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PBI-Ireland hosts visit by Mayan Q’eqchi’-xinka feminist Lorena Cabnal

By
Brent Patterson
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The Summer 2019 Advocacy Group Update from Peace Brigades International-Ireland highlights a visit by Mayan Q’eqchi’-xinka feminist Lorena Cabnal.

Cabnal visited Dublin from May 29-31.

Cabnal is with the TZ’KAT Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism from Ixmulew. The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied Cabnal since 2006 and TZ’KAT since 2018.

PBI-Ireland notes, “During her visit to Dublin, Lorena spoke at two public meetings – first at the final   session of our peace education course ‘Making Space for Peace: peacebuilding and human rights defenders’ and at a seminar hosted by the School of Religions at Trinity College Dublin entitled ‘Transforming Violence Against Women in Guatemala: community feminism and ancestral healing   practices’.”

“At the latter, she outlined the forms of patriarchy experienced by indigenous women Guatemala from the historical to present day and outlined an approach to feminism that is more consistent with her   worldview and cosmovision – community feminism.”

“This approach sees recovery of the bodily integrity and territory of indigenous women’s bodies as an integral part of the journey towards emancipation. A great deal of violence, structural and otherwise, has been experienced through the bodies of indigenous women but the body itself can be a vehicle through which liberation becomes possible – energetically, cosmically and politically.”

You can read more about Cabnal’s visit to Ireland here.

What’s the latest news on fracking in Colombia?

By
Brent Patterson
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What do the most recent news articles tell us about the likelihood of the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) proceeding in Colombia?

1- Awaiting State Council ruling

On August 13, BNamericas reported, “Last November, the state council – Colombia’s highest administrative tribunal – suspended all administrative acts related to fracking, arguing that the country lacked the necessary regulatory framework. Ecopetrol says it is awaiting a further decision by the state council on whether to lift the ban for pilot projects.” That decision could come within months.

2- Ecopetrol set to invest millions in pilot projects

On March 5, Reuters reported, “Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA is looking to spend $500 million in exploring unconventional deposits over the next three years, its chief executive said on Tuesday, starting with pilot programs in the Magdalena Medio region.” Unconventional deposits refers to oil and gas that would be extracted by fracking.

3- Industry set for fracking to begin

On July 2, a Petroleum Economist headline read: Colombian fracking edges closer to reality. And on August 2, a Canal TRO headline read: “Multinacionales confían en que el fracking se hará en Colombia” (Multinationals trust that fracking will be done in Colombia).

4- Pipeline ready for fracked crude

On August 21, Reuters reported, “Pipeline company Oleoducto de Colombia is ready to move increased crude output from the center of Colombia to the Caribbean if the use of fracking is approved in the Andean country, the company’s chief executive said on Wednesday.”

5- New legislation coming

And on August 7, Reuters reported, “Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez said on Monday the government would introduce a bill this year meant to improve companies’ coordination with local authorities and next year would propose improvements to the consultation process, all in a bid to head off future community objections [to oil and mining projects].”

Speaking tour

Colombians are concerned about fracking. A poll taken in February found that more than 90% of Colombians are against fracking in Colombia.

This November, representatives from two Colombian human rights groups that are accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project will be speaking in Canada to highlight their concerns about fracking and climate change.

More details on this speaking tour by CCALCP and CREDHOS coming soon!

The UN COP25 climate summit and the need to protect human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Peace Brigades International accompanies human rights defenders who struggle against some of the biggest accelerants of climate breakdown, including fracking, hydroelectric dams, deforestation, palm oil plantations, and mining.

The preamble of the Paris Agreement, agreed to at the United Nations COP21 climate summit in 2015, states, “Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights.”

In October 2017, Katharina Rall from Human Rights Watch wrote, “The frequent attacks and threats against environmental rights defenders throughout the world are an example of why governments need to include protecting rights in their climate policies.”

She highlights, “Unless governments stop the criminalization of defenders, protect those who defend the environment, and respect due process show a larger commitment to human rights, any efforts to protect the climate will easily be blocked.”

But by the time of the COP24 climate summit in Poland in December 2018, Grist reported, “When the Paris Agreement was signed, parties outlined a vision that recognized nations must respect and protect human rights [but] the latest draft of the Paris Rulebook (which outlines what countries need to do to put the accord into action) omits a human rights reference.”

At that time, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, lamenting this development stated, “I’ve seen how renewable projects like wind farms and hydropower electric dams have been done without consultation with indigenous peoples. And in the process, indigenous peoples are expelled or worse yet, killed.”

Now the UN COP25 climate summit is scheduled to take place from December 2-13 in Santiago, Chile.

On March 20 of this year, in the lead-up to that summit, the UN Human Rights Council passed this resolution that “stresses that human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement…”

That resolution, “also urges States to develop and appropriately resource protection initiatives for human rights defenders…”

But earlier this month, the Inter Press Service reported that Chile, the host country for the COP25 climate summit, has yet to sign (or ratify) the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters for Latin America and the Caribbean (also known as the Escazú treaty).

That article explains, “Under the agreement, states commit to ensure a safe environment for defenders to act, take appropriate and effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, and take measures to prevent, investigate and prosecute attacks against environmental defenders.”

More potently, Amnesty International has commented that the agreement “imposes specific obligations to protect environmental human rights defenders from threats or attacks; to investigate and punish any aggressions against them; and to guarantee their rights to life and personal integrity, as well as the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, movement, expression and association.”

Human rights and the Clean Development Mechanism

Furthermore, it has been noted that hydroelectric dam projects have been eligible to receive carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a mechanism reflected in the Kyoto Protocol climate agreement.

The designation of the Barro Blanco Dam on the Tabasará River in Panama as a CDM had lent the controversial project legitimacy. Meanwhile, the dam was being built on the territory of the Indigenous Ngäbe peoples without their consent.

This Reuters article notes that similar problems with dams have been reported in countries including Honduras and Guatemala.

The Center for International Environmental Law has stated that the Barro Blanco project highlights the need for a human rights-based approach in the “sustainable development initiatives” that could replace the Clean Development Mechanism in 2020.

Human rights and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

The United Nations has explained, “The Paris Agreement requests each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as their NDCs.”

Human Rights Watch has noted, “Including human rights considerations in reporting guidelines for ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (i.e. national climate change action plans) could help ensure that government actions on climate change respect, protect and fulfill human rights.”

The next round of NDCs are to be submitted by 2020.

Conclusion

The upcoming United Nations COP25 climate summit in Santiago, Chile this December provides an opportunity for States to build on the language regarding human rights obligations in the Paris Agreement, include human rights in the Paris Rulebook, reinforce language and practices to protect human rights defenders from threats or attacks, and to ensure that all measures adopted to address climate change are situated within a human rights framework.

Further reading

– Colombian human rights defenders to visit Canada to speak on climate change and fracking (August 8, 2019)

– PBI-Mexico accompanies Indigenous Zapotec group opposed to industrial wind power megaprojects on their territory (July 20, 2019)

– PBI-Honduras visits community where mining and solar power are pending issues (August 16, 2019)

– PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala accompany Indigenous communities opposed to dams (August 16, 2019)

– The Global Climate Strike and Colombian human rights defender Hernán Bedoya (August 15, 2019)

– Thunberg’s visit to Mexico could draw attention to the risks faced by human rights defenders (July 29, 2019)

– Human rights defenders play a crucial role in the struggle for climate justice (July 20, 2019)

Photo by Juan Mayorga/Twitter.

PBI-Colombia present with CAHUCOPANA for opening of House of Memory

By
Brent Patterson
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This recently posted article by two Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project volunteers tells the story of the inauguration of a House of Memory in Lejanías (Antioquia) on August 3 by the group CAHUCOPANA.

CAHUCOPANA refers to the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace of the Northeast Antioquia, a group formed by three hundred family farmers in 2004.

The House of Memory commemorates the men, women and children killed in the August 1983 massacre of Altos de Manila y Cañaveral.

CAHUCOPANA has posted, “We remember the 17 victims killed by a group of approximately 30 paramilitaries under Fidel Castaño on August 4 and 12, 1983. We keep the memory alive so that another massacre in Colombia never happens again!”

The photographs in the House of Memory also remind us that the National Army killed 18 peasants in the region between 2004 and 2009.

Along with the House of Memory, there is also a Memory Garden.

Each person who was present at the inauguration of the House of Memory planted a tree in the Memory Garden in commemoration of those killed in the massacre.

To read more, please see MEMORIA Y RESISTENCIA EN EL NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑO by PBI-Colombia volunteers Diego Lantero (from Spain) and Jessica García (from Argentina).

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CAHUCOPANA since 2013.

Further reading

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA family farmers in reparations process (August 15, 2019)

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA in area with Canadian gold mines (August 8, 2019)

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Indigenous CCDA Verapaz land defenders at court hearings

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “Today we accompanied Marcelino Xol Cucul and Jorge Coc of the CCDA Verapaz in audience [at a court hearing]. We continue to express our concern for the safety of the two partners and their families and the development of due process in this case.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained, “The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) is a peasant organization that accompanies and advises communities, mostly indigenous, that fight for access to land and ownership to create dignified living conditions in the face of eviction and dispossession of their lands where these communities have lived for many generations.”

On June 6 of this year, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Indigenous leaders and leaders continue to be criminalized in Alta Verapaz. We reaffirm that defending rights is not a crime. We witnessed the hearings of Marcelino and Jorge.”

Then it posted, “On June 14 we accompanied Marcelino and Jorge in an audience in the court of Cobán. Before starting the hearing, the two were allegedly threatened by members of the Cooperativa Chilté which is located near the community of Choctun Basilá where Marcelino and Jorge are originally from.”

That post adds, “There is a struggle of more than 10 years between the two communities. We express our concern for the safety of the two companions and their relatives.”

Prensa Comunitaria has reported that the Chilté Cooperative was “formed by a group of businessmen from the region through paramilitaries.”

In June 2017, the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras) noted that members of the Chilté Cooperative had intimidated members of the CCDA over disputed land in the community of Choctún in Nuevo Centro.

Between May 9, 2018 and June 8, 2018, five members of the CCDA and two members of CODECA (the Campesino Development Committee) were killed.

After those deaths, NACLA reported, “CCDA and CODECA, represent the two campesino-Indigenous organizations that have most actively supported community struggles and most consistently challenged successive governments.”

It also noted, “Both groups have worked tirelessly … presenting legal injunctions against extractive projects, organizing regular highway blockades, supporting land occupations, and demanding the resignation of presidents in the wake of corruption scandals…”

PBI-Guatemala began accompanying the CCDA in July 2018.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Comité Cerezo at release of report on human rights violations

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 21, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted on their Facebook page, “Yesterday we had the honour of accompanying the presentation of the report Defend Human Rights in Mexico: The End of Impunity?”

PBI-Mexico adds, “Each year, the Comité Cerezo together with the Urgent Action for Human Rights Defenders (ACUDDEH) make an annual report on the situation of human rights defenders in Mexico. We applaud this research and analysis.”

PBI-Mexico highlights in their post, “The figures presented remain alarming: from June 2018 to May 2019, the report indicates the record of 38 extrajudicial killings, 348 arbitrary detentions, and 105 human rights violations.”

La Jornada reports, “The report, prepared by the Comité Cerezo, documents the cases of attacks against human rights defenders, civil and social organizations and groups during the last semester of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto and the first of the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

That article notes, “Brothers Alejandro and Francisco Cerezo detailed the content of the report: during the last semester of the Peña Nieto government, 64 events were presented that added 822 acts of violation, Veracruz being the entity with the highest number (682), while In the first six months of López Obrador there were 44 acts, with 331 violations, and Guerrero is the state with the most aggressions.”

La Jornada also reported that Jan Jarab, the representative in Mexico of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, participated in the presentation of the report. (You can read more about him in this PBI-Mexico post.)

The article highlighted, “Jarab stressed the need for the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to investigate and resolve not only the cases of serious violations of the human rights of the activists, but all the aggressions, however minimal, as increasingly there is an escalation of violence against this sector.”

Proceso adds, “The document, supervised by the Cerezo Committee, highlights that in terms of extrajudicial executions the tendency is practically the same during the last six months of the Peña Nieto government and the first six months of López Obrador, with 20 and 18 cases, respectively.”

That article notes concerns about violations against “labour human rights defenders”. It also notes “the population of indigenous origin and the defenders of the territory being the main victims” of extrajudicial executions.

It also notes that “in the first months of AMLO half of the perpetrators [of extrajudicial executions] could be identified as members of paramilitary groups.”

And this Pie de Página article quotes Alejandro Cerezo who says, “If the defenders and journalists do not organize themselves, they do not jointly demand from the federal government and the legislature concrete measures to create a public policy that benefits both populations, everything we ask will be unreal and the government will not take us into account. And remember that those who enter this work must demand full compliance with international standards in terms of protection.”

The full 137-page report can be read here.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Comité Cerezo since 2002.

Further reading: PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico meet with Comite Cerezo and PBI-Canada’s Paul Bocking reports on his field visit to Mexico.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Asociación Arcoiris trans rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 19, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project highlighted in their monthly newsletter, “At the beginning of July, we received the news of the murder of the trans rights defender Bessy Ferrera, who worked with Asociación Arcoiris [Rainbow Association], accompanied by PBI-Honduras.”

Washington Blade reports, “Bessy Ferrera, the sister of Rihanna Ferrera, a trans woman who ran for the country’s Congress in 2017, was killed in Tegucigalpa. The Blade on [July 8] saw a picture of Bessy Ferrera’s body slumped over on a set of stairs.”

Asociación Arcoiris commented, “This news has undoubtedly taken us by surprise. It leaves us with a lump in our throat and a feeling of powerlessness to see how we are being killed cruelly and the authorities of this country are doing nothing.”

From June 2015 to March 2016, six members of Arcoíris were killed. PBI-Honduras has noted that Arcoíris activists have survived assassination attempts, while many others have faced intimidation, harassment and physical attacks.

Front Line Defenders has reported, “Threats and assassination attempts against the members of Arcoiris have not been taken seriously by the authorities in the past, sending a message of impunity to perpetrators.”

Arcoíris coordinator Donny Reyes says, “The biggest problem that we face is the violence of the state security forces towards the LGBT+ community: the armed forces, the police, the criminal investigation police, military police, municipal police.”

Washington Blade adds, “Activists in the Central American country with whom the Blade has spoken in recent years say members of Honduras’ National Police and the Honduran military among those who target trans women.”

It then highlights, “Violence, along with discrimination and poverty, has prompted many trans Hondurans to migrate to the U.S. and Mexico over the last two years.”

That article – Journalist among three Honduran transgender women killed in recent days – reports that “La Galaxia de Santi” journalist Santi Carvajal was killed on July 6 and Antonia Laínez was killed on July 3.

PBI-Honduras notes, “At the end of this month, Arcoiris and other LGBTIQ+ organizations will participate in a pride march in the city of San Pedro Sula, claiming the rights of this community and in commemoration of Bessy Ferrera and other murdered human rights defenders.”

Further reading: Peace Brigades International and the human right to sexual orientation and gender identity

Land defender Rita Wong sentenced to 28 days in a Canadian jail

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, land defender and water protector Rita Wong was sentenced to 28 days in jail by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge.

Wong was arrested by the RCMP last year for peacefully blocking the gated entrance to a work site in Burnaby, British Columbia for the 890,000 barrel per day Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.

After her sentencing she commented in this statement, “I acted with respect for the rule of law which includes the rule of natural law and the rule of Indigenous law and the rule of international law.”

She then highlighted, “Under the rule of law: I have a responsibility to my ancestors and the ancestors of this land to protect the lands and waters that give us life with each breath, each bite of food, each sip of water.”

The pipeline would cross the territories of numerous Indigenous nations in this country without their free, prior and informed consent.

Notably, Indigenous land defender and water protector Kanahus Manuel has highlighted that 518 kilometres of the 1,150-kilometre-long pipeline would cross the unceded territory of the Secwepemc Nation without its consent.

That pipeline, approved and now owned by the Canadian government, would also produce an estimated 86 million tonnes of carbon pollution a year for 50+ years.

Before she was arrested, Wong had stated, “The expansion of this pipeline would pose an increased risk to Indigenous women through displacement and man-camps, as well as everybody on Earth, through further climate destabilization.”

She encouraged, “More people to make the connections between violence against the land and violence against Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.”

For more on that connection in a Latin American context, please see PBI-Guatemala accompanies TZ’KAT who seek an end to violence against the land and women.

The Secwepemcu’ecw Assembly has explained, “Man camps are temporary housing facilities constructed for predominantly male workers on resource development projects in the oil, pipeline, mining, hydroelectric, and forestry industries. Reports show a direct correlation between these encampments and violence against women.”

Following her sentencing, Wong stated, “The morning of my arrest we hung red dresses to honour the murdered and missing Indigenous women, the sisters who are made more vulnerable and victimized by the man camps that accompany pipeline expansion and massive resource extraction.”

You can send her a note at: Rita Wong, Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, PO Box 1000, Maple Ridge, British Columbia V2X 7G4, Canada. Please keep in mind that all mail is opened, so you are advised not to add items or stickers.

PBI-Canada is part of Peace Brigades International, a global organization that accompanies human rights defenders around the world. PBI-Guatemala regularly visits Mayan Q’eqchi’ land and water defender Bernardo Caal Xol who is serving 7 years in prison for his opposition to the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Cahabón River.

 

PBI and the Innu’s historic opposition to the SM-3 hydroelectric dam in Nitassinan

By
Brent Patterson
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In an April 1993 PBI-Canada newsletter, Steve Molnar wrote, “Rivers play an important role in the Innu lifestyle by providing salmon, a staple of the Innu diet. Hydro-Quebec, a government owned corporation of the province, has already built 19 dams in Nitassinan and plans to build one more on the Sainte-Marguerite River.”

Nitassinan (which means “our land”) refers to the ancestral homeland of the Innu, an Indigenous people of eastern Quebec and Labrador.

Molnar highlights, “The $2 billion Sainte-Marguerite III project would divert two tributaries of the Moise River and drastically reduce the flow at the confluence of the Moise, Ste Marguerite and St. Lawrence Rivers, greatly impacting the annual salmon run.”

That article notes that 80 per cent of the 1,000 people in each of the communities of Uashat and Maliotenam were opposed to the hydroelectric project.

It then explains, “In October 1992, the community of Maliotenam voted to separate from the Uashat reserve and form its own band. A group called the Coalition for Nitassinan, based in Maliotenam, favors a more traditional form of government and opposes the dam.”

But, as the article also notes, the elected tribal leader Elie-Jacques Jourdain opposed the separation of the two communities and supported continuing negotiations with Hydro Quebec for $800 million in compensation in exchange for Innu land titles that were blocking the construction of the dam.

On December 7, 1992, the Coalition for Nitassinan asked Peace Brigades International to provide observers for a barricade it was setting up in Maliotenam. It also asked PBI to escort Coalition spokesperson Gilbert Pilot when he spoke at the United Nations in New York and upon his return to the community of Maliotenam.

The article notes, “Shots fired at Pilot’s house a few weeks earlier caused some concern that he might be in some danger on his return to the reserve.”

Two PBI volunteers maintained a 24 hour a day presence at the barricade that was set up between December 12 and December 16, 1992.

Almost 27 years later, what’s the status of this situation?

In April 1994, Hydro-Quebec reached an agreement with Uashat-Maliotenam to pay them $66 million over a 50-year period.

In July 1994, The Nation reported, “The Innu of Mani-Utenam split down the middle in [a referendum on the Sainte-Marguerite dam], with 53 per cent voting in favour of the agreement and 47 per cent against. …Members of Uashat voted 70 per cent in favour of the agreement, while Maliotenam was two-thirds against.”

This article adds, “The two communities held a referendum in Oct. 1992 to split into two separate bands. Maliotenam voted 56 per cent in favour of this idea, but the Band Council refused to implement the proposal. For this reason, many Innu in Maliotenam say the vote on the SM-3 agreement is invalid.”

The Sainte-Marguerite 3 hydroelectric project (SM-3), which includes the Denis-Perron dam, was built and began producing power in 2007.

In May 2018, CBC reported, “Hydro-Québec wishes to install a third turbine generator group at Centrale Sainte-Marguerite 3 (SM-3), north of Sept-Îles. Negotiations are underway with the Innu Council of Uashat-Maliotenam to offer financial compensation.”

This history also brings to mind the Lower Churchill Project that involves two large hydroelectric dams on the Grand River, including a dam at Muskrat Falls.

The Independent has reported, “Muskrat Falls resides on the traditional Innu lands of Nitassinan. The Inuit of Southern Labrador also claim the land around Muskrat Falls as their traditional territory.”

On August 8, APTN reported, “The Nunatsiavut Government says the reservoir flooding now underway at the Muskrat Falls hydro project in Labrador leaves Inuit vulnerable to physical and cultural harm associated with anticipated increases in methylmercury contamination of fish, seal and other traditional foods.”

And what of Gilbert Pilot who led the opposition to the SM-3 project?

In August 2019, CBC reported, “The [68-year-old] activist’s soul still vibrates. …Even [after suffering a stroke], the man carries with him an anger that has not diminished with the years. The use of humor also remains stable over time. A way, shared by many Innu, to take a sniff of the bad surprises that life reserves.”

He also recently co-authored this book that calls for negotiations between Canada, Quebec and Innu peoples for Innu self-government.

For more on our current work, please see PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala accompany Indigenous communities opposed to dams.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Campesina Association at third annual festival

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 20, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted, “This weekend [on Saturday August 17] we accompanied @ACVCRAN in the Third Festival of Peasant Culture and Dignity in Cañabraval Bajo.”

In their Facebook post, PBI-Colombia adds, “Around the music, dance and exchange of products, peasants from the different hamlets of Sur de Bolívar and Magdalena Medio were found to celebrate the peasant cultural heritage and claim the recognition of the Colombian peasantry as a political subject.”

ACVC-RAN refers to the Campesina Association of the Cimitarra River Valley – National Agroecological Network.

PBI-Colombia has previously noted, “PBI accompanies the ACVC who focus their work on the Campesino Reserve Zones (ZRC) and sustainable development, the development of agricultural projects in areas of education and health”

It has also explained, “The Campesino Reserve Zones are an example of community-driven resistance, installed through Law 160 of 1994.”

“The objective of these territories is to provide land for the peasant population to develop their own economic models that promote food security and sustainable agriculture, challenging the economic model based on the extraction of natural resources and large-scale land exploitation. through agribusiness.”

“The National Land Agency (ANT) is the entity in charge of authorizing the ZRCs, which once installed contemplate strong protection measures for the territory, preventing property titles from being granted for mining activities or private property.”

In that January 2018 article, PBI-Colombia also highlighted, “ZRCs tend to be created in areas that have been particularly affected by the armed conflict, which often implies that the population that inhabits the ZRCs are victims.”

“For example, 16 extrajudicial executions have been committed in the ZRC of the Cimitarra River Valley and the majority of the population is a victim of forced displacement.”

The Cimitarra River Valley reserve was established in December 2002, suspended in April 2003 and reactivated in February 2011.

At last year’s Festival for Culture and Peasant Dignity, International Action for Peace noted, “There was talk about the problem of fracking and the threat of this activity in the Serranía de San Lucas and the wetlands of the Magdalena Medio.”

PBI-Colombia has noted, “The hydrocarbon industry has played a fundamental role in the economic activity of the [Cimitarra River Valley] region, generating approximately 70% of the total economic value produced there.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the ACVC since 2007 and has since expanded its accompaniment emphasizing political advocacy to raise awareness about the problems faces by the organization and the region in which they carry out their work.

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