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PBI highlights at UN in Geneva Working Group recommendation on “cooperation agreements” in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: Yannick Wild at UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

On June 19, Peace Brigades International highlighted at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland ongoing concerns about the Canadian company Frontera Energy and cooperation agreements in Colombia.

Yannick Wild of PBI-Switzerland spoke in response to the Visit to Colombia report by the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

Recommendation 88(z) of that report noted: “Review, in the light of international human rights standards, contracts between companies and the armed forces or the National Police and agreements with the support structures of the Attorney General’s Office and ensure that there are no conflicts of interest, thus guaranteeing the impartiality of the public authorities, and suspend these agreements when there is suspicion that human rights and environmental defenders have been criminalized or subjected to violence. Ensure the transparency of these agreements in order to facilitate strict control by civil society.”

Wild stated:

“We welcome recommendation 88(z) of the report on the visit to Colombia, which calls for the review and suspension of contracts between companies and public forces when there are indications of criminalization against environmental defenders. In Colombia, since 2018, the Special Rapporteur’s concern about the link between the company Frontera Energy, the 16th Brigade of the Colombian Army, and the Attorney General’s Office in the criminalization of eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque, who were protesting environmental damage, remains unresolved.”

In that Report, then-Special Rapporteur Michel Forst expressed concern about “the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office” in the criminalization of eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque for their participation in social protests against this Canadian company for the environmental damage it has caused.

PBI-Canada remains attentive to this unresolved situation.

Further reading: Colombian military has 200 cooperation agreements with corporations, including Toronto-based Frontera Energy (PBI-Canada, May 7, 2020); PBI-Canada continues to monitor the situation of eight community members criminalized for their opposition to Frontera Energy (PBI-Canada, December 3, 2024).

PBI-Kenya concerned by police actions at protest in County of Nairobi; Embassy of Canada urges investigation of police

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still from MwanzoTV.

On June 18, the Police Reforms Working Group-Kenya, of which the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project is a member, “strongly condemn[ed] the deliberate infiltration of peaceful protests by hundreds of violent agitators who attacked protesters and caused mayhem in the County of Nairobi.”

That statement further notes: “Our monitoring and preliminary analysis confirms widespread fears that the National Police Service failed to stop hundreds of masked agitators who were mobilized, transported and deployed to patrol several streets and attack Government critics with tyre whips, large wooden batons and knives. More worryingly, protest observation in the streets and mass media analysis reveal that the police at times intentionally accompanied, supported and directed their operations for more than six hours of mayhem yesterday.”

Canada urges investigation of police

The Nairobi-based Embassy of Canada for Kenya, Somalia and Uganda has posted on social media about this police violence.

The UK in Kenya, Netherlands Embassy in Kenya, the Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi, and Norway in Kenya posted similar messages.

22 people injured at protest

Capital News reports: “At least 22 people were injured during [the] Tuesday [June 17] protests in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, and Kwale, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), which has condemned what it described as excessive use of force and unlawful tactics by police.”

4 human rights defenders arrested

That Capital News article adds: “The Commission also decried the arrest of several peaceful demonstrators, including four human rights defenders in Mombasa, despite organizers having notified authorities in accordance with the law.”

The use of “goons” against protests

TV47 further notes: “Goons, often armed with jembe sticks, crude weapons, and whips  have emerged as a terrifying new force during protests across Nairobi. These allegedly hired groups, who appear to work in coordination with the police according to the videos circulating online, are fast becoming a symbol of state-sponsored chaos in what are otherwise peaceful demonstrations.”

The murder of a blogger in police custody

Deutsche Welle explains: “Protesters were calling for an end to police brutality and demanding the resignation of a senior officer they blame for the death of blogger Albert Ojwang on June 8. …The protests over Ojwang’s death reflect broader public concerns that little has changed since more than 60 people were killed during demonstrations last year, which were initially sparked by proposed tax increases.”

The BBC adds: “Police initially said that Mr Ojwang died of self-inflicted wounds, but were forced to retract the statement after an autopsy found that it was likely he died after being assaulted. Two policemen have been arrested in connection with the death. The protest comes amid simmering tension ahead of next week’s first anniversary of the storming of parliament by demonstrators.”

22-year-old shot by police at protest

During the protest, Boniface Mwangi Kariuki was confronted by two police officers who then shot him in the head.

The BBC explains: “A vendor was shot during Tuesday’s demonstration, sparking renewed outrage from Kenyans who accuse police of using excessive force against protesters. Boniface Kariuki was reportedly selling masks when a uniformed police officer fired a bullet at close range, critically injuring him.”

The Associated Press now reports: “Police in a statement expressed concern and said that two officers, Klinzy Barasa and Duncan Kiprono, had been arrested and were being processed by detectives for ‘further action’.”

The Social Justice Centres Working Group has posted on social media:

Ongoing concerns about police violence

The Associated Press also reports: “Kenya has a history of police brutality, and President William Ruto previously vowed to end it, along with extrajudicial killings.”

Community mobilizer Mack Marangu tells OkayAfrica: “We’ve experienced a lot of killings from the police and a lot of injuries. Historically, the police force has been a colonial enforcer body. We had the home guards being the first policemen who worked for the colonialists, and they were used to persecute and arrest and cause a lot of oppression on their fellow Africans. This hasn’t changed over the years; it’s morphed into a more sophisticated militia for the state to crush dissent, to punish people, and to continuously perpetuate fear across the public.”

The next protest, June 24-25

The Associated Press notes: “The next protest against police abuses is scheduled for June 24.” The BBC adds: “Activists plan to build up momentum to what they are calling ‘a total shutdown’ of business next Wednesday [June 25].” And OkayAfrica reports: “Marangu says there will be continuous demonstrations leading up to ‘a greater protest on the 25th of June, which protesters are actually hoping to occupy the Statehouse.’”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Peace Brigades International Reaffirms Concern as UN Experts Examine Human Rights and Civic Space in Kenya (PBI-Kenya, June 19, 2025).

TC Energy and ATCO meet with Mexican president at G7 summit in Canada to advance Plan México megaprojects

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video still: Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum meets with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney at the G7 summit in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on June 17 at the 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

President Sheinbaum also met separately with the Business Council of Canada that represents 170 companies in Canada. Mexico News Daily notes: “Meeting attendees included senior executives from companies such as TC Energy, WestJet Airlines, Palliser Furniture, ATCO [engineering, logistics and energy], BRP [manufacturing] and Element Fleet Management, all with established operations in Mexico.”

The Calgary Herald further reports: “Canadian firms see opportunities to increase investment in Mexican energy, said [Ottawa-based] Business Council of Canada CEO Goldy Hyder after meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum. Executives from major [Calgary-based] pipeline builders ATCO and TC Energy were present at the sit-down with the Mexican president at the G7 summit in Kananaskis.”

Calgary-based ATCO provided “workforce housing and operational support services for three camps in the Haisla territory in support of construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline” and is seeking to build the 200-kilometre Yellowhead Mainline pipeline from the hamlet of Peers to Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

And Calgary-based TC Energy built the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory and is the largest Canadian investor in Mexico.

The Calgary Herald article further notes: “TC Energy’s 700-kilometre Southeast Gateway Pipeline is soon expected to begin delivering up to 1.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas produced in Texas to southern Mexico.”

The Southeast Gateway (Puerta del Sureste) pipeline will connect to the Jáltipan-Salina Cruz Gas pipeline to transport gas across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the proposed Salina Cruz LNG export terminal.

In February 2023, La Jornada Veracruz reported that campesina, Indigenous peoples and environmental groups protested in Sierra de Santa Marta against the Southeast Gateway pipeline “to demand an end to the criminalization and persecution of their leaders.”

On February 15, 2025, several coastal communities of the indigenous Nahua and Nuntaj++yi’ municipalities of Pajapan, Tatahuicapan and Mecayapan in southern Veracruz also protested against this pipeline.

Plan México

Mexico News Daily adds: “According to Sheinbaum, the meeting [with Canadian companies] focused on showcasing Plan México, the government’s blueprint to turn Mexico into one of the 10 largest global economies.”

The Wilson Center has explained that Plan Mexico has “13 goals” and “entails a portfolio of 277 billion dollars in national and foreign investments.” The “sector specific goal” of “energy” notes: “Increase the generation capacity from 356 terawatt hours to 413 terawatt hours: with gas, renewable, solar and wind energy. There are 145 proposed projects to be developed by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).”

In January 2025, the Heinrich Böll Foundation cautioned: “Plan Mexico, recently presented, generates uncertainty and concern among communities and organizations due to the intention to promote mining projects in the country, favor investments by companies such as Grupo México, whose criminal negligence has caused irreversible damage to the environment and health, which remain unattended and unpunished.”

In February 2025, Maira Olivo, the coordinator of the Territory, Rights and Development programme at the Fundar Centre of Analysis and Research, also noted: “The Plan has generated concern among communities and environmental organizations, in the first place, due to the lack of detailed information regarding the portfolio of private investments and the 100 industrial parks that make it up. In addition, the plan is announced in a context in which mining exploration work is intended to return to the private sector, which will mean a setback with respect to the protection of the rights of communities and the environment achieved in 2023 with the approval of the reform of the Mining Law.”

Civil society demands

In advance of the G7 summit, the C7 (Civil 7), “an official engagement group of the Group of 7 (G7)” that “represents positions from global civil society” had on the G7 to “adopt and enforce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, while protecting human rights defenders”, to accelerate “implementation of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”, and to “counter the global crackdown on civil society by adopting diplomatic, financial, and legal measures to safeguard activists, independent media, and human rights defenders.”

The W7 (Women 7), another engagement group, had also highlighted: “The G7 must take a firm stance against the criminalization of dissent, the rollback of the rights of women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and the shrinking space for civil society, ensuring that foreign and domestic policies align with human rights principles.”

Official G7 statements reflecting these principles are not apparent following the Kananaskis summit.

Land and environmental defenders

In September 2024, Global Witness documented that 203 land and environmental defenders had been killed in Mexico between 2012 and 2023, including 18 defenders in 2023. Front Line Defenders has further noted that 32 human rights defenders were killed in Mexico in 2024.

Peace Brigades International-Canada remains attentive to the risks faced by defenders specifically in the context of megaprojects, including mining, oil and gas, and hydroelectric projects, violating Indigenous rights.

The next G7 summit will take place in June 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France.

Further reading:

PBI-UK and PBI-Canada webinar – Volunteering for Protection: Indigenous rights and the impacts of megaprojects (PBI-Canada, June 11, 2025)

TC Energy may have launched “geo-fenced” ad campaign to counter visit of Wet’suwet’en and Otomi land defenders to Toronto and Ottawa (PBI-Canada, July 3, 2024)

G7 Summit in Canada issues joint statement on Critical Minerals without mention of land and environmental defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video still: Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and his wife Diana Fox Carney welcome British prime minister Keir Starmer to the G7 summit.

The G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan is one of six joint statements to have emerged from the G7 Summit in Kananaskis this past June 15-17.

Their statement highlights: “We, the Leaders of the G7, recognize that critical minerals are the building blocks of digital and energy secure economies of the future. We remain committed to transparency, diversification, security, sustainable mining practices, trustworthiness and reliability as essential principles for resilient critical minerals supply chains, and acknowledge the importance of traceability, trade, and decent work in contributing to our economic prosperity and that of our partners.”

It further notes: “We are launching a G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan, building on the Five-Point Plan for Critical Minerals Security established during Japan’s G7 Presidency in 2023 and advanced by Italy in 2024. The Action Plan will focus on diversifying the responsible production and supply of critical minerals, encouraging investments in critical mineral projects and local value creation, and promoting innovation.”

The 967-word statement only makes brief reference to “sustainable mining practices”, “local consultation”, “addressing negative externalities, including pollution and land degradation”, “collaboration” with “Indigenous Peoples, local communities, unions, and civil society” and that it will “help” to “promote responsible mining practices; combat gender-based violence in the mining industry.”

While rarely mentioned in international statements, the 2021 Open Societies Statement that accompanied the final communique from the G7 Summit in Cornwall, United Kingdom, did mention: “The importance of civic space and partnership with diverse, independent and pluralistic civil societies, including human rights defenders, in promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Critical minerals and the risks to environmental defenders

In this joint policy briefing released just over a month ago on May 15, 2025, seventeen organizations, including Peace Brigades International, warned that the UK government’s drive to secure minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium could “fuel environmental destruction, human rights abuses and deepen global inequalities.”

Their briefing cautions: “The mining and processing of critical minerals is frequently linked to severe human rights violations including violation of Indigenous rights including the killing of land and environmental defenders.”

Yesterday, June 17, Peace Brigades International-Canada observed a Chiefs of Ontario-organized rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa against the Canadian government’s proposed Bill C-5, One Canadian Economy Act.

The Chiefs of Ontario have previously explained: “Bill C-5 proposes sweeping new powers that would allow the federal government to fast-track major infrastructure projects. Under the legislation, a single federal minister would be authorized to approve projects, override regulatory protections, and bypass environmental and social safeguards, all without returning to Parliament for further approval.”

There are concerns that Bill C-5 would be used to approve critical mineral mining projects without the consent of Indigenous peoples, perhaps in conjunction with the Ontario government’s Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.

The Canadian Press has reports: “Road, rail and mine blockades could be on the horizon, First Nations leaders said [May 26], as they ratchet up pressure on the Ontario government to kill [Bill 5] that seeks to speed up large mining projects in the north.”

The provincial Bill 5 was passed by the Ontario Legislature on June 5, the federal Bill C-5 is expected to be passed by the House of Commons on June 20.

Civil society demands

In advance of the G7 summit, the C7 (Civil 7), “an official engagement group of the Group of 7 (G7)” that “represents positions from global civil society” had on the G7 to “adopt and enforce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, while protecting human rights defenders”, to accelerate “implementation of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”, and to “counter the global crackdown on civil society by adopting diplomatic, financial, and legal measures to safeguard activists, independent media, and human rights defenders.”

The W7 (Women 7), another engagement group, had also highlighted: “The G7 must take a firm stance against the criminalization of dissent, the rollback of the rights of women, girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and the shrinking space for civil society, ensuring that foreign and domestic policies align with human rights principles.”

Official G7 statements reflecting these principles are not apparent following the Kananaskis summit.

Critical minerals conference in September

The G7 statement notes: “We look forward to the upcoming Conference on Critical Materials and Minerals, to be chaired by the United States in Chicago, in September 2025, in order to advance this work.”

The next G7 summit will take place in June 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras accompanies the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) at meeting with the French Embassy

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 17, PBI-Honduras posted:

“Yesterday, PBI accompanied the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] El Progreso in a meeting with the French Embassy in Honduras and French journalist Alice Campaignolle. The CNTC expressed its concern about evictions and the criminalization of peasant communities. Agrarian reform was also discussed. PBI and the French Embassy highlighted the important role that women defenders play in defending land and territory in Honduras.”

The need for agrarian reform

Reuters has reported: “Less than 5% of Honduras’ landowners, government figures show, control 60% of the fertile terrain, including many monocultures of palm and other export crops.” PBI-Honduras has also previously highlighted: “Despite their fundamental role in food production, 90% of rural women do not have land.”

Organized agricultural workers killed

In April 2024, Ojalá (a digital weekly co-founded by Canadian journalist Dawn Marie Paley) reported: “Over the last 15 years, private and state security forces have killed at least 180 organized agricultural workers. More recently, semi-autonomous assassins and paramilitary groups became increasingly important. Some of these have documented ties to private security operatives known to have worked for palm corporations, as well as to military officers.”

Attacks against the CNTC

In January 2023, Abelino Sánchez, regional secretary of the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) and president of a peasant cooperative in the department of Cortés, was seriously injured after being shot twice by two men who came to his house. He had received death threats related to a land conflict.

In June 2024, PBI-Honduras tweeted about the risks experienced by members of the CNTC: “We are concerned about the situation of threats, surveillance, attacks and criminalization against the people of the organization and its bases.”

Then in August 2024, CNTC member Olman Garcia was murdered. At that time, PBI-Honduras stated: “We recognize the important and courageous advocacy work that Olman carried out to promote access to land and land tenure for small farmers in Honduras. His murder highlights the risks that land defenders continue to face in the country.”

France, Canada abstain at UN vote on the rights of peasants

On December 17, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of the ‘Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas’. 

French academic Chloé Maurel has commented: “The declaration was adopted by 121 votes in favour, eight against and 54 abstentions. Not surprisingly, the countries of the North, such as the United States and France, did not vote for the declaration, being exporters of seeds and phytosanitary products and having close ties with the interests of the large multinational agribusiness firms.”

At this time, we recall that Canada also abstained in that December 2018 on the Declaration.

PBI-Honduras has noted that this UN Declaration recognizes key elements such as “the right to land, to natural resources and to food sovereignty, based on the principle of equality between men and women.”

The CNTC and the labour movement

The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for the distribution of land.

PBI-Honduras has highlighted: “The lack of land titles remains a systemic issue that characterises these processes. Of the 404 communities that form the CNTC, just 20 per cent have titles to their lands. Many others have worked and lived on their lands for three or four decades, and have spent 15 years awaiting the official recognition of their rights that never seems to arrive.”

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.

Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the CNTC since May 2018.

PBI-Canada observes rally on Parliament Hill in which Indigenous leader calls Bill C-5 “economic terrorism”

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Chiefs of Ontario held a rally with about 200 people on Parliament Hill in Ottawa this afternoon in opposition to the Canadian government’s Bill C-5.

At that rally, Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier of Temagami First Nation stated: “Let me be clear — weaponizing the economy to suppress First Nations rights is economic terrorism. It is coercion, plain and simple, and it has no place in a country that claims to value justice or honour of the Crown.”

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler cautioned that if Bill C-5 does pass, Canada is in for a “long, hot summer.”

And Cedar Iahtail from Attawapiskat further highlighted: “When they signed Treaty [9] … we signed it with our own laws. We call it the Constitution of the Pipe. Canada is not above our law. We’re still here and we reject Bill 5.”

The video of all the speeches can be watched here.

A media release from the Chiefs of Ontario notes: “Bill C-5 proposes sweeping new powers that would allow the federal government to fast-track major infrastructure projects. Under the legislation, a single federal minister would be authorized to approve projects, override regulatory protections, and bypass environmental and social safeguards, all without returning to Parliament for further approval.”

Toronto Star national columnist Althia Raj has highlighted that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, gives “cabinet the right to circumvent environmental laws in the name of getting big resource projects built.”

Raj further explains: “The Building Canada Act would allow cabinet, for a period of five years, to give the green light to projects that it believes are in the national interest, based on a loose set of factors that could shift depending on the whim of this — or any future — government. …This bill also allows cabinet to ignore laws it doesn’t want to abide by. For example, if the government is worried about the outcome of a review triggered by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, it could delete that act from consideration. …What’s more there is no mechanism through which public consultations can result in a project’s green light turning into a red light.”

APTN News now reports: “Liberals [led by Carney] and Conservatives [under Pierre Poilievre] passed a rare closure motion [on Monday June 16] meaning that debate on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s controversial One Canadian Economy Act, or Bill C-5, will conclude by Friday [June 20] despite serious concerns about Indigenous rights, climate protections and democratic process.”

The Chiefs of Ontario comment: “Parliament is on track to pass the bill in under a week. This not only defies colonial government’s own principles of transparency and accountability but also directly contradicts Canada’s own laws, namely United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.”

Bill C-5 coincides with recent news that has seen the British Columbia government enabling the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan, Gitanyow and Nisga’a lands; the Ontario government passage of Bill 5 and the likelihood that the “Ring of Fire” on Treaty 9 – Ojibway (Anishinaabe), Cree (including the Omushkegowuk) and other Indigenous Nations (Algonquin) lands – will be declared a “special economic zone”; and the Alberta government proposing a new one-million-barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline to Prince Rupert.

We continue to follow this.

Research on the ownership structure of the Los Pinares megaproject in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
-

Environmental defender Juan López, the coordinator of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT), was killed in Tocoa, Honduras on September 14, 2024, due to his opposition to the Los Pinares megaproject.

Peace Brigades International-Canada remains particularly attentive to any connections between Canadian and U.S. capital in the Los Pinares megaproject.

In January 2023, Elvin Fernaly Hernández Rivera, a researcher at ERIC & Radio Progreso (ERIC-RP) documented the ownership structure of the megaproject: “The two iron oxide mining licenses known as ASP and ASP2 were awarded to Inversiones Los Pinares belonging to the EMCO Group whose main partners are the married couple Lenir Pérez and Ana Facussé, who belong to one of the wealthiest families in the country. The mining licenses were preceded by the installation of the iron oxide pelletizing plant, located fifty meters from the Guapinol River. To carry out the iron processing, the EMCO Group created Inversiones ECOTEK S.A. because the licenses granted to Inversiones Los Pinares are for non-metallic mining, so they cannot be involved in the processing stage.”

An investigative report published in October 2024 by Contra Corriente and Drilled revealed that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

A previous investigative report published in November 2020 by Contracorriente, the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and Univision Investiga, found that the U.S. firm has partnered with the project since March 2015 with the Panamanian company NE Holdings Subsidiary and since August 2016 through a second Panamanian firm with a similar name, NE Holdings.

A spokesperson for Nucor said in November 2020 that the company decided to sell the shares in NE Holdings in October 2019.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor has an office in Burlington, Ontario.

As of June 2024, the top investors in Nucor include the Royal Bank of Canada ($70 million), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ($35 million), the Toronto-Dominion Bank ($19 million), TD Asset Management ($14 million) and the National Bank of Canada ($11 million).

Simply Wall St has noted: “The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently [Nucor’s] largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding.”

Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. explains: “The Vanguard Group, Inc., is owned by its U.S.-domiciled funds and ETFs [exchange-traded funds]. Those funds, in turn, are owned by their investors. …As a result, Canadian investors benefit from Vanguard’s low costs, client focus, stability and experience.”

The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group has an office in Toronto, Ontario.

Photo: Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. is located in the Bay Adelaide Centre at 22 Adelaide Street West, Suite 2500, in Toronto.

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

On October 29-30, 2024, Peace Brigades International-Canada visited Tocoa (where Mr. Lopez was killed on September 14, 2024) and the village of Guapinol (and saw the Guapinol River threatened by the Los Pinares megaproject that Mr. Lopez opposed).

We remain attentive to this situation and the safety of Guapinol River defenders.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa at court hearing versus coffee company

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 10, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Last week #PBIacompaña the Indigenous Council Maya Ch’orti’ of Olopa in a new hearing of the Cafe de La Conquista S.A. case.

During the hearing, an expert, with professional training as an agricultural engineer with specialization in natural resources, presented a report on water pollution caused by coffee-making activity. The expert answered questions from the Public Ministry, the Nation’s Attorney General’s Office and the defense lawyer.

Among other things, he explained that there have been leaks to the aquifer coats and that the necessary steps to treat the water were not met. He also indicated that the water pollution was related to the waste emitted during the coffee production process. Finally, he proved that these waste has direct impacts on the environment and human life.

The next hearing will take place on June 17 at the Zacapa Judicial Body building.”

In July 2024, PBI-Guatemala explained:

“The Ch’orti’ territory in Guatemala extends across the municipalities of Olopa, Camotán, Jocotán and San Juan Ermita in the department of Chiquimula, and the municipality of La Union, in the department of Zacapa, where a total of more than 100,000 Ch’orti’ Mayas live.

Coffee production in the area and, specifically, the discharge of polluting wastewater from the coffee cleaning process into the River Grande and artificial wells is affecting the lives of more than 10 communities and their water sources. The inhabitants, some 150 families, report foul odors, dead fish and skin diseases.

For the past five years, these communities have been unable to use the water sources for fishing, washing or drinking water.

In order to defend their right to water, the communities filed a complaint against Ovidio Cardona and his company “Café La Conquista” in 2022. The investigations are being carried out by the environmental prosecutor’s office of Zacapa, but to date there has been no judicial resolution to the problem.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International began accompanying the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa in June 2021, following their request, which is based on the serious increase in security incidents, defamation and criminalization processes they are experiencing.

Additional note:

Statistics Canada has reported: “In June 2024 alone, Canada imported 20.5 million kilograms of coffee (not roasted or decaffeinated), including both non-organic and certified organic coffee. Over one-third (38.2%) of it came from Colombia, while Brazil (21.4%), Guatemala (12.9%) and Honduras (9.9%) were also major suppliers.”

Trading Economics has also noted: “Canada Imports from Guatemala of Coffee, coffee husks, substitutes with coffee was US$113.74 Million during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Canada Imports from Guatemala of Coffee, coffee husks, substitutes with coffee – data, historical chart and statistics – was last updated on June of 2025.”

PBI-Honduras observes hearing of the alleged material perpetrators of the murder of environmental defender Juan Lopez

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 5, PBI-Honduras posted:

“Today, on World Environment Day, we remember defender Juan Lopez of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT), killed on September 14, 2024, after years of defending the Botaderos Mountain National Park in front of the mining. This week, we were in San Pedro Sula to observe the preliminary hearing against the alleged material perpetrators of this crime. Finally, the hearing was adjourned to August 14. Meanwhile, the CMDBCP continues to demand advancements in the search for the intellectual authority of crime, justice for the national park, and justice for the other defenders killed in recent years for their self-defense of the San Pedro and Guapinol rivers.”

Alleged material perpetrators

Radio Progreso reports that Óscar Alexis Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía are the three individuals implicated as the material perpetrators of the murder of Juan Lopez.

Amnesty International has noted: “On 6 October 2024, the Honduran Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that three people had been arrested as alleged perpetrators of Juan López’s murder. Three days later, a local court formally charged the suspects for the killing of the environmental defender and ordered their arrest. The three men have since been held in pretrial detention.”

The National Catholic Reporter has also explained: “In October, police arrested three men and charged them with being the ‘material authors’ of the assassination. After several delays, a preliminary hearing for the three men was held on June 3 where the judge delayed proceedings until Aug. 14.

Seeking the intellectual authors

The National Catholic Reporter has further noted: “Within hours of the Sept. 14 killing, the priest who heads the town’s San Isidro Labrador parish, Jesuit Fr. Carlos Orellana, alleged that the town’s mayor, Adán Fúnez, was responsible for the murder. Just days before he was killed, López, a member of the city council, had accused Fúnez of corruption and demanded that he resign.”

Radio Progreso has also reported: “At the end of the hearing, the analyst and Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno, known as ‘Padre Melo’, lamented the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which he accused of showing slowness and collusion with actors who seek impunity. …Moreno also pointed out that from the first day of the crime the names of the alleged masterminds were established, but that the inaction of the authorities suggests protection for certain actors, even for possible electoral purposes. ‘It seems that they are protecting something so as not to hinder the electoral process. Behind this crime there could be political interests,’ he warned.”

General elections are due to be held in Honduras on November 30, 2025, to elect the President, members of the National Congress and 20 members of the Central American Parliament.

Amnesty International has called “on the Honduran authorities to ensure that all those suspected of involvement in Juan López’s murder, whether as instigators or perpetrators, are brought to justice in fair trials.”

Corporate actors

Amnesty International has summarized: “Juan López was the coordinator of the CMDBCPT, an organization comprised by dozens of communities, religious groups and local environmental organisations from the municipality of Tocoa who since 2015 have been peacefully challenging the legality of the iron mining concessions granted to Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP), arguing that they have adversely affected the water quality of the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, as well as the protected Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park.”

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor has an office in Burlington, Ontario. Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group, the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto, Ontario.

Accompaniment

Honduras has the highest number of killings of land and environmental defenders per capita in the world, according to Global Witness.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

CREDHOS says “yes to popular consultation” on labour rights at mobilization in Barrancabermeja

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Credhos president Ivan Madero, at the rally on June 11 in Barrancabermeja, with the caption: “Let’s go for the popular consultation”.

On June 11, the Peace Brigades International accompanied Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (Credhos) posted on Facebook: “Here we all say YES. Barrancabermeja says YES to the Popular Consultation, in defense of the rights of the working people, we are going for social reforms.”

The day before, Credhos had also posted on X: “Let’s defend the referendum in the streets! Barrancabermeja, answer the call: let’s go for social reforms and in favor of the country’s working class. See you tomorrow from 5:00 pm on Telecom! #PopularConsultationNow #SocialReforms”

Providing additional context, Aljazeera reports: “Large numbers of people took to the streets of the capital, Bogota, and other cities across the country [including Barrancabermeja on June 11] to express continued support for a referendum on the reform proposed by the president [Gustavo Petro], even as the Senate debates an alternative bill. The protests come as Colombia is still reeling from bombing attacks in the southwest of the country that left seven dead and an attempted assassination on conservative opposition senator, and presidential hopeful, Miguel Uribe Turbay at a campaign rally in Bogota.”

France 24 further explains: “Petro, signed a decree on [June 11] that calls for a referendum or popular consultation on his labor reform project, one of the flagship bets of his government, the first left-wing in the history of the country. With the decree, the president challenges the opposition in the Senate, which sank his reform in March, and which three weeks ago refused to call a popular consultation.”

The position of CUT and CGT on the referendum

La Prensa adds that there is also an ongoing labour reform debate in the Senate, but that “according to the Central Union of Workers [CUT] and the General Confederation of Labor [CGT], the text that came out of the Senate committee does not vindicate the rights of employees. …The trade union organizations therefore consider the popular consultation as the most effective means of providing better working conditions to the salaried class.”

The likely date of the referendum: August 7

Infobae also notes: “As stipulated in Article 2 of the decree [signed by Petro], to which several media outlets had access, the call would be made for August 7, 2025. On that date, Colombians would be called to decide by vote whether to approve or reject a series of proposals related to labor rights, formalization of employment, working conditions, and social guarantees for different sectors.”

Bloomberg, Forbes and W Radio also report that the date of the referendum, if it does in fact proceed, will be August 7.

Could the referendum be stopped?

W Radio reports: It should be noted that the date is tentative, since the Government would repeal the decree that called for the consultation if the essential points of the labor reform, promoted by the Executive, which is discussed on June 11, are approved.”

And El Colombiano explains: “President Gustavo Petro made good on his threat and this Wednesday, skipping the Senate and defying the institutionality, he decided to sign the decree with which he calls for the popular consultation that Congress denied on May 14. Through a message on the social network X, the president formalized the call, although – with a hint of blackmail – he declared himself willing to repeal the document as long as the Senate, which is currently discussing the labor reform, accepts the text that was approved by the House of Representatives.”

Concerns about process

There does seem to be some civil society disagreement, not necessarily with respect to labour rights, but with process.

This statement, signed by Dejusticia, the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP/PPP), Temblores ONG and other organizations, argues: “We are aware of the urgent need to advance in profound social reforms that make the mandate of the Social Rule of Law enshrined in the 1991 Constitution a reality. Within these reforms, workers’ rights must be strengthened. …However, calling the popular consultation by decree is a decision that is based on an illegal interpretation that erodes the separation of powers. … The best way to guarantee workers’ rights and citizen participation is to exhaust the available institutional channels, even in scenarios of disagreement and tensions between the branches of public power.”

Past strikes, unfulfilled promises and the bomb attacks

In a longer statement on the bombing attacks, the PBI accompanied Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) references concern about the lack of State compliance with “commitments and agreements” that “leave unprotected those who bravely staged long and intense days of participation, mobilization and protest in the two presidential terms of Álvaro Uribe, the two of Juan Manuel Santos and that of Iván Duque.”

Specifically, Nomadesc notes: “The cases of the victims of the Buenaventura Civic Strike, irrelevant accusations, without security measures, to perpetrators of crimes against humanity or witnesses and threatened victims such as the cases of the murdered young women or sexually abused young girls in the strikes of 2017 (Buenaventura and Chocó), 2019 (National with the use of Collective Panic mechanisms), 2021 (National with the highest number of victims in Cali).”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Credhos since 1994, Nomadesc since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

The first PBI team arrived in Bogota in October 1994.

Reporting on the bombings and gun attacks, The Guardian now reports: “Many Colombians are fearful of a return to the violence of the 1980s and 1990s, when cartel attacks, guerrilla violence and political assassinations were commonplace.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: PBI-Colombia accompanied CREDHOS marches on May Day in support of Popular Consultation and labour rights (May 5, 2025).

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