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PBI-Mexico expresses concern about continued harassment of the Saltillo Migrant Shelter

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 25, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted (in Spanish) on Twitter, “We express our concern about the recent acts of harassment [the Saltillo Migrant Shelter] has suffered.”

On July 24, AJ+ Espanol tweeted (in Spanish), “’What they are doing is in violation of the law!’ This said the director of the @CDMSaltillo to the military who tried to do – for the second time this month – an immigration review at the migrant shelter in Saltillo, Mexico.”

The Federal Police had also tried to do an immigration check at the Shelter on July 20. You can read more about that in this Peace Brigades International-Canada article, PBI-Mexico expresses concern over federal police check at Saltillo Migrant Shelter.

The AJ+ Espanol tweet included this 48-second video of Alberto Xicotencátl Carrasco, the director of the Shelter, turning away the military police and the Saltillo police.

In the video, he says:

“Article 76 of the Migration Law: ‘No authority can make immigration checks five kilometers from the shelters.’ Article 76 of the Migration Law. The Migrant House is protected by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. What they are doing is in violation of the law. The military is violating the law and breaking an international order. The Inter-American Commission has precautionary measures! Respect the law!”

The harassment of the Saltillo Migrant Shelter is happening in the context of the further militarization of the US-Mexico border.

On June 24, the head of the Mexican army announced that Mexico had deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and members of its National Guard in the north of the country to stem the flow of migration into the United States.

Reuters has reported, “Mexico is trying to curb a surge of migrants from third countries crossing its territory in order to reach the United States, under the threat of tariffs on its exports by U.S. President Donald Trump…”

PBI-Mexico has noted, “The Saltillo Migrant Shelter offers daily humanitarian assistance — including clothes, medicines, food, rest, and medical and psychological care — to hundreds of migrants crossing Mexico to reach the United States.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Saltillo Migrant Shelter, which is located near the Mexico-Texas border, since February 2014.

For more on the work of the Shelter, please see this 4-minute video by PBI-Mexico.

#PBIAcompaña

PBI-Guatemala accompanies groups at release of MiningWatch Canada’s Extraction Casino report

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 23, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted that it had accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya and the Human Rights Law Firm at the presentation of the report Extraction Casino: Mining Companies Gambling with Latin American Lives and Sovereignty Through International Arbitration.

The 44-page report written by Jen Moore and Manuel Perez Rocha was published by our allies MiningWatch Canada, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

The paper notes that it “analyses 38 cases filed by global mining corporations against Latin American governments using the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system.”

It adds, “Reflective of the disproportionate participation of Canadian financing in the global mining sector, the majority of these cases were brought or threatened by Canadian-domiciled firms, although U.S., U.K., South African, Swiss, French, Dutch, Chilean, Australian and East Indian companies have also taken part.”

Pages 27-28 of the report focus on Guatemala and notes “Canada-based Goldcorp’s controversial Marlin Mine” and the “Canadian mining company Tahoe Resources [and] the court-ordered suspension of its Escobal silver mine”.

The report also highlights, “On May 16, 2018, the U.S. company Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) filed a notice of intent to sue Guatemala for at least US$300 million.”

On June 12, PBI-Guatemala visited the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya camp and then posted on Facebook, “We remain aware of their security situation in the context of international arbitration between the State of Guatemala and the US mining company Kappes Cassidy & Associates (KCA).”

Residents from the communities of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc — an area known as La Puya — have been fighting against the Progreso VII Derivada-El Tambor gold mine located just north of Guatemala City since March 2010.

The Peaceful Resistance of La Puya, which is made up of members from these communities, has stated, “[The environmental impact assessment] shows that the gold and silver are contained in arsenopyrite rock, which contains high levels of arsenic. Levels of arsenic in the water increased considerably during the time the mine was in operation.”

They have also expressed concern about the massive amount of water the mine would use in their water-scarce region.

While KCA is an American company, readers in Canada may want to take note that the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) has highlighted, “The company’s 2013 audited financial statements state that three quarters of the cost of the sale transaction will be paid to [Vancouver-based] Radius once gold shipments commence from the property and that Radius also anticipates quarterly payments from KCA based on gold production.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompaniment the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya since 2012 and the Human Rights Law Firm since 2013.

Timeline

2010 — Exploraciones Mineras de Guatemala S.A (Exmingua) presents its environmental impact assessment for the proposed mine to the Guatemalan government.

March 2, 2012 — Hundreds of community members set up the La Puya encampment, a peaceful blockade at the site of the mine.

June 2012 — An assassination attempt is made on resistance leader Yolanda Oquelí by unknown assailants on her way home from the roadblock.

August 2012 — Vancouver-based mining company Radius Gold sells its shares in Exmingua to the Reno, Nevada–based mining company Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA).

November 2012 – PBI-Guatemala begins providing protective accompaniment to the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya.

December 2012 — Security guards hired by Exmingua intimidate journalists at the roadblock.

May 22, 2014 — Hydrogeology expert Robert Moran states that the company’s environmental impact assessment on the mine was the worst he had seen in 42 years of experience.

May 23, 2014 — Hundreds of police used tear gas and flash bombs to remove the women who formed the front line of the resistance at the blockade. PBI-Guatemala Project has noted, “PBI observed a disproportionate use of force by the police during that eviction.”

May 2014 — Nine leaders of the resistance are accused of making threats and assaulting employees at the mine. They were cleared of those charges in March 2015.

July 1, 2014 — Two PBI-Guatemala Project field volunteers who had witnessed the police action are told by Guatemalan officials that they have to leave the country within 10 days.

May 26, 2015 — Two hundred riot police use excessive force to remove members of the resistance when they block vehicles from entering the mine to mark the one-year anniversary of their eviction and a lack of response to their request for a dialogue.

July 15, 2015 — A constitutional court rules against the mine and directs the company to hold community consultations with those who are impacted by the mine. The court orders that the mine stop its operations within 15 days, but the company continues its operations and appeals the ruling.

February 2016 — The Guatemalan Supreme Court rules to provisionally suspend the mining licence due to lack of prior consultation. Operations at the mine are suspended.

May 2018 — KCA submits its notice of intent to file arbitration under the Free Trade Agreement between the Dominican Republic, Central America and the United States (DR-CAFTA). The company cites the community protests and unjust treatment by the state.

December 11, 2018 — KCA files a $300 million claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank arbitration mechanism.

February 1, 2019 — Ten organizations, including the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) and MiningWatch Canada, release a statement in solidarity with the resistance and in opposition to the investment challenge.

May 2, 2019 — The report Extraction Casino: Mining Companies Gambling with Latin American Lives and Sovereignty through Supranational Arbitration is released.

June 12, 2019 — PBI-Guatemala visits the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya camp and posts, “We remain aware of their security situation in the context of international arbitration between the State of Guatemala and the US mining company Kappes Cassidy & Associates (KCA).”

July 23, 2019 — PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya and the Human Rights Law Firm at the release of the Extraction Casino report.

PBI-Honduras accompanies ASODEBICOQ in its opposition to hydroelectric dams

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 24, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted, “Last month we went to El Cacao, where our accompanied organization ASODEBICOQ works in the preservation of common and natural goods.”

PBI-Honduras adds, “We were updated on the latest developments with a hydroelectric project and how the community is affected by these concessions.”

The Association of Defenders of Common Goods in Quimistán (ASODEBICOQ) was founded to defend land, rivers and human rights. Quimistán is a municipality in the department (state) of Santa Bárbara, which is situated in western Honduras.

Quimistán is situated about 20 kilometres southwest of El Cacao (which is also in the department of Santa Bárbara), where PBI-Honduras went last month.

In February 2019, Radio Progreso reported (in Spanish) that the department of Santa Bárbara is “threatened by more than 15 hydroelectric projects and 23 concessions for mining.”

That same article notes, “In the municipality of Quimistán, there is an imminent danger from the installation of the Santa Lucia hydroelectric dam, which is advanced by 90%. And, despite the fact that there is a strong rejection by the population, they currently intend to build a second hydroelectric dam also on the Cuyagual River.”

ASODEBICOQ is opposed to the construction of the Santa Lucia I and Santa Lucia II dams. It has called on the Government of Honduras to stop construction of the dams because the project violates the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169.

That convention is a forerunner of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and reflects the right to free, prior and informed consent.

There have also been serious environmental impacts.

Kevin Ramírez Vásquez, a co-founder of ASODEBICOQ, says, “The impact the Cuyagual project has had is the pollution of the rivers from where they explode dynamite, explode bombs to loosen rocks and fell deeply-rooted trees.”

He adds, “The poison this bomb makes ends up in the freshwater springs, in the river, and it pollutes the river where it kills the animals, the fish, the water-snails.”

Ramirez also notes, “The inhabitants of communities such as San Felipe and Santa Lucia can’t access the rivers because they are privatized. The owners are the businessmen, the owners of the dam. They have militarized the area, installed police posts.”

And he says, “We know that for defending our territory, defending the rivers, which are the veins of our Mother Earth, the first thing that comes are the threats. We know that deaths may await us because they send soldiers when we make blockades or take to the streets.”

PBI-Honduras has been monitoring the security situation of Ramirez since April 2017 and began to provide accompaniment to ASODEBICOQ in May 2018. Ramirez says, “The support PBI offers us gives us strength, encouragement, so we can keep going.”

The river itself also gives Ramirez strength. He says, “When I see the river I feel excited and proud because we defend that river, we defend it from those businessmen that come to pollute it. I feel very happy when I see so much nature, so many rivers, so many beautiful people coming together.”

To read an interview (in English) done by PBI-Honduras and posted on the PBI-United Kingdom website, please click here.

PBI-Honduras seeks volunteers; apply by August 31!

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project is seeking field volunteers.

Key qualifications include a fluency in Spanish, a commitment to at least 12 months of field work, and an ability to work in a horizontal structure where decisions are made through consensus.

PBI-Honduras will cover the following costs: a round trip ticket to Honduras and back, accommodation and medical insurance, an honorarium of about $285 CAD per month for personal costs and repatriation once you have finished your contract.

Key dates include:

Deadline for applications – August 31

Interviews – September 15 to October 6

Online training – October 6 to December 31

In-person training in Valladolid, Spain – January 12-18, 2020

In 2018, eight international volunteers accompanied members of six organizations and one human rights defender working on business and human rights, land rights, indigenous rights, freedom of expression, support to victims, women’s rights and LGBTI rights.

Volunteers are based in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

All the information on how to apply to be a field volunteer in Honduras can be found here.

Please help spread the word!

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Indigenous Resistance to dams on the Cahabón River

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 24, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “This week we accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, visiting the members of the communities of Sacta, Sesaltul, Tuila, San Martín Chichaj, Secatalcab, Salac I and Tres Cruces.”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “Many of these communities are suffering intensely the environmental impacts caused by the Renace company dams.”

PBI-United Kingdom has previously explained, “On the Cahabón River and its tributaries Oxec, Canlich and Chiacté, seven hydroelectric plants currently operate: Renace I, II, III, IV, Oxec, Oxec II, and Chichaic.”

The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón (Resistencia Pacifica de Cahabón) was formed in 2015 to defend the land, water and Indigenous rights.

In October 2016, the BBC Mundo reported (in Spanish) on community opposition to the controversial “Renace hydroelectric complex, which consists of four power plants” on the Cahabón River.

On February 21, 2017, Telesur reported, “Dozens of Indigenous Q’eqchi Mayans came from several towns along the Cahabon River, in the northern Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz, to the capital Monday, to protest against hydroelectric projects carried out by the Spanish group Cobra, owned by Real Madrid’s President Florentino Perez.”

“Guatemalan firm Oxec, S.A. owns the hydroelectric dams Oxec and Oxec II, which is funded by investments from Panama-Based Energy Resources Capital Corp. The works are carried out by the Spanish company Grupo Cobra, owned by Florentino Perez, the president of Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid.”

That article highlighted, “Indigenous leader Bernardo Caal Xol told reporters that the firm has left about 50 communities without water, whose survival directly depended on the Cahabon River, among many other negative environmental impacts.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Resistance since July 2017.

PBI-UK has posted, “In August 2017, PBI provided security support to the good-faith consultation in which the 195 communities of the Cahabón River overwhelmingly rejected the Oxec hydroelectric projects, which threaten to seriously disrupt local ecosystems and water supplies.”

In November 2018, Caal Xol, a Mayan Q’eqchi’ community leader, was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison. He had already been imprisoned through “preventative detention” since January 2018.

Telesur notes, “It was Caal Xol who filed three lawsuits against the Oxec construction company at different institutions, including accusations for failing to consult the local population, and illegally cutting down 15 hectares of trees.”

Telesur has also reported, “The communities claim the Oxec and Renace hydroelectric projects are illegal because the local Indigenous Q’eqchi’ peoples were not properly consulted and informed about it, as established by Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.”

Convention 169, a forerunner of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), states, “The consultations carried out in application of this Convention shall be undertaken, in good faith and in a form appropriate to the circumstances, with the objective of achieving agreement or consent to the proposed measures.”

A May 2018 interview with Caal Xol conducted by PBI-Guatemala and published by PBI-UK in English can be read here.

#PBIAcompaña

PBI-Colombia accompanies meeting on displacement of Indigenous Wounaan community members

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 23, Contagio Radio reported (in Spanish), “50 days have elapsed since 417 [Indigenous Wounaan] people were displaced from the Pichimá Quebrada indigenous reserve in Litoral del San Juan (South Chocó). This second displacement suffered by the Wounaan was the result of clashes between armed groups in the area…”

That article then notes, “From that moment, people have settled in the municipal head of Santa Genoveva de Docordó in two shelters provided by the City Hall and one by the Community House that do not have the necessary conditions to be inhabited.”

On July 24, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted (in Spanish), “Wounaam leaders of the Pichima Reserve [in] Litoral San Juan Chocó, who live in displacement since June 3 due to clashes between illegal actors in their territory, meet with @UEenColombia [the Delegation of the European Union to Colombia] to request support for a return with security guarantees.”

The Delegation of the European Union to Colombia also tweeted (in Spanish), “Today we meet with Wounaan indigenous leaders of the Pichima Reserve in Chocó in displacement since 3/06 due to clashes between illegal armed groups in their territory. Now in a precarious situation in Docordó in search of guarantees to be able to return.”

And PBI-Colombia also tweeted (in Spanish), “Thank you very much to [the Delegation of the European Union to Colombia] for receiving us and listening to [the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission] and the Wounaan leaders of the Pichima Reserve, Litoral San Juan Chocó and for supporting the communities affected by the armed conflict.”

As noted in this PBI-Colombia backgrounder, the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission accompanies several Wounaan communities.

El Espectador recently published this commentary (in Spanish) by Armando Valbuena who wrote, “According to the Observatory of Human Rights of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, from November 2016 to June 2019, 1,029 leaders of the indigenous peoples have been threatened, 330 have been killed and 166 have suffered attacks by armed actors such as the Black Eagles, dissidents of the FARC and the ELN.”

Valbuena highlights that, “More than 22,532 indigenous people have suffered forced displacements, 12,066 have been violated their rights due to lack of attention and guarantees by the State, 116 indigenous people have been forcibly recruited, 16 were kidnapped and 11 indigenous were tortured.”

And Valbuena concludes his piece with, “The current situation comes from the folly to exploit the land and the use of violence as a framework that allows it. It is about implementing extractive, legal or illegal projects that bleed our lives and impose bad death. However, even though the horizon is dark, we are in minga [mass Indigenous mobilizations]; cane in hand and with a calm look, we will continue fighting for the Unity, the Territory, the Culture and the Autonomy of the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia.”

The department of Chocó in western Colombia includes six Indigenous communities and twelve collective Afro-Colombian territories. The struggle for peace with justice, for land rights and respect for Indigenous and Afro-Colombian rights, continues in Colombia.

#PBIAcompaña

PBI-Colombia accompanies journalist Claudia Julieta Duque at trial of DAS agent accused of psychological torture

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 24, Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque tweeted (in Spanish), “Many thanks to @PBIColombia for accompanying me in the court hearing on William Merchán for torture in my case…”

She also thanked in her tweet, “@IFJGlobal @PeriodistasFSC and @marvindelcid for the coverage and support always.”

That morning Duque had tweeted (in Spanish), “About to resume trial for torture in my case against William Merchán, DAS hacker. We continue to fight for JUSTICE.”

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Duque one of the 10 journalists in the world facing the most urgent threats to press freedom and explained, “Duque has endured kidnapping, illegal surveillance, psychological torture and repeated exiles as a result of her work.”

Duque and her daughter were targeted by Colombia’s DAS intelligence service beginning in 2001. That was when Duque was investigating the murder of journalist, comedian and peace activist Jaime Garzón who was shot to death in August 1999.

El Espectador explains (in Spanish), “Duque found clues that could link state agents to the crime. After her findings, she began to be intimidated, through threatening calls and funeral wreaths that arrived at her home, until she was kidnapped that year for a few hours.”

Reporters Without Borders has highlighted, “After the DAS spied on her while pretending to protect her, she fled abroad from 2004 to 2006. Following her return, she and her 10-year-old daughter were the target of death threats in 2008, so she fled abroad again, returning later the same year.”

Years passed until 2013 when the prosecutor’s office finally issued a detention order against seven former DAS agents for the aggravated psychological torture of Duque.

One of those accused of psychological torture is William Merchán.

Journalist Marvin David Delcid tweeted about the court hearing on July 24 here, here, here, here and here.

Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied Duque since 2010.

Of PBI, Duque says, “They are indispensable people who not only support you but accompany with respect and dedication for your struggles and with their company give you the strength to continue. Many of the things I do could not be done without PBI.”

#PBIAcompaña

Colombian-Canadians to rally for peace on Friday July 26

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Toronto Star headline reads, “Colombian-Canadians rally for peace amid rising violence back home”.

The newspaper article highlights, “Almost three years after the peace deal was signed, Colombian-Canadians will take to the streets on Friday as part of a global effort to draw attention to the situation in their homeland.”

Those rallies will be in: Montreal, 5 pm, in front of the Consulate of Colombia; Ottawa-Gatineau, 6:30 pm, at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill; Quebec City, 5 pm, in the Atrium of the Church of San Roche; Toronto, 6 pm, at Matt Cohen Park (Bloor and Spadina); and Winnipeg, 6 pm, at the group entrance to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has shared on social media this promotion for the global day of action being circulated by the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP). PBI-Colombia has accompanied the CIJP since 1994.

That promotion notes (in Spanish), “Following the murder of María del Pilar Hurtado in Tierralta, Córdoba, Defendamos la Paz called on citizens to mobilize on July 26 and raise a national clamor to end the systematic murders of leaders and social leaders in the country.”

Colombia Reports explains, “María del Pilar Hurtado dedicated the last months of her life to negotiating a way for a group of landless peasants to live on a piece of land owned by wealthy and connected men.”

The promotion then highlights that since the July 26 mobilization was announced that at least 10 other social leaders have been killed in Colombia.

There will be rallies in at least 29 communities in Colombia, as well as in numerous other cities around the world including the five noted above in this country.

The Toronto Star article quotes the organizers of the Canadian rallies: Sandra Cordero, “a union activist who sought political asylum in Canada in 2002 after she and her family received death threats from paramilitaries in Bogota over her advocacy work”, Luis Alberto Mata, “a former journalist, who fled to Canada in 2002 with his lawyer wife and son after receiving repeated threats from paramilitary forces”, and Raul Burbano of “Common Frontiers, an international labour and human rights advocacy group”.

In the article, Cordero says, “People outside of Colombia think everything is OK after the peace agreement, but it’s not. People continue to be displaced and murdered. The only power we have is speaking out.”

A report released this past May states that 702 social leaders and 135 former members of the FARC have been killed since the beginning of 2016. 499 of the 837 people killed were members of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant farmer communities. Just over 70 per cent of the killings were related to disputes over land and natural resources.

There are now more than 100,000 Colombians living in Canada.

The Toronto Star article notes, “According to Canada’s refugee board, the number of Colombian refugee claimants tripled to 2,582 last year from 820 in 2016, with another 671 seeking asylum in the first three months of 2019 alone.”

In 2018, 27 PBI-Colombia volunteers accompanied members of 13 organizations and 2 individual human rights defenders working on business and human rights and forced disappearances. Volunteers are based in Bogotá, Barrancabermeja and Apartadó. You can follow the work of PBI-Colombia via their website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and their YouTube channel.

#DefendamosLaVida #26deJulioDespertemos

Canada and the Latin American migrant rights crisis

By
Brent Patterson
-

What is the role that Canada plays in the migrant rights crisis that has been making headline news throughout North America (Turtle Island)? Let’s start in Mexico and work our way northward to understand the context of this situation.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Saltillo Migrant Shelter, which is located near the Mexico-Texas border.

PBI-Mexico has noted, “The Saltillo Migrant Shelter offers daily humanitarian assistance — including clothes, medicines, food, rest, and medical and psychological care — to hundreds of migrants crossing Mexico to reach the United States.”

Migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador have sought asylum in the United States from the poverty, violence, human rights violations and the impacts of climate breakdown (including food insecurity) in their home countries. The negative impacts of Canadian capital (notably mining projects) and support for the Honduran government have also been cited as contributory factors in this migration.

On July 1, The Washington Post reported, “In the weeks since Mexico signed a pact with the United States to stop migration [from Mexico into the United States], conditions in detention centers and shelters have deteriorated dramatically, according to diplomats and human rights officials who have visited the facilities.”

That article highlights, “Mexico has detained 99,203 migrants this year and deported 71,110 of them, according to its immigration agency.”

As of late June, Mexico also deployed 15,000 troops on its northern border to stop migrants from entering the United States.

Furthermore, on July 20, PBI-Mexico expressed its “concern about the visit this morning of the federal police to the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo, for possible intervention and immigration verification at the hostel.” The Casa had tweeted that the federal police had tried “to do immigration check in the [shelter] under the argument of verifying immigration status of sheltered persons.”

You can read more about that in our article PBI-Mexico expresses concern over federal police check at Saltillo Migrant Shelter.

National Public Radio reports, “If Mexico fails to satisfy Trump’s demands, the next step could for Mexico to enter into a ‘safe third country’ agreement with the U.S. That would mean that asylum-seekers who travel through Mexico would have to apply for protection in that country, and would be ineligible to do so in U.S.”

Canada already has a Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States.

The Globe and Mail has previously explained, “The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States, signed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, means that with few exceptions, refugee claimants must make their claim in the first safe country they arrive in. That means virtually all asylum seekers attempting to enter Canada through a U.S. port of entry will be turned away.”

But significantly the article adds that “because Canada is a signatory of the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, asylum seekers entering the country between border points are not automatically deported and may make asylum claims.”

In other words, the agreement, reached by then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin and then-U.S. president George W. Bush, does not cover asylum-seekers who cross through unguarded sections of the Canada-U.S. border.

In April, Reuters reported, “Canada wants the agreement rewritten to apply to the entire border. …’We’d like to be able to get [the United States] to agree that we can, if somebody comes across, we just send them back’, [a Canadian official] told Reuters, adding Canada had raised the issue ‘at least a dozen’ times since.”

Professors Anne-Emanuelle Birn (University of Toronto) and Liisa L. North (York University) have written in this article, “In the 1980s, Canada did open its doors to Central American asylum seekers amid the region’s civil wars.”

They add, “But the numbers were small. About two million ran for their lives, either internally displaced or forced to flee across borders, with fewer than 22,000 people taken into Canada between 1982 and 1987.”

Professors Birn and North then comment in their analysis, “In 2017, Canada allocated a pitiful number of spots to Central Americans: out of 25,000 total spaces for resettled refugees, just 380 for all of the Americas.”

On May 26, The Canadian Press reported, “The United Nations is urging Canada to help ease Mexico’s refugee burden by helping resettle some of the most vulnerable of its new arrivals, including women, children and LGBTQ people.”

“A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen was unable to provide statistics of how many Mexican asylum seekers Canada has received recently.”

But some of those statistics have been reported on in Canadian media.

Global News has reported, “Ottawa imposed a visa requirement on visitors from Mexico in July 2009, after the country became Canada’s top source of refugee claims, which totaled 9,000 that year, most of which were rejected.”

That article then notes that the visa requirement was lifted on December 1, 2016 and that, “Three-quarters of the Mexican refugee claims that were heard by the Refugee Board in 2017 were either rejected, abandoned or withdrawn.”

While the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo is located more than 3,800 kilometres south-west of the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (where the largest number of Mexican refugee applicants have sought asylum), geographic distance should not obscure the interconnectedness of Canada in the current migrant rights crisis.

PBI-Mexico expresses concern over federal police check at Saltillo Migrant Shelter

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 20, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project expressed its “concern about the visit this morning of the federal police to the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo, for possible intervention and immigration verification at the hostel.”

The Casa had tweeted that the federal police had tried “to do immigration check in the [shelter] under the argument of verifying immigration status of sheltered persons.”

Periódico Zócalo reports (in Spanish), “Elements of the Federal Police tried to enter the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo and threatened the shelter’s coordinator, José Luis Manzo, to cordon off and besiege the place if they were not allowed to detain four migrant people who requested asylum.”

That article also notes, “The activist and defender of the migrants said that when he questioned the policeman about his actions, he clarified that he was not authorized to detain migrants or verify their immigration status, so the agent released the four migrants, but threatened the coordinator.”

Newsweek adds (in Spanish), “The incident occurred around one o’clock in the afternoon, when the feds, who were transported in official vans of the unit, arrived at the facilities of the shelter with the intention of reviewing the migratory status of the refugees.”

That article notes, “When the people in charge of the place denied them access to the security elements, they proceeded to threaten them, especially the defenseman José Luis Manzano, who was warned that ‘he was getting into a problem’.”

24 Horas reports (in Spanish), “The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement asked the Government of Mexico to stop all acts of harassment of migrant homes and shelters.”

That article adds, “For its part, the Office in Mexico of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for compliance with the Migration Law, which in its Article 76, establishes: The competent authority ‘will not be able to make migratory verification visits in places where migrants are housed by civil society organizations or people who carry out humanitarian acts, assistance or protection to migrants’.”

Periódico Zócalo also reports that the Casa “filed a complaint yesterday with the Human Rights Commission of the State of Coahuila.”

Manzo says, “The house as a matter of principle has precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has measures of the National Commission and the State Commission, and apart we are part of the Governance Protection Mechanism.”

On June 24, the head of the Mexican army announced that Mexico had deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and members of its National Guard in the north of the country to stem the flow of migration into the United States.

Thomson Reuters reports, “Mexico is trying to curb a surge of migrants from third countries crossing its territory in order to reach the United States, under the threat of tariffs on its exports by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made tightening border security a priority.”

On July 1, The Washington Post reported, “Mexico has detained 99,203 migrants this year and deported 71,110 of them, according to its immigration agency.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Saltillo Migrant Shelter, which is located near the Mexico-Texas border, since February 2014.

PBI-Mexico has noted, “The Saltillo Migrant Shelter offers daily humanitarian assistance — including clothes, medicines, food, rest, and medical and psychological care — to hundreds of migrants crossing Mexico to reach the United States.”

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