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PBI-Guatemala accompanies UVOC at assembly

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied the Verapacense Union of Peasant Organizations (la Unión Verapacense de Organizaciones Campesinas – UVOC) at an assembly it held last week.

UVOC is an indigenous and peasant organization dedicated to the defence and promotion of access to land in the context of historical dispossession and ongoing inequality in Guatemala. UVOC represents Q’eqchi ‘, Poqomchi’, Achi and Mestizas peoples.

About 40 per cent of the population of Guatemala is indigenous.

Indigenous and peasant farmers were dispossessed of their land in the 18th century through Spanish colonization which drove Indigenous and peasant farmers to the less fertile highlands.

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.

Following the 1960-1996 war between the government and various leftist rebel groups that saw 200,000 people killed and another 43,000 forcibly disappeared, 80 per cent of whom were indigenous, there are now at least 1,000 land conflicts happening in Guatemala.

These land conflicts are related to concessions given to foreign companies for mining, sugar cane and palm oil farms, and hydroelectric dams, all of which deepen dispossession, exclusion and poverty among the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala notes that the security situation for UVOC members is worrisome in communities such as La Primavera (in the municipality of San Cristóbal Verapaz) and Nueva Seamay (in the municipality of Senahú), both of which are situated in the department of Alta Verapaz.

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has provided protective accompaniment to UVOC since 2005.

The struggle for human rights is indivisible from the fight for workers rights

By
admin
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Activists and trade unionists who advocate for workers’ rights are by definition human rights defenders, and in many countries around the world that means they face immense risks.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association Maina Kiai has defined any person or organization defending labour rights as a human rights defender, as articulated in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

That Declaration defines a human rights defender as “individuals, groups and associations contributing to the effective elimination of all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples and individuals.”

Peace Brigades International (PBI), a global organization that works to protect human rights defenders at risk of harm and death, recognizes and affirms the critical role played by the labour movement in the advancement of human rights. 

Trade unionists killed and at-risk

PBI mourns the fact that 2,863 trade unionists and union members were killed in numerous countries around the world between 1986 and 2011.

The numbers are particularly grim in the countries where PBI has staff and volunteers accompany human rights defenders who advocate for fundamental rights.

In Colombia, 19 trade unionists were killed in 2017. In Honduras, 31 trade unionists were killed between 2009 and 2015. In 2016 alone, 20 trade union activists were killed or threatened for working to improve the lives of Honduran workers.

In 2013, the International Trade Union Confederation named Guatemala as the “most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist.” Between 2004 and 2017, 87 labour leaders were murdered in that country.

In Mexico, union activists work in a context of where their country is the second most dangerous place in the world to be a human rights defender. Of the 321 human rights defenders killed around the world in 2018, 48 of them lived in Mexico.

Colombia

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanies Asociación Nomadesc and its leader Berenice Celeita. She and members of the SintraEmcali union were targeted in 2004 in an assassination plot for their opposition to the privatization of Emcali, a state-owned company providing water, telecommunications, and electricity services in the city of Cali.

In an interview Celeita did with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) last year, she said, “It’s very important to keep sending labour delegations to Colombia to visit us and see with your own eyes what is happening. I am convinced that I am alive today because of the actions of solidarity.”

PBI-Colombia has also accompanied the Foundation Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (FCSPP) since 1998. The FCSPP was formed by several trade unions, social movement groups, and well-known Colombians in the context of the widespread persecution of political opposition, including union, social movement, and student leaders.

Mexico

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization. That group advocates for improved working conditions for miners and the recovery of the bodies of 63 miners still buried at inside a coal mine years after the preventable disaster that claimed their lives. The Mexican government has now promised to repatriate those bodies, but the timeline for that is unclear.

PBI-Mexico also works closely with the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC) and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), two groups that are part of the Focal Group on Business and Human Rights.

The Focal Group works to ensure that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are respected.

Those Guiding Principles state, “The responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights refers to internationally recognized human rights [including the] fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.”

Guatemala

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied workers with the SITRALU (the Lunafil Thread Factory Workers Union) in the late 1980s. The workers at that factory located just outside of Guatemala City were told that they would have to work additional twelve-hour weekend shifts without overtime pay. During the strike that ensued, PBI-Guatemala provided protective accompaniment to the workers 24 hours a day from June 1987 until July 1988 when the strike was settled in favour of the union.

PBI-Guatemala has also previously accompanied an agriculture workers union (Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos). This past May Day, PBI-Guatemala highlighted a report by Codeca (the Campesino Development Committee) that found that 90 per cent of agricultural workers in Guatemala earn a monthly salary below what the minimum wage should provide.

Indonesia

After the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998, a wave of strikes took place in Indonesia, intensifying between 2011 and 2013, that pushed the government to implement a series of increases in the minimum wage as well as to improve health care provisions for workers.

But that success has led to a backlash from the state and capital including a certification scheme that declares certain economic units “national vital objects”, thus prohibiting industrial actions, and new regulations that push back on minimum wage increases.

The Peace Brigades International-Indonesia Project has collaborated with labour in the Jakarta area through a program in which human rights defenders participate in internships with local organizations, including unions.

One intern researched the situation of dock workers in Jayapura, while another did a research project on the right to organize for factory workers in Manokwari.

Peace Brigades International stands with the labour movement in the collective international human rights struggle for decent work, dignity, and respect for all workers.

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada, a political activist, and a writer.

Image: Peace Brigades International

Defenders in the Field

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admin
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Eighty-four Peace Brigades International volunteers provided protection to human rights defenders in the field in 2018. To read more https://www.peacebrigades.org/en/publications/annual-reviews To donate to PBI-Canada to help us find volunteers for our field projects https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/id/45114/

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=878081665874599
<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=878081665874599&set=a.5369033633257 66&type=3&theater> &set=a.536903363325766&type=3&theater

Cinema Massimo

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admin
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Brent Patterson, June 2, 2019

It is great to see that our colleagues at PBI Italia onlus have partnered with Amnesty International – Italia to screen the film “Protección Comunitaria: Experiencias desde la defensa del territorio” on June 5 at Cinema Massimo as part of the Cinemambiente Torino film festival!

If you are in the Turin area on June 5th (World Environment Day), please attend this film screening and discussion that will include Marco Sarasin of Peace Brigades International-Italy!

Pressenza Italia reports (in Italian), “Never has defending the forest, the mountains, the forests and the rivers been so dangerous.”

It then highlights, “The victims are the native populations who demand the protection of their ancestral lands and their resources; they are peasant communities that risk expropriation, impoverishment and pollution due to infrastructure projects or exploitation in the hydroelectric and mining sector, communities that struggle to survive in areas where the land is in the hands of landowners or agro-industry.”

That article also notes, “In their defense activities they clash with major economic interests, in conflicts that often lead to violence and serious violations of human rights.

The film was produced by Serapaz México, an independent civil society organization that “provides services for peace, justice and dignity through the strengthening of social actors through the accompaniment and articulation of local processes and initiatives in conflict.”

For those who won’t be in Turin for this event, the 19-minute film is available (in Spanish) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99c8XbDk6S8

The Pressenza article can be read in full (in Italian) at https://www.pressenza.com/…/difendiamo-chi-difende-i-dirit…/ And there’s more (in Italian) on the Cinemambiente Festival at https://cinemambiente.it/edizione-corrente/

PBI Italia onlus doing this is inspiring Peace Brigades International-Canada to organize film screenings and discussions in this country!

Peace Brigades International – Mexico Project
Peace Brigades International – PBI

Murray Thomson’s lasting legacy

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admin
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Murray Thomson, who passed away on May 2, co-founded a human rights group that has observed violations of Indigenous rights in Canada and protects human rights defenders around the world. Read more here.

 

Murray Thomson’s lasting legacy

By
Brent Patterson
-

Murray Thomson, who passed away on May 2, co-founded a human rights group that has observed violations of Indigenous rights in Canada and protects human rights defenders around the world.

Murray Thomson, who co-founded Peace Brigades International (PBI) in September 1981, passed away at 96 years of age on May 2 in Ottawa, Canada.

The founding statement for PBI that Thomson helped draft almost 40 years ago said, “We are forming an organisation with the capacity to mobilise and provide trained volunteers in areas of high tension, to avert violent outbreaks.”

There was no way for Thomson and the 10 other people who gathered on Grindstone Island — situated about 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa — from August 13 to September 4, 1981 that the seed they planted with their vision would grow into a global organization.

PBI currently supports the work of human rights defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nepal, Indonesia and Kenya.

Fathi Zabaar, the New York City-based Tunisian human rights activist who chairs PBI’s International Council says, “In 2017, PBI’s community of activists provided effective protection and support to more than one thousand women, men and LGBTI defenders, despite the challenging context and huge risk those working to change the world continued to face.”

PBI also has country group offices in numerous countries that support and amplify this work, including Peace Brigades International-Canada based in Ottawa. The International Office for PBI is located in Brussels.

Along with Thomson, there were two other people from Canada at that meeting: Henry Wiseman and Hans Sinn. Wiseman passed away at 93 years of age of in Guelph, Ontario in January 2017. Sinn remains active and still lives in the Ottawa Valley.

In April 2015, Sinn told Ottawa Magazine about the founding of PBI in 1981. “Our first project was in Guatemala. The mothers of the disappeared appealed to us for an international presence. By looking for their children, who had been made to disappear, they came under threat too,” Sinn said. 

Sinn added, “They needed a link to the outside world — for protection and for international pressure to help improve the situation — and we provided that.”

When asked about “PBI spin-offs”, Sinn said, “The Guatemala Stove Project is a big thing for people in Perth. It helps people build stoves, which replace open wood fires that are health hazards, in particular for women, who traditionally cook.”

And while PBI’s largest presence is now in Latin America, the organization has monitored human rights violations on Turtle Island throughout the 1990s.

PBI’s North America Project was established following the July-September 1990 armed confrontation (known as the Oka Crisis) between Mohawk of Kanesatake land defenders who opposed the expansion of a golf course onto Indigenous burial grounds and the Quebec police and Canadian army.

The North America Project, which lasted between 1992 and 1999, visited various frontlines, including Nitassinan in December 1992, to highlight the destructive impact of Hydro Quebec’s dams on the Innu people; Ipperwash in September 1995, following the Ontario Provincial Police shooting of Indigenous land defender Dudley George; Barriere Lake in April 1996, where the traditional, customary government was being defended against the imposition of Indian Act band council elections by the federal government; and Esgenoopetitj in 1999, where the Mi’kmaq challenged federal rules on their right to fish in Burnt Church, New Brunswick.

Thomson’s contributions to human rights and peace extend far beyond the formation of Peace Brigades International.

He helped found the Quaker Peace Education Centre-Grindstone Island in 1963, which worked to address the question: “How can we, who advocate nonviolence, actually practise it in hostile, threatening situations?” and Project Ploughshares in 1976, which was based around the observation that newly independent countries were spending vast amounts of borrowed money to build up military institutions rather than on the public interest and social needs.

Thomson also helped found the Group of 78 in 1981 to promote peace and disarmament, equitable and sustainable development, and a revitalized United Nations system, and Peacefund Canada in 1985 as a campaign aimed at allowing conscientious objectors to have their tax payments spent only for non-military purposes.

Thomson helped found Canadian Friends of Burma in 1991 to support the pro-democracy movement in the struggle for peace, democracy, human rights and equality and Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention in 2008, a group which seeks a verifiable treaty on the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

Thomson made an extraordinary contribution to peace, justice and human rights during his lifetime and his example inspires many of us to continue that work.

Photo: Murray Thomson, who co-founded Peace Brigades International in 1981, took part in the ‘Say No to NATO’ protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa on March 30, 2019. Thomson passed away on May 2, 2019.

Originally published by Brent Patterson on rabble.ca (May 6, 2019).

Indigenous Maya land and water defenders Nuevo Dia resist mining in eastern Guatemala

By
Brent Patterson
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A remarkable story of resistance is unfolding in eastern Guatemala.

Nuevo Dia (the New Day Central Indigenous Campesino Ch’orti’ organization) is opposed to the Industria de Canteras y Minas (Incamin) SA-owned Cantera Los Manantiales antimony mine on the territory of the Indigenous Maya Ch’orti’ people.

For over 40 days, Maya Ch’orti’ land and water defenders have maintained a presence through a “permanent assembly” at the entrances to the mine.

On March 21, Nuevo Dia posted (in Spanish) on Facebook, “The permanent assembly has been installed, until the Authorities of the State of Guatemala, represented in our municipality by the Municipal Mayor and his Corporation, carry out the technical and legal closure of the Company Cantera Los Manantiales.”

Why are they there?

Nuevo Dia explains that their opposition is “due to the ecological, economic and health disasters suffered by the inhabitants of this municipality, and the illegalities with which the company operates.”

And RIO Medios Independientes has posted (in Spanish) on Facebook, “they accuse the mining project of causing damage to health and the impact on water sources and the biodiversity of the region. The direct concern is about the pollution of the Jupilingo River, as well as the appearance of skin diseases of children and elderly people.”

The Belizean newspaper Amandala reported that locals opposed to the mine also say that it is polluting the Zacapa River and affecting their crops and cattle.

With respect to the permanent assembly, Prensa Comunitaria reports (in Spanish), “Every day, eleven communities in resistance take turns to stay day and night in the camp ‘La Presa’. Carmelita Pérez, an Indigenous Ch’orti’ authority from the community of Amatillo, says, ‘No, we will not leave until that mine is gone.'”

On March 27, the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council posted (in Spanish), “Odilio Guzmán Salazar, owner of the company Cantera Los Manantiales, together with armed men assaulted and intimidated with airshots the people who maintain the peaceful resistance of the Ch’orti ‘community in La Prensa, Olopa, Chiquimula.”

That post adds, “We call on human rights organizations to make a presence in the place and thus make the corresponding complaints. To the National Civil Police, to make a permanent presence in the place and act with equanimity and justice.”

And on April 4, Nuevo Dia posted (in Spanish), “Officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the community of La Prensa, Olopa, Chiquimula to meet with the Maya Ch’orti’ indigenous authorities.”

That post highlights, “The Indigenous councils exposed the constant threats, intimidation and aggressions against those who remain in the peaceful resistance against the Cantera Los Manantiales Mining Company. In addition, the serious violations of human rights against the Ch’orti’ people, such as their right to consultation, health and water.”

The resistance has also experienced a fatality.

Elizandro Perez, a leader of the resistance against the mine and the head of the Indigenous Maya Ch’orti’ Council (a member group in Nuevo Dia) was found dead in November 2018.

The Irish human rights group Front Line Defenders has noted, “According to witnesses, he was followed by armed people who circled around his house moments before his death. The human rights defender also received phone calls and messages threatening his life.”

Earlier this month, Prensa Comunitaria reported (in Spanish), “Five months have passed since this possible murder was reported but justice has not advanced.”

On April 17, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted (in Spanish), “Yesterday we were in the two plants formed by communities in resistance against the Cantera los Manantiales de Olopa mine. We remain concerned about the threats they receive for defending the Ch’orti’ territory.”

PBI-Guatemala Project has been providing protective accompaniment to Nuevo Dia since 2009.

There are regular updates about this struggle and the permanent assembly that are posted in Spanish on the Nuevo Dia Facebook page that can be found here.

CREDHOS opposes fracking, seeks to protect freshwater

By
Brent Patterson
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The community-based Corporación Regional de Derechos Humanos (the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights or CREDHOS) works on a variety of public interest concerns in Colombia, including environmental issues such as opposition to fracking and stopping the pollution of freshwater.

The organization is based in Barrancabermeja, which is known as the oil capital of Colombia.

In 2017, Colombia produced on average more than 850,000 barrels of oil per day. The country has four refineries for domestic and export markets. The largest refinery — with the capacity to refine about 250,000 barrels of oil per day — is in Barrancabermeja.

Notably, CREDHOS has been supporting the case of Dr. Yesid Blanco.

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre notes that, “Dr. Blanco is a recognized environmentalist and founder of the Yariguíes Regional Corporation and the Magdalena Medio Extractive and Environmental Studies Group-GEAM in the city of Barrancabermeja.”

It adds, “The ecologist and environmental activist and doctor has made important contributions to the study of the impacts on the health of children in Barrancabermeja [and] has denounced cases of corruption behind the management of water in Barrancabermeja.”

It also notes, “[Dr. Blanco] has made a strong opposition to extractive projects such as fracking that are intended to be established in the Magdalena Medio blocks.”

Magdalena Medio is an extensive valley in central Colombia formed in part by the Magdalena River. Part of the valley is situated in Santander, the department (province) in which the city of Barrancabermeja is located.

This past February, Colombia Reports noted, “There are, in fact, two fracking exploration projects already underway in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia.”

And just last month Reuters reported that Mines and Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez had stated that fracking could triple the country’s reserves of crude oil and gas.

Numbers vary, but Greenpeace has noted it can take two to 10 million gallons of water every time a well is fracked. And the Watershed Sentinel adds, “The disposal of wastewater, which contains widely differing amounts of salts, radioactive traces, minerals, and assorted mostly toxic chemicals is also difficult, requiring either disposal or treatment and re-use.”

CREDHOS is also a member of the Alianza Colombia libre de Fracking (the Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking).

That alliance has highlighted, as noted by War on Want, that fracking is “in violation of Colombian constitutional principles that guarantee citizens the right to life, the right to water, and the right to a healthy environment.”

The Corporación Colectivo de Abogados Luis Carlos Pérez (the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyer’s Collective or CCALCP) is also a member of the alliance.

CCALCP has challenged a proposed fracking project in San Martin, a municipality in the department of Southern Cesar (situated just north of Santander), led by ConocoPhillips and CNE Oil & Gas, the Bogota-based subsidiary of Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd.

Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has provided protective accompaniment to CREDHOS since 1994 and CCALCP since 2006.

CCALCP helped stop Toronto-based Brookfield Asset hydroelectric project in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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The Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP), an organization of eight women lawyers based in Bucaramanga and Cúcuta in northern Colombia, works on crucial public interest issues, notably the defence of territory.

In 2016, CCALCP filed a challenge against Isagen’s Piedra del Sol hydroelectric project.

The October 2017 report Defending the Land and Environment Where Extractive Companies are Engaged notes, “[Brookfield Asset Management] has been present in Colombia since 2011 [and] consolidated its activity in 2016 when it became the majority owner (57.6%) of the company Isagen through the largest privatization in the history of Colombia.”

The report also notes: “Isagen operates at least 14 projects in Colombia: seven power generation plants, six hydroelectric plants and one thermal energy plant in five departments around the country. It is also developing five hydroelectric projects in the departments of Antioquia and Santander…”

“‘Piedra del Sol’ is a hydroelectric project using the run-of-the-river technique on the Fonce River in the Pinchote, San Gil, Socorro and Cabrera areas of Santander department where the company failed to guarantee the effective participation of the population with respect to the environmental impact of the project.”

“CCALCP filed a motion for protection in 2016 with the Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA – National Authority for Environmental Licences).”

“This motion led to a ruling from the Administrative Court of Santander protecting the rights of the communities affected by the project and helping pave the way for citizens’ participation in environmental decisions prior to the granting of environmental permits, meaning that citizens would have access to technical details.”

Renewable Energy World explains, “ANLA issued its refusal in September 2016, and Isagen and HMV filed an appeal in December 2016.”

W Radio further explains, “Isagen and HMV Ingenieros Ltda … filed a petition for restitution, after challenging the technical considerations made by the authority to the Environmental Impact Study and the process of socialization and citizen participation.”

On April 20, 2018, Renewable Energy World reported, “ANLA has upheld its decision to reject the permit request for the 152-MW Piedra del Sol hydro project in Colombia, citing deficiencies in information related to the project’s impact on water supply and fragile ecosystems in northern Santander department, among other factors.”

Photo from UNO news report, March 30, 2018.

CCALCP opposed Vancouver-based Eco Oro mining in Colombia’s Santurbán wetland

By
Brent Patterson
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Vancouver-based mining company Eco Oro Minerals Corp. has long pursued its Angostura gold and silver mine project located in Santander Department (province) in Colombia.

The mine would have been situated in the Santurbán Páramo, a high-altitude wetland ecosystem that serves as a vital source of drinking water for approximately two million people in the city of Bucaramanga and surrounding areas.

It’s helpful to review a timeline of the controversial project.

The history of it goes back to 1994 when Eco Oro (then called Greystar Resources) began their exploration in the area.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) notes, “Eco Oro’s initial interest in the Angostura mine project came in the midst of then-president Alvaro Uribe’s decision to grant foreign companies limited exploratory mining permits.”

CIEL has also noted, “These permits allow for exploration but not extraction unless environmental permits are granted.”

It highlights, “Colombian law prohibits mining within páramo limits [but] many companies have attempted to exploit this ambiguous language to carry out harmful mining projects.”

Mongabay reports, “[Eco Oro’s] Environmental Impact Assessment was denied by the Colombian government in 2009 and again in 2011. Eco Oro changed its approach from an open-pit mine to a proposed underground mine.”

CIEL adds, “Since 2010, the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Santurbán Páramo, a diverse civic coalition composed of 40 groups, has opposed the mining project.”

The Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP), which receives protective accompaniment from Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project, is one of those groups that has worked with this committee in defence of the moor.

In 2012, the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Santurbán Páramo made a complaint about the project to the compliance advisor ombudsman, a recourse mechanism for projects financed by the International Finance Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank.

That complaint was made in partnership with CIEL, MiningWatch Canada and the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA).

In January 2013, in a clear setback for the mine, Colombia’s Ministry of Environment declared the Santurbán páramo a Regional Natural Park.

Then in February 2016, Colombia’s constitutional court ruled that mining in the páramos was illegal.

The Bogota Post reports, “Previously, companies had been operating under a loophole that exempted mining licenses issued before February 2010. The court deemed these exceptions ‘unconstitutional’ and cited the ecological importance of the páramos, including their role in providing 85 per cent of the country’s drinking water.”

The constitutional court also ruled, with respect to a challenge filed by the Committee and the Lawyers Collective, that the Ministry of Environment violated the community’s right to participation and due process.

At that time, El Espectador reported (in Spanish), “Despite the fact that the Committee had requested in November 2013 that a public hearing be held, prior to the demarcation of Santurbán, it was never held and, instead, the Ministry of the Environment limited itself to listening to some actors, such as mining companies, but not to the community in general.”

In March 2016, Eco Oro announced that it could not reach a settlement with the Colombian government and that it would take the dispute to international arbitration.

Mongabay reports, “The company argued that Colombia violated its obligations under the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement when the state implemented measures to protect the Sánturban Páramo, limiting the company’s future prospects.”

In August 2016, the Colombian National Mining Agency issued a decision against Eco Oro given the February 2016 constitutional court decision. By December 2016, the International Finance Corporation divested from Eco Oro.

In March 2018, Eco Oro filed a memorial on the merits of this case with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

While Eco Oro claims to have invested US$250 million in the project, it is seeking US$764 million as compensation for the cancellation of the project.

On February 27, 2019, the Center for International Environmental Law noted in a media release, “The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes has declined to accept an Amicus Curiae that was to be presented by the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Páramo de Santurbán and allied international organizations.”

Those opposed to transnational corporations using investor-state provisions in “free trade” agreements to undermine the public’s ability to protect fresh water will want to monitor this case as it unfolds at the World Bank.

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