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PBI-Spanish State co-organizes public forums on feminism and peacebuilding in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Peace Brigades International-Spanish State is co-organizing a public forum titled, Women, conflicts and peacebuilding: impacts and responses.

The event will take place on Thursday January 30 in Sant Cugat, which is located about 30 minutes from Barcelona city center.

The public forum will feature Miriam Garcia Torres, the Awareness Coordinator for PBI-Spanish State, Luz Piedad Caicedo of Corporación Humanas Colombia, and Milena Florez of Movimiento Ríos Vivos.

Corporación Humanas Colombia (Human Corporation Colombia) is “a center for feminist political studies and action, whose mission is to promote and defend women’s human rights, international humanitarian law and gender justice, in Colombia and Latin America.”

As noted below, Luz Piedad Caicedo will also be speaking at a PBI-Spanish State co-organized event titled Feminism, Peace and Security: An Outstanding Agenda? on Friday January 31 at the Library of the International Catalan Institute for Peace in Barcelona.

Rios Vivos (Living Rivers) is “a social movement that promotes hope. Our network gathers together organisations of women, young people, artisan miners, artisan fishers, muleteers, peasants, cookers, housewives and traders affected by the construction of the hydro dam project Hidroituango.”

In 2016, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanied Isabel Cristina Zuleta, a spokesperson for Ríos Vivos, during a protest in Valdivia in northern Antioquia. You can read more about that in this PBI-Colombia article.

To read more about the work of PBI-Spanish State, please click here. That overview highlights, “The work of PBI-Spanish State has as its main objective that the citizenry has information about the human rights violations that are committed in the countries where we have international observation teams.”

To follow PBI-Spanish State on Twitter please click here.

PBI-Colombia accompanies NOMADESC at event on 2nd anniversary of the murder of Temistocles Machado

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 27, NOMADESC posted, “Conversation of the territory defender Don Temistocles Machado at the Banco de la República [cultural centre] in Buenaventura.”

War on Want has previously noted, “The social organisations and human rights organisations of the Inter-organisational Committee of Buenaventura, along with social movements from across Colombia, denounce the assassination of community leader Temistocles Machado, defender of human rights and member of the Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN) and the Inter-organisational Committee of Buenaventura. The murder took place in the Isla de la Peace area of the city of Buenaventura during the afternoon of 27th January 2018.”

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) highlights that Temistocles Machado was one of the main leaders of a civic strike in Buenaventura.

PSAC explains, “In 2017, the leaders helped organize a massive civic strike—also known as a general strike—in Buenaventura, home to Colombia’s key port on its Pacific coast, to protest the city’s deepening socioeconomic and human rights crisis. For three weeks in May, 114 social organizations took over the streets, holding protest marches, community kitchens and cultural festivals, effectively shutting down Colombia’s most important trading hub.”

“The strike won an agreement containing important concessions from the government to improve public services, including community housing, health services, roads, the justice system, and a new framework agreement to protect the rights of port workers.”

BBC adds, “Machado’s most ambitious work was the collection of tens of thousands of documents that he accumulated to support that he and his neighbors were owners of the lands on which they had settled more than half a century ago.”

“For Don Temis, each document was a weapon to defend against eviction attempts that had multiplied in the area in recent years.”

“Following a road built in 2006 that divided Isla de Paz in two, the neighborhood became, overnight, a strategic area for commercial activity and port expansion as it linked the city of Buenaventura with the port. Suddenly ‘old owners’ of the neighborhood appeared, with papers and everything, that had not appeared in the place for decades.”

“That is why Don Temis did not hesitate to travel to Bogotá or wherever necessary with his mountain of papers to defend the ownership of the land.”

“At the time of his murder, Don Temis was in a legal dispute with one of the alleged owners of Isla de la Paz, who claims that his grandmother ceded those lands decades ago.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied NOMADESC since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

In an interview with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Celeita has commented, “For Colombia, it’s very important to make visible at the international level what is going on since the peace agreement was signed, and to insist to the government that communities and social organizations be incorporated into the peace process.”

She adds, “We need activists to insist with the Colombian government and the Canadian government that the concept of free, prior and informed consent be respected when engaging in territories that will affect communities’ livelihoods.”

To see a 3-minute Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project video with Berenice talking about the civic strike, please click here.

PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC at meeting on the impacts of mining on Juticalpa and Campamento

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 27, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted, “This Saturday [January 25] we accompanied Cehprodec to a meeting with neighbors of Juticalpa and Campamento, for information on the effects of metal mining on the territory. Juticalpa is the municipality with the most metal mining concessions in Honduras.”

Juticalpa and Campamento are municipalities in the department of Olancho.

Defensores en linea has reported, “The department of Olancho is formed by 23 municipalities and in most of them concessions for exploration and exploitation have been granted, according to the report ‘The State of Mining in the Department of Olancho’, carried out by the Honduran Center for Development Promotion Community (CEHPRODEC).”

In May 2014, CEHPRODEC contributed to the report The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada’s Responsibility that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

That report notes:

“Opposition to the large mining operations imposed by national authorities has had serious consequences for the local population, including criminalization of rights advocacy and closure of institutional spaces for dialogue, in addition to the exacerbation of violence, threats and harassment, deaths and serious injuries.”

“The political and economic support Canada gives Canadian companies (through mechanisms such as Export Development Canada (EDC), the Investment Board of the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian International Development Agency) is provided without adequate controls to prevent the violation of human rights in the countries where the companies that receive these benefits operate.”

“Trade agreements usually contain clauses on human rights and environmental protection. However, they lack the legal bases to force the parties — and, fundamentally, Canada — to comply with the obligation to respect and guarantee the human rights that are violated in the host countries by the actions of Canadian mining companies.”

Among the report’s recommendation, it calls on Canada to “refrain from providing any government support, whether through development programs, trade and/or association agreements, public financing or technical or political assistance, for the purpose of influencing the enactment of lax regulatory frameworks for mining investments and to the detriment of the obligation to guarantee human rights in the host countries of the extractive projects.”

PBI-Honduras began accompanying CEHPRODEC in May 2014.

PBI-Guatemala produces infographic on the Indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 27, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project shared on Facebook this infographic about free, prior and informed consent.

The United Nations has explained, “Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a specific right that pertains to indigenous peoples and is recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).”

The UN further notes:

Free: consent given voluntarily and without coercion, intimidation or manipulation. A process that is self-directed by the community from whom consent is being sought, unencumbered by coercion, expectations or timelines that are externally imposed.

Prior: consent is sought sufficiently in advance of any authorization or commencement of activities.

Informed: nature of the engagement and type of information that should be provided prior to seeking consent and also as part of the ongoing consent process.

Consent: collective decision made by the right holders and reached through a customary decision-making processes of the communities.

In 2018, PBI-Guatemala commented, “The right to territory and the management of natural resources, particularly in the case of indigenous peoples, continued to be one of the main causes of conflict in the country during the year.”

It adds that when UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz visited Guatemala in May 2018, “PBI helped arrange opportunities for the accompanied human rights defenders to meet with the Rapporteur and for the latter to take PBI’s concerns about the safety of indigenous defenders into account in her report.”

John Vidal has written in The Guardian, “Guatemala’s largely indigenous population say their rights have been violated since the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, dispossessing their communities and driving them into the less fertile highlands.”

“A peace agreement in 1996 should have led to land redistribution, but a handful of powerful families still dominates the economy, and Guatemala remains one of the world’s least equal and most violent countries, with the largest 2.5% of farms occupying more than 65% of the land.”

Vidal concludes, “Economic integration forced on Guatemala by the US and global bodies have further opened the country to foreign-backed mining, hydro and other extractive industries, forcing more evictions of indigenous peoples and leading to more violence and inequality.”

PBI first operated a project in Guatemala from 1983-1999, which closed following the Peace Accords. Unfortunately, the human rights situation soon began again to deteriorate, and local organisations asked PBI to return.

The current project opened in 2003. PBI now accompanies around 10 organisations nationwide with 10 international volunteers based in Guatemala City.

PBI-Germany supports the ‘Save the European Peace Project’ campaign

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 27, Peace Brigades International-Germany tweeted, “Before the European Parliament elections in May 2019, a broad alliance of 74 organizations and institutions from nine European countries called for the rescue of the European peace project. PBI Germany was among the signatories.”

That petition states:

The European integration reconciled enemies after the Second World War, making the European Union a model peace project the world over. Now more than ever, we need a European Union that advocates peace and human rights – at home and beyond its borders.

However, beginning in 2021, the EU plans to invest billions of euros in the European arms industry, joint military operations and even more border security. Peacebuilding and human rights could fall victim to the defence against migration and flight. We firmly believe that the European Union will only win the hearts of its citizens as a peace project, not as a military power.

Therefore, we call on the delegates of the European Parliament to: Stand up for a European Union that advocates peace and human rights unconditionally.

1- Campaign for a European Union that adheres to the European peace project instead of becoming a military power.

We urge the European Union to build on its strengths as a mediator in conflicts and as an alliance for peace through cooperation and collaboration. We oppose the European defence fund to finance the development of armament projects. The Treaty of Lisbon prohibits the financing of armament projects and military operations through the Community budget of the European Union. Delegates of the European Parliament should defend and strengthen these principles.

2- Do not let the European Union provide arms to states that wage war or violate human rights to ward off refugees and migration.

We call on the European Union and its Member States not to use funds for the armament of armies and militias of non-member countries. The European Parliament must ensure the strict adherence to and further tightening of the European criteria for arms exports vis-à-vis the governments of the European Union Member States.

3- Increase the funds of the European Union for the promotion of non-violent conflict transformation and human rights.

We request €7 bn. for non-violent conflict transformation and peacebuilding and €3 bn. for the promotion of human rights and democracy in the next EU financial framework (2021-2027).

This petition can be read here.

Wet’suwet’en call for legal observers in dispute over fracked gas pipeline on their territory

By
Brent Patterson
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Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have not given their free, prior and informed consent to the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on their unceded territory in northern British Columbia, Canada.

On January 18, the Unist’ot’en Camp posted, “Gidimt’en and Unist’ot’en are seeking legal observers. Our unceded Wet’suwet’en lands are under attack, with police enforcement of a colonial court injunction possible at any time.”

That post adds, “Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have rejected the injunction decision [of December 31, 2019], which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and have made clear that no access to Wet’suwet’en territories will be granted without free, prior, and informed consent.”

“A Legal Observer witnesses and monitors the actions of law enforcement agencies and security forces and collects information for the purposes of legal defence. Legal observers: do not participate in protest or risk arrest; do not provide legal advice; do not speak to media; do not interfere with police activity; and remain ‘neutral’ while observing.”

The post also notes that Gidimt’en and Unist’ot’en “require a team of 50-60 legal observers.” The link to apply to be a legal observer is here.

Update on legal observers accessing the territory

On January 23, the Unist’ot’en Camp tweeted, “RCMP are arbitrarily blocking lawyers out of #unistoten territory. A lawyer with @WaterProtectUs, helping train legal observers to document human rights abuses by RCMP, was targeted by police and told they won’t be allowed back on our unceded territory.”

Recounting that same incident, the Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) tweeted, “RCMP Deny Wet’suwet’en Access to Legal Observers”.

The Water Protector Legal Collective has also commented, “Canadian Police banned WPLC ED @Carltonwilliams from Wet’suwet’en land to stop training and presence of #humanrights legal observers. This violates Wet’suwet’en #sovereignty.”

And Ricochet has tweeted, “Raw video from @GitxsanJt of RCMP at the checkpoint explaining new policy to two lawyers [from the Water Protector Legal Collective] visiting clients at #Unistoten camp the other day. They’ll only let in lawyers who can practice in B.C., and require chains and forest service radios.”

Then on January 24, Irina Ceric tweeted, “I and another lawyer, @noahrossj were turned away from the RCMP checkpoint on #Wetsuweten territory today. The pretext was that we lacked chains and a two-way radio, a ‘policy’ that has been unevenly and arbitrarily applied.” As noted on his website, Ross practices law in British Columbia.

The Unist’ot’en Camp has additionally commented, “This is a radio-assisted road & radios are not legally required. The road is plowed & there’s no need for chains. These made up rules are a clear abusive of power by RCMP.”

Update on efforts to seek a peaceful resolution

On January 10, Chief Nam’oks, a spokesperson for the hereditary chiefs, asked in a letter to British Columbia Premier John Horgan and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “We formally request a meeting with you to discuss the impacts of the recent interlocutory injunction and RCMP enforcement.”

On January 20, CBC quoted Premier Horgan, a supporter of the pipeline, stating, “I’m not going to drop everything I’m doing to come running when someone is saying they need to speak with me. I’m not being disrespectful, I’m just saying be realistic here.”

There does not appear to have been a public response yet from Prime Minister Trudeau.

Subsequently, First Peoples Law has highlighted, “Dozens of academics and lawyers from across Canada have signed the following letter urging the provincial and federal governments to meet directly with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs to open a nation-to-nation dialogue in the hopes of peacefully resolving the matter.”

That letter, dated January 22, notes, “Reconciliation and justice cannot be achieved by relying on the RCMP or resource companies to do the Crown’s work. We urge BC and Canada to meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and to commit to a process for the peaceful and honourable resolution of this issue.”

On January 19-20, Nanaimo-Ladysmith Member of Parliament Paul Manly met with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the RCMP to talk about the ongoing situation. He has commented, “The fact that the RCMP have been sent in shows that this is a political failure on the part of the provincial and federal governments.”

Canadian police on Wet’suwet’en territory

In December 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) also called – in this motion – for Canada to guarantee no force will be used against the Wet’suwet’en peoples and asked that the RCMP and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from their traditional lands.

Then on January 10, British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender issued this statement agreeing with the UN Committee and calling on Canada “to prohibit the use of lethal weapons, and to guarantee no force will be used against [the Wet’suwet’en]. This is a matter of fundamental human rights.”

The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have also noted that they have “submitted a formal request to the United Nations to monitor RCMP, government and Coastal GasLink actions on our traditional, unceded territory.”

As of January 25, the RCMP are maintaining a checkpoint and exclusion zone at the 27-kilometre point on the Morice Forest Service Road on Wet’suwet’en territory.

For updates on the situation, please see the Twitter feed for the Unist’ot’en Camp and the Gidimt’en Checkpoint.

UPDATE (January 26) – Subsequent to the posting of the article above, lawyer Noah Ross tweeted:

Observations from a week trying to gain access to #Wetsuweten land defenders to conduct legal observer trainings:

RCMP have operated an illegal blockade on Wet’suwet’en territory at km 27 on Morice FSR [Forest Service Road] since early January.

Classes of people currently allowed through –hereditary chiefs, lawyers licensed to practice in BC, medical practitioners (unclear which types as none allowed in so far) and one person who takes supplies in regularly.

Sometimes RCMP block access to all vehicles without two-way radios and chains. Anyone allowed through roadblock is detained and needs to show ID/give legal name.

RCMP justifies blockade for three reasons, used interchangeably – access restricted because logging road is remote and there could be a snowstorm & ID necessary in case anyone gets lost; crime scene investigation related to trees fallen on Morice FSR (RCMP have not looked at trees on ground in three weeks nor done any ascertainable investigation); CGL [Coastal GasLink] injunction mandates access restriction (this is garbage as the injunction does not prohibit travel to, or residence at, #Unistoten or #Gitdumden camps). None of these reasons justify blockade or restriction of access to professionals and hereditary leadership.

RCMP’s roadblock eases the process of enforcing CGL injunction by forcing Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters of yintah [traditional lands] & is instance of RCMP as tool in colonial subjugation of sovereign indigenous peoples.

Peacefund Canada and its continuing support for Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
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As noted by Quaker.org, “Peacefund Canada was founded in 1985 by a group of Canadians which included a number of Quakers. Its purpose was to encourage and support education programs which challenge people to believe in and work for peace.”

A paper prepared for The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada further explains, “Its goal is to encourage and support adult peace educators and other learners in their efforts to build a more humane, non-violent and demilitarized world. Its mission is to fund peace education projects in Canada and around the world.”

That paper adds, “Peacefund Canada is also actively involved in the international initiative for a Global Non-violent Peace Force. Its mission is to mobilize and train an international non-violent, standing peace force which will deploy to conflict areas to protect human rights and prevent death and destruction, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle, enter into dialogue, and seek peaceful resolution.”

Murray Thomson remembers, “The fund itself came out of a weekend in Orillia. We met in the home of Gordon and Jane Ball, two ex-CUSO volunteers who lived in same community co-op as Ed and Vivien Abbott of Simcoe-Muskoka Friends Meeting.”

Quaker.org continues, “The beneficiaries of the fund are usually individuals working on small, specific concerns. About 350 projects have been supported by the fund in 35 countries. Among those in past years benefitting from Peacefund Canada funding were Karen Ridd, a Peace Brigades International volunteer.”

In June-July 1986, Peace Magazine reported on the $10,000 in grants dispersed by Peacefund Canada for peace related initiatives. In April-May 1987, Peace Magazine also reported, “Peacefund Canada is continuing fund-raising and providing support to peace projects in Canada and abroad.”

In 1991, as noted by Inter Pares, “Peacefund Canada organized a seminar in Ottawa to raise the profile of the human rights and refugee situation in Burma. An important outcome of the Ottawa seminar was the founding of the Canadian Friends of Burma. [This] was the precursor of the Canadian NGO Committee on Burma which formed in 2000.”

The paper prepared for The Council of Ministers of Education in October 2001 recounts, “In 1999 alone, the PFC supported over 30 initiatives in conflict-ridden areas such as Sierra Leone, Zambia, East Timor, India, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Guatemala. All activities are part of a collective effort by individuals to reduce the pervasiveness of violence and suffering in their communities through education.”

In 2005, Peacefund Canada provided financial support for the film Let Them Stay, that featured “one-on-one interviews with U.S. war resisters in Canada, documenting their life-changing experiences in Iraq and the hidden realities of U.S. military recruitment and warfare.” That film also documented the work of the War Resisters Support Campaign.

Now, as noted on the CanadaHelps.org online fundraising page, “The mandate of Peacefund Canada Foundation is to raise money from individual donors for the work of Peace Brigades International-Canada.”

Peace Brigades International is a global movement of activists seeking justice and peace, supporting and standing in solidarity with threatened human rights defenders across the world. PBI’s aim is to protect and support these individuals and organizations; strengthen their physical, digital and political security; and enhance their well-being.

The work of country groups, such as Peace Brigades International-Canada, is fundamental to the protective accompaniment of human rights defenders. PBI-Canada works to raise the visibility of at-risk human rights defenders (through articles, social media), to amplify the voices of human rights defenders (through speaking tours), and helps to recruit volunteers and secure funding for PBI’s field work.

To make an online donation to the Peacefund Canada Foundation, please click here. To donate directly to Peace Brigades International-Canada, click here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Nuevo Dia opposed to logging by a mine on their territory

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 24, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “The communities of Jocotán, Camotán and San Juan Ermita claim the care of the forest that joins its three municipalities. This forest is undergoing immoderated logging by a mine installed in the territory.”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “Yesterday we accompanied more than 20 indigenous authorities, members of Nuevo Dia, following the dialogue table, initiated last month, on this conflict with the presence of the National Dialogue System, the Chiquimula Governorate and the PDH [the Office of the Human Rights Prosecutor/Ombudsperson].”

On December 4, 2019, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Yesterday we visited the peaceful assembly called by Nuevo Dia on the Jupilingo Bridge to demand the immediate interruption of the excessive felling of the Lelá Obraje forest and the implementation of megaprojects that threaten Mother Earth and human rights.”

The Guardian has reported, “Forests mitigate climate change, but Guatemala has lost half its woodlands in the past 40 years – and deforestation rates are rising, in turn causing floods, landslides and erosion of farmland.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained, “CCCND work in the four Ch’orti’ municipalities in the east of the country – Camotán, Jocotán, Olopa and La Unión – in the department of Chiquimula.”

“The work of CCCDN revolves around the defence of the territory and its main concerns and actions focus on the impacts of projects and megaprojects on the environment and local economies.”

“Several of its members have received threats, including death threats, suffered intimidation and attacks due to their work in the communities.”

The Front Line Defenders Global Analysis 2019 report released this month noted, “In Guatemala, members of the Nuevo Dia Chorti Indigenous Association (CCCND) were subjected to numerous attacks, intimidation and attempts to divide the community, when they were portrayed as taking advantage of their leadership roles for personal gain.”

That report adds, “CCCND provides support to Maya Chorti communities whose way of life is at risk due to hydroelectric and mining projects being implemented on their territories.”

The Chʼortiʼ people are one of the indigenous Maya peoples, who primarily reside in communities and towns situated in southeastern Guatemala, northwestern Honduras, and northern El Salvador.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied Nuevo Dia since 2009.

PBI-Colombia accompanied NOMADESC expresses solidarity with Unifor struggle in Saskatchewan

By
Brent Patterson
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On January 20, Unifor posted, “After hundreds of Unifor members from across Canada came out to peacefully support locked out Co-op Refinery workers, the Regina Police chose to escalate the situation with heavy handed and extreme tactics, including the arrest of Unifor National President Jerry Dias and Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle.”

Rank and File explains, “About 730 refinery workers, members of Local 594, have been locked out for the past 49 days for trying to save their current Defined Benefit pension plan. Earlier that day, Dias announced Unifor would blockade the refinery gates, challenging a court injunction which ruled workers could only delay vehicles entering and leaving the refinery by 10 minutes. The union argues this injunction interferes with workers’ constitutional right to picket.”

On January 22, Dias tweeted, “Our fundamental rights as unionized workers are under direct attack in Regina. This fight is everyone’s fight.”

Now, our ally CoDevelopment Canada highlights in this Facebook post this NOMADESC statement: “The Association for Research and Social Action – NOMADESC and Intercultural University of Peoples- IUP manifests its consternation for the illegal arrest of 14 picketers including the President of the private sector union UNIFOR, Jerry Dias.”

Yesterday, Dias stated, “It is now imperative that [Saskatchewan] Premier Scott Moe step in and order the two sides back to the table with a provincial mediator. This dispute could be over today. We have a room booked and are ready to go to the bargaining table.”

For updates from Unifor, please follow their Twitter account.

To learn more about the work of CoDevelopment Canada, please see their website.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied Nomadesc since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999. You can read more about that accompaniment and the work of Nomadesc on the PBI-Colombia website here. A PBI-Colombia video with Berenice talking about PBI accompaniment can be seen here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies human rights defenders who raise their voices about the climate crisis

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project writes in Bulletin No. 42, “The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges that has faced humanity for decades and, having grown in urgency over time, it is now causing much alarm.”

“Despite this urgency, however, so far the necessary measures have not been taken worldwide to stop it and avoid reaching a point of no return.”

“Guatemala is among the countries most affected by this emergency.”

“PBI accompanies various social organizations across various departments, which has allowed us to observe and listen to the different ways in which this crisis is manifesting, as well as communities’ attempts to mitigate its effects.”

“Ubaldino García, a member of the Ch’orti ‘Nuevo Día Central Campesino (CCCND) describes how ‘the last five years have been very complicated for the Ch’orti’ territory because there has been no rain. …Lack of rain has led to the loss of many seeds and native plants in the Ch’orti’ region. We have seen many of the plants and birds that I knew from my adolescence disappear, those are the consequences. If there is no forest, water, or rivers, many species and plants will no longer exist, these are major impacts of climate change.’”

Similar observations are made in the article by Carlos Morales, coordinator of the Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC), Sandra Calel, also a member of UVOC, and Rosa Rosales of the Peaceful Resistance of La Laguna.

The article continues, “The dominant global economic logic and the ‘development’ policies that support it, put economic benefit before the preservation, care and conservation of the environment and natural assets. This attitude further aggravates the impacts of the climate crisis and exposes us to enormous challenges, particularly for communities facing large investment projects, of various kinds, in their territories.”

“Guatemala has not escaped this logic, with examples of megaprojects that have been highly questioned by organizations, affected communities and experts in the field. Some notable cases include the OXEC and Renace hydroelectric plants in the Cahabón and San Pedro Carchá region of Alta Verapaz; the Cantera de los Manantiales antimony mine, INCAMIN S.A, in Olopa, Chiquimula; the mining project El Tambor (currently suspended), in San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc; etc.”

The article then quotes Esteban Rivas from the Council of Communities of Cunén (CCC), Ana Sandoval of the Peaceful Resistance La Puya, Rosa Rosales of the Peaceful Resistance of La Laguna, and Carlos Morales of the Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC) on the impact of mega-projects on rivers, forests and Indigenous rights.

It then adds, “There are many cases of repression against human rights defenders who are confronting these megaprojects, such as Bernardo Caal Xol, the q’eqchi’ leader from the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for defending the Oxec and Cahabón rivers, and the nature that surrounds them, in the face of the proposed construction of the OXEC hydroelectric plants.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC) since 2005, Ch’orti ‘Nuevo Día Central Campesino (CCCND) since 2009, the Council of Communities of Cunén (CCC) since February 2010, the Peaceful Resistance of La Laguna since November 2015, and the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón since July 2017.

Please read the full article at Communities raise their voices about the climate crisis (pages 10-13 of PBI-Guatemala Bulletin No. 42).

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