios since February 2014.

Environmental defender, butterfly protector Homero Gómez González killed in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
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Environmental defender Homero Gómez González, who protected butterflies at the El Rosario sanctuary, has been killed.

The sanctuary Gómez González managed is located in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

On January 30, The Guardian reported, “A Mexican environmental activist who fought to protect the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly has been found dead in the western state of Michoacán, two weeks after he disappeared.”

“Millions of the butterflies make a 2,000-mile (3,220km) journey each year from Canada to pass the winter in central Mexico’s warmer weather. But the forests and the monarchs are threatened by climate change and the incursion of illegal loggers and avocado farmers.”

Why butterflies are important

Butterfly Conservation highlights, “Areas rich in butterflies and moths are rich in other invertebrates. These collectively provide a wide range of environmental benefits, including pollination and natural pest control.”

The Ecologist adds, “They pollinate our food sources along with bees and other flying insects. Butterflies don’t have the furry bodies that bees have so they take less pollen, but they cover greater distances, strengthening the genetic variation of DNA in plants.”

That article also notes, “Birds, bats, and spiders amongst others eat caterpillars and blue tit chicks exist almost entirely upon them. Removing a step in the food chain can have unforeseen consequences on our wildlife.”

The motives for the murder of Gómez González

The Guardian reports, “The motive for his murder remains unknown, but some activists speculated that it could have been related to disputes over illegal logging.”

Al Jazeera adds, “Activists said his death could be related to disputes over illegal logging, water or income from visitors’ fees. …Disputes over water from mountain springs have also occurred in the region and avocado planters have long coveted the area, which has near-ideal growing conditions for the valuable fruit.”

And the Associated Press has noted, “[Communal farmer Raúl García González] recalled how, in 2019, Gómez González led hundreds of communal farmers in a demonstration in the nearby town of Angangueo to demand the town pay for water it receives from the mountain streams that are born on their properties. They never got an answer.”

Environmental defenders killed in Mexico

Amado Gómez, Homero Gómez González’s brother, says, “I would like to ask the authorities to do their job and do more to protect activists like my brother, because lately in Mexico a lot of activists have died. With his death, not only my family lost a loved one; but the whole world, and the monarch butterfly and the forests lost, too.”

The Guardian article notes, “Gómez González’s death comes as the murder rate continues to surge in a country where environmental defenders, human rights workers and community activists are routinely targeted for their work.”

“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to halt attacks on environmental defenders, but the killings continue.”

Front Line Defenders has reported that 304 human rights defenders were killed worldwide in 2019. Of that number, 23 were killed in Mexico. Overall, 40 per cent of those killed worldwide worked on land, Indigenous peoples, and environmental rights.

The Global Witness report on the number of land and environmental defenders killed in 2019 will be released this July. Their previous report noted that 14 land and environmental defenders were killed in Mexico in 2018. Of the 164 land environmental defenders killed worldwide in 2018, 43 deaths were related to mining and extractives, 21 to agribusiness, 17 to water and dams, and 13 to logging.

PBI in Mexico

In 2018, 10 Peace Brigades International (PBI) brigadistas accompanied members of 16 organizations working on forced disappearances, impunity, women’s rights, indigenous rights and environmental protection. Two field teams cover the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Oaxaca and Guerrero, with activities coordinated from the PBI office in Mexico City.

“2020 will be essential for the life of the Santurbán páramo”: Erwing Rodríguez-Salah

By
Brent Patterson
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In this Razon Publica article, environmental civic leader Erwing Rodríguez-Salah comments, “2020 will be essential for the life of the Santurbán páramo and the millions of inhabitants of Greater Santander, since this year the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) must issue a new delimitation of the moor.”

The páramo provides drinking water for 2 million people in Colombia.

Rodríguez-Salah has previously explained in Razon Publica, “The delimitation of the Santurbán páramo made by the Santos government in 2014 [through Resolution 2090] was the result of interest in facilitating mining activities, and not in protecting the water that the region needs for its life and development.”

“Therefore, under the leadership of the Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers Collective [CCALCP], in July 2015 we filed a guardianship action against the Ministry of Environment. The guardianship was ruled by the Constitutional Court in judgment T-361 of 2017. There, the Court considered that Resolution 2090 violated our right to environmental participation and demanded from the Government a new delimitation of the Santurbán páramo.”

At the time of the ruling, CCALCP lawyer Julia Figueroa said that T-361 “becomes a precedent in favour of the claims set forth in the guardianship and strengthens the interventions that will be made before the Constitutional Court in our purpose that will generate legal, constitutional and material protection of our Páramo de Santurbán.”

Rodríguez-Salah now notes, “In [President Ivan] Duque’s time, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development requested very short extensions to issue the new delimitation of the moor: the first for eight months (which expired on July 16), and the second for five additional months (which expired on December 18).”

“This year the meetings of the consultation phase with the communities will begin, within the process of the new delimitation of Santurbán.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanied CCALCP at a consultation on the delimitation of Santurbán in Bucaramanga on May 26, 2019.

Rodríguez-Salah also highlights, “A new express and deceptive delimitation of Santurbán will bring an avalanche of legal actions against the administrative acts issued by the State entities that, paradoxically, have become the main threat against our waters and wastelands.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has commented, “The moor is an important natural resource for Colombia and the source of drinking water for many municipalities in the department of Santander and North Santander.”

Additionally, the Comité Santurbán has tweeted that a major Caravan March in defence of páramos will take place in Bogota on March 16 of this year.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CCALCP since 2006.

PBI-Colombia and PBI-Canada co-organized a speaking tour in Canada with CCALCP and CREDHOS in November 2019 where key environmental concerns were raised, including the protection of the Santurbán páramo.

For more, please see Vancouver-based Eco Oro sues Colombia for $764 million through the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Wet’suwet’en seek legal observers of RCMP enforcement of injunction as February 6 deadline approaches

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 30, CBC reported, “The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the B.C. government have announced they will be in talks over the next seven days to de-escalate a standoff over the Coastal GasLink pipeline project in northern B.C.”

That timeline takes us to roughly Thursday February 6.

The Indigenous land defence Gidimt’en Checkpoint has commented, “A 7 day ceasefire….to solve a century old dispute.”

The CBC article highlights, “After de-escalation talks were announced, the police force told CBC News in an email that it would respect the seven-day period planned for discussions and would not enforce the court-ordered injunction.”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says, “While additional resources may be noted in the Smithers-Houston area, the resources will be on stand-by during the [seven-day] period.”

On January 31, the Burns Lake Lakes District News reported that three container units were installed outside the Community Hall in Houston on January 30 and that “eight more trailers appearing to be lodging units arrived at the hall” on January 31.

Furthermore, the RCMP have confirmed that it will maintain its checkpoint at the 27 kilometre mark on the Morice Forest Service Road, despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the British Columbia Human Rights Commission and others calling on them to leave Wet’suwet’en territory.

This seven-day period follows the news on January 27 of British Columbia Premier John Horgan appointing former NDP Member of Parliament Nathan Cullen as an intermediary between the Wet’suwe’ten hereditary chiefs, the province of British Columbia, the RCMP, Coastal GasLink and others.

Premier Horgan says, “I’m pleased all parties have agreed to the appointment of a liaison. Nathan has agreed to act as an intermediary in the hopes of finding a solution to this challenging dispute.”

Meanwhile, the National Observer reports, “In a letter dated Wednesday [January 29], the BCCLA [British Columbia Civil Liberties Association], Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs asked the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission — an independent arm’s-length agency that investigates complaints against the RCMP — to open a special investigation into the mounties’ conduct on Wet’suwet’en territory.”

BCCLA executive director Harsha Walia says, “We are urging the [complaints commission] chairperson to launch a chairperson-initiated complaint and public interest investigation regarding the improper and unlawful actions of the RCMP in implementing and enforcing a checkpoint and exclusion zone on Morice West Forest Service Road in Wet’suwet’en territory.”

The article continues, “The BCCLA said the RCMP’s blockade is both arbitrary and illegal, citing sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protect freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and Indigenous land rights.”

“The checkpoint is also a violation of Inuk Nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), the letter says.”

“The RCMP initially said the roadblock was meant to monitor who was going in and out of the remote area for safety reasons, citing fallen trees and harsh weather. …The BCCLA, however, said the RCMP don’t have the authority to operate the checkpoint, even with the powers granted by the injunction.”

That article also notes, “Right now, the Wet’suwet’en and the RCMP are at a stalemate. As the Wet’suwet’en bring in legal observers — people trained to be witnesses — to prepare for a possible enforcement of the injunction, the RCMP have been flying surveillance planes over the area. The Mounties initially denied they were doing so, but admitted it to a Vice reporter after photo evidence surfaced online.”

Vice has reported, “On Friday morning [January 24], lawyers Noah Ross and Irina Ceric ran a training session for legal observers, instructing a group of Wet’suwet’en supporters in how best to document and record police actions.”

Additionally, on January 29, CBC reported that Wet’suwet’en land defenders have established a third camp – this one 500 metres before the RCMP checkpoint – which means “visitors, including activists, can enter the area without being questioned or turned away by police.”

To apply to be a legal observer please click here. For the protocol and application form to visit the camp, click here. For daily updates on the situation, please follow the Unist’ot’en Camp and Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter.

PBI-Mexico brigadista Camila Marin’s reflection on her year accompanying human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Camila Marin was a Peace Brigades International brigadista accompanying human rights defenders in Mexico in 2019.

The United Kingdom-based activist reflects, “I began my time as a ‘brigadista’ a month after Andres Manuel López Obrador took office.”

“Three months prior to my arrival, Julián Carrillo, a Rarámuri community leader from the Sierra Tarahumara who defended his ancestral territory from illegal mining and logging, was assassinated in cold blood. He was a beneficiary of Alianza Sierra Madre, an accompanied organisation that works alongside indigenous communities in this remote, deprived and lawless part of the country.”

“Before I know it, I am attending meetings with State Officials at the Government Palace to highlight our observation of the investigative procedures surrounding Julián’s case.”

“Side by side, I am observing Isidro Baldenegro’s court case, another Rarámuri community leader who was assassinated in January 2017.”

“I then travel to Coahuila’s mining zone to accompany Organización Familia Pasta de Conchos, where I have the opportunity to meet some of the widows affected by the 2006 mine tragedy and bring their concerns to local authorities.”

“Concurrently, Paso del Norte, our accompanied organisation in Ciudad Juárez is experiencing one security incident after another. Acts of intimidation, unexplained phone calls, suspicious behaviour by unknown men are occurring more often than not. And why, you ask? Because they dedicate their lives to finding justice for victims of torture and forced disappearance committed by state actors in a context of rampant impunity.”

“Fast-forward to five months later and our team is dealing with emergency after emergency…”

“Members of the migrant shelter Casa Migrante Saltillo are being threatened and intimidated by authorities in a series of worrying incidents. I am now seeing the consequences of the USA’s inhumane immigration policies and the new administration’s response to them being played out right before my eyes.”

“Not long after, I travel to Piedras Negras in Coahuila, a city along the US border alongside our accompanied organisation, Fray Juan de Larios. Here, I am observing exhumations of unidentified bodies with families who are missing a loved one, being drastically introduced to the reality of forced disappearance. Seeing bodies dug up from the ground was an experience I am unable to put words to at this moment in time, but it is safe to say that I never looked at Mexico’s landscapes in the same way again.”

“As a woman, coming to the State that inspired the term ‘femicide’ was not a decision I took lightly but I trusted that our beige waistcoat would exempt me from becoming a victim to such a crime. I joined an all-female team, which was an empowering experience in itself, and was surrounded by incredible female human rights defenders.”

“For me, my time with PBI was about utilising my privilege as a foreigner to facilitate human rights defenders in Chihuahua and Coahuila to continue their work with less risk.”

“The work carried out by PBI is so important [because] we look at repression directly in the face, whilst standing side by side with human rights defenders, a clear demonstration of defiance and international solidarity.”

To read the full article on the PBI-United Kingdom website, please click here.

New report finds climate breakdown increases gender-based violence against women environmental human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

“Let us wake up! We’re out of time. We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.” – COPINH leader Berta Caceres, WEHRD killed on March 3, 2016.

The Guardian reports that a major study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has found that “climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls.”

Cate Owren, a lead author of the report and based in the IUCN’s Global Gender Office, says, “We found gender-based violence to be pervasive, and there is enough clear evidence to suggest that climate change is increasing gender-based violence.”

The article highlights, “Six in 10 respondents to a survey by IUCN, with more than 300 responses from organisations around the world, said they had observed gender-based violence among female environmental rights defenders, environmental migrants and refugees, and in areas where environmental crimes and environmental degradation were taking place.”

“There have also been numerous examples of gender-based violence directed against environmental defenders and activists, who try to stop the destruction or degradation of their land, natural resources and communities. Sexual violence is used to suppress them, undermine their status within the community and discourage others from coming forward.”

The full report is titled Gender-based violence and environment linkages: The violence of inequality. Chapter 6, titled Gender-based violence in defending land, territories and the environment – The situation of women environmental human rights defenders, can be found on pages 162 to 180.

That chapter begins by setting this context: “Globally, there exists a historic struggle in defence of the environment, one in which women and indigenous peoples have been fundamental actors against the privatisation and destruction of natural resources such as land, forests and forest resources, and water.”

It continues, “Violence against WEHRDs in the public and private sector is interlinked with and rooted in social, economic and political power relations, including gender discrimination, an unequal division of labour, and pre-existing levels of violence.”

“WEHRDs thus endure gender-differentiated violence, whether as users and managers of natural resources, as victims of abuse by state or non-state actors, or as journalists, lawyers, educators, indigenous leaders or everyday citizens concerned over the degradation of the environment and natural resources.”

“In many parts of the world, human rights defenders are marginalised and discriminated against and are criminalised for their actions, and that impunity for state and nonstate actors in violation of EHRDs’ rights is commonplace.”

“Violence against EHRDs is typically found within a context of heightened resource scarcity: each year, industries and governments are placing increasing pressure on natural resources as countries and corporations seek financial gain.”

“The pressure for both profits and more resources has led to a rise in extractive activities, as well as a rise in environmental crime. The violence and intimidation employed to exert control over individuals’ and local communities’ territories and natural resources can also instigate, magnify and reinforce incidences of GBV.”

“Statistics provided by the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras) found that a total of 609 aggressions against WEHRDs were recorded between 2015 and 2016 in Mexico and Central America alone. In this same region, between 2012 and 2016, at least 42 WEHRDs were killed.”

“The GBV experienced by WEHRDs can often be exacerbated when it intersects with racial and ethnic discrimination. In Guatemala, indigenous communities, which make up 60 per cent of the national population, often find themselves in defence of their territories against extractive interests. The country has also experienced a startling rise in GBV, particularly against indigenous women.”

Additionally, The Guardian article reports, “Some governments are moving to put action for women and girls into their climate and development policies, and the UN in Madrid moved to include a gender action plan as part of the climate negotiations. Campaigners and some countries are hoping for even greater focus on the issue at the crunch UN climate talks in November, to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow.”

The United Nations COP26 climate talks will take place between Monday November 9 and Thursday November 19. Peace Brigades International is currently discussing how to intervene at COP26 to highlight that human rights defenders are on the front lines of the struggle against climate change and the specific risks faced by WEHRDs.

For more, please see Fighting climate change: A global priority and  To avoid climate breakdown, we must protect those who protect the environment by Peace Brigades International. Please also see the PBI-Guatemala Project article ‘Communities raise their voices about the climate crisis’ in Bulletin No. 42 (pages 10-13).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH at hearing of three peasants charged with “aggravated usurpation” in La Cumbre

By
Brent Patterson
-

On January 28, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “Yesterday we accompanied the lawyers of the BDH, who together with the lawyer of the Comité de Unidad Campesina CUC, represent three peasant leaders accused of aggravated usurpation.”

PBI-Guatemala continues, “This accusation is given in the context of an eviction occurred in November 2017 at en la Cumbre, Tactic. In the hearing the plaintiff presented three witnesses. The judge postponed the debate for February.”

The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence (BTS) Network has previously reported on the eviction at La Cumbre, Tactic, Alta Verapaz that took place on November 1, 2017 that displaced 25 families from their homes.

BTS notes, “Women reported sexual violence during the eviction. The community was associated with the Peasant Unity Committee (CUC) and had previously labored on a plantation owned by the Morales Cahuec family. During the eviction, current workers of the plantation were involved in destroying homes.”

“The community had been participating in a dialogue table with the Secretary of Agrarian Affairs to recognize their right as legitimate owners of the land.”

The Guatemala Solidarity Project further explains, “The eviction was blatantly illegal for a number of reasons, including that there was no advance notice through the Human Rights office and that it was carried out on a holiday which is against the law.  After 45 minutes the Army commenced burning down houses, all the while forcefully questioning people as to the whereabouts of community leaders with fraudulent arrest warrants who had fled into the mountains to avoid arrest.”

“La Cumbre, like many other communities facing violence that we work with, is a village of former ‘mozos colonos’.  These are families who were forced to live and work on plantations for generations without receiving any pay. Because of changes in the international economy, ‘landowners’ often no longer need the indigenous labor and are using extreme violence to evict these communities and then extract natural resources from the land.”

Furthermore, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, has stated in a report to the UN Human Rights Council that the “crime of aggravated usurpation is commonly brought against indigenous land rights defenders.”

She highlights, “Disregard of indigenous rights of traditional lands ownership breeds tensions, subsequent violence and criminalization, as indigenous peoples become trespassers or illegal occupants of their own lands, subject to criminal charges such as ‘usurpation’ or illegal occupation, and liable to forced evictions and removal from the lands they rely upon for their livelihoods, social and cultural cohesion and spiritual traditions.”

Land distribution in Guatemala continues to be deeply unequal with the largest 2.5 per cent of farms currently occupying more than 65 per cent of the land while 90 per cent of the farms are on only one-sixth of the agricultural land in the country.

Indigenous and peasant farmers were dispossessed of their land in the 18th century through colonization that drove Indigenous and peasant farmers to the less fertile highlands. The 2002 census estimates that 45 per cent of Guatemala’s population is indigenous, but the figure may be closer to 60 per cent.

BDH is a group of lawyers who represent those whose human rights have been violated. It has been accompanied by PBI-Guatemala since 2013.

PBI-Honduras issues alert on the alarming number of attacks on trans human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

On January 28, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project issued an alert (in English and Spanish) that states, “PBI Honduras is extremely concerned over the high number of attacks against trans women and individuals who defend trans rights, as well as the impunity that has continued in these cases.”

Their alert continues:

We are particularly concerned by the security situation of the members of the Muñecas Trans Women’s Collective of Arcoiris LGBT Association, which has been accompanied by PBI since 2015. Despite having protective measures from the Honduran National Protection Mechanism, the Muñecas Collective has experienced an increase in attacks and assaults over the last six months.

Since the assassination of trans rights defender Bessy Ferrera and the attempted murder of Vicky Carvajal in July 2019, Arcoiris has reported at least 15 security incidents, including cases of intimidation, threats, surveillance, physical assaults, muggings, attempted kidnapping and attempted murder.

This situation is worsened by the lack of advances in investigations and the lack of sentencing in these cases. This is a generalised issue in Honduras, where the impunity rate for crimes against the LGBTQI+ collective is over 95%, according to data from the Honduran National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH).

On January 20, the trans rights defender and Arcoiris member, Paola Flores, alongside Arianna Michelle Díaz Gómez from the Cozumel Trans Human Rights Association, were travelling in a taxi to their home in Tegucigalpa when they were followed by two unknown men riding a motorcycle. Due to the incident, they decided to stop. Upon leaving the taxi, they were shot at several times with a firearm. Paola was shot in the right leg, while Arianna Michelle Díaz Gómez managed to escape unharmed.

According to data from the Cattrachas Lesbian Network Observatory, between 2009 and 2019 at least 350 LGBTQI+ individuals were murdered in Honduras, of which 111 were trans. The Network also reports that in 2019, at least 40 members of the LGBTQI+ community were murdered: 25 gay men, 6 lesbian women, and 9 trans individuals.

The absence of regulations that integrate United Nations (UN) resolutions on non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the lack of national laws that protect the basic rights of members of the LGBTQI+ community, put the lives of LGBTQI+ rights defenders in Honduras at risk. Additionally, the persistence of discriminatory socio-cultural patterns at all levels of Honduran society impacts the response of public officials. According to Social Attitudes studies conducted by the American organisation Pew Research Centre, 88% of the Honduran public considers homosexuality to be an immoral behaviour.

The result is that, despite being a minority, the trans community is extremely vulnerable and at risk of facing a high number of hate crimes, including physical assaults and transfemicides.

The PBI-Honduras alert can be read in English and Spanish. The version in English is also attached below.

UN Special Rapporteur’s report on Colombia notes Toronto-based Frontera Energy

By
Brent Patterson
-

The report on Colombia by Michel Forst, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, references Toronto-based Frontera Energy Corp.

Forst’s report notes (points 29 and 30 on page 9):

In the context of efforts to defend land and environmental rights, at least 202 defenders have been prosecuted since 2012. By way of example, during the Special Rapporteur’s visit, eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque were arrested and accused of collusion to commit an offence, violence against a public servant and obstructing a public road, and two of them with attempted homicide in connection with their participation in and leadership of the social protests between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads. These human rights defenders remain deprived of their liberty, three of them in prison and five on house arrest.

The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation. In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$ 1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities. On 4 December 2018, the army and the police accused the aforementioned leaders of being members of “Los Jinetes con Careta”, an illegal armed group whose existence has yet to be recognized by the competent authorities. Furthermore, since 2015, Ecopetrol, the main Colombian hydrocarbon exploitation company, has signed five cooperation agreements with the Attorney General’s Office for a total of US$ 24,698,485 to strengthen the investigative and prosecutorial capacity of the Attorney General’s Support Office to deal – inter alia – with crimes of obstruction of public roads during social protests that affect the functioning of Ecopetrol and/or its associated companies, such as Frontera Energy.

The Special Rapporteur’s report can be read in full here.

The situation with Frontera Energy is being followed closely by the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) and the Social Corporation for Community Advisory and Training Services (COSPACC). The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the CSPP since 1998 and COSPACC since 2009.

PBI-Mexico joins call for the release of Indigenous land and water defender Miguel López Vega

By
Brent Patterson
-

On January 27, this media release highlighted, “On January 24, the human rights defender, community communicator and journalist MIGUEL LÓPEZ VEGA, member of the Land and Water Defense Front of the States of Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala (FPDTA-MPT) … was arrested by elements of the Prosecutor’s Office of Puebla…”

“The FPDTA-MPT is made up of different communities from the three states that since 2012 are being affected by the Morelos Integral Project (PIM), which consists of a gas pipeline, two thermoelectric plants, an aqueduct and the industrialization of the Cuautla Valley.”

“Recently, Miguel López and other defenders of the community of Santa María Zacatepec have denounced the threats and aggressions they have faced because of the defense of the Metlapanapa River, in which a sewage system is being built for the spillage of toxic waste.”

“This detention is an act against the right to defend human rights and the exercise of freedom of expression and criminalization of the protest, as well as an attempt to intimidate the community to stop fighting against the contamination of its river.”

“The signatory organizations recognize the work of Miguel López Vega as a defender of human rights and the right to territory. We express our full solidarity with him, with his community, with the FPDTA-MPT and with the organizations defending the territory and water, who suffer this new aggression that adds to so many others, among them the murder of the defender of the territory and community communicator Samir Flores, who, like Miguel, defended his community from PIM, was committed eleven months ago and continues in impunity.”

“We demand from the Attorney General of the State of Puebla the immediate release of the human rights defender and community communicator Miguel López Vega and the cessation of the criminalization of the activities of defense of the land and territory of the community of Santa María Zacatepec, including other possible arrest warrants.”

To read the full media release, please click here or here.

For more on the PIM and the death of Samir Flores, please see this rabble.ca article.

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