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Warnings of road, rail and mine blockades if Ring of Fire declared a “special economic zone” under Ontario’s Bill 5 legislation

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo of members gathered around Thunder Spirit Drum inside the Ontario Legislature (Queen’s Park) in Toronto on May 22, 2025.

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

“The proposed law has sparked anger among First Nations, environmentalists and civil liberty groups who say the bill tramples rights and guts protections for endangered species.”

The article highlights: “The province is set to create so-called special economic zones that would suspend provincial and municipal laws for certain projects. [Ontario Premier Doug] Ford has said the province intends to declare the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario one such zone.”

NDP Member of Provincial Parliament Sol Mamakwa tells the Canadian Press he has heard about potential blockades of mines and roads from those in his riding of Kiiwetinoong, which includes the Ring of Fire region.

Video still of Sol Mamakwa speaking on Bill 5.

Grand Chief Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation has told CBC News: “There will be conflict on the ground, and those that oppose it will most likely end up in jail. That is where we’re heading.”

Photo of Chief Alvin Fiddler.

Grand Chief Fiddler has also highlighted: “This bill is an assault on our land and our people. Our people have been Subject to assault from colonial systems for a long time.  The day will come when our young people say enough is enough. That day is today.”

And he has told the Canadian Press that young people are “willing to do anything” to protect the land.

Hannah Sewell, co-chair of Ontario’s First Nations Young People’s Council, says: “When First Nations defend the land, we are also protecting our non-Indigenous kin — this is about all of us.”

Video still of Hannah Sewell.

Amendments will not be enough

And while provincial Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford says, “We’ve put some amendments forward”, Grand Chief Fiddler has stated about the proposed legislation, “I think we’re beyond amendments, we’re beyond tinkering with this bill. They have to withdraw it, and we start over again.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Ontario First Nations leaders warn of ‘conflict on the ground’ if controversial Bill 5 passes (CBC News, May 26, 2025).

Mayan community journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc reports on march in Izabal demanding cancellation of mining licences

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The sign says: “Caring for water is an act of love. Do it for yourself, for our children, for life on the planet. No to mining.”

Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc reports:

“On May 23, the 54 communities mobilized to demand that the environmental licenses and mining licenses in Cerro 1,019, located in the Sierra Santa Cruz, jurisdiction of Livingston, Izabal, be canceled. Several sectors joined the walk, such as the merchants’ union, transporters, public health, students and teachers, “water is life, let’s save the planet” shouted the girls and boys.

At the end of the walk in front of the municipal sub-mayor’s office in the village of Río Dulce, Livingston, Izabal, the three congressmen Darwin Edgardo Ramírez arrived, he was the first and 20 minutes later Deputy Thelma Ramírez arrived together with Deputy Juan Ramón Rivas, just as Governor Carlos Tenas took the floor.

It was a long meeting to reach an agreement because according to a community authority “it became a political show”, the representatives of the 54 communities demanded progress on the cancellation of mining licenses, because in the Sierra Santa Cruz there are 23 rivers and water sources, they also expressed their disagreement with the absence of [the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), the Minister of Energy and Mines (MEM), and the Attorney General of the Nation (PGN)].

Deputy Edgardo Ramírez asked that the next meeting be held on June 16 and that there be positive responses for the 54 communities, which demand that the State cancel the mining licenses, on hill 1,019 of the Sierra Santa Cruz.”

The full article is at En Izabal, caminata pacífica exigiendo la cancelación de licencias mineras (Periodismo Aj Ral Ch’och’, Medium, May 24, 2025).

There is also More sectors join the communities of Livingston to stop mining in Sierra Santa Cruz (Juan Bautista Xol, Prensa Comunitaria, May 24, 2025).

Additional background

On April 14, 2025, IRTF Cleveland noted: “On January 28, authorities from Guatemala’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) were called to a congressional hearing, at which it was disclosed that Rio Nickel, S.A. (a subsidiary of Canada-based Central America Nickel, or CAN) has more than a dozen mining exploration applications for nickel and other minerals, almost all of them located in the Sierra Santa Cruz region.”

The Toronto-based Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) has also posted about the recent murder of Misael Mata Asencio, a land defender from the Maya Q’eqchi’ village of Las Flores in Livingston.

MISN explains: “[Misael Mata Asencio] worked to protect mountain 1019 in Sierra Santa Cruz, where Rio Nickel mining company hopes to operate. Asencio supported an alliance of 54 communities working to identify holes left by Rio Nickel’s exploration drilling. Rio Nickel is a subsidiary of the Canadian-owned company, Central America Nickel, which is headquartered in Montréal, Quebec.”

Central America Nickel describes itself as follows on LinkedIn: “a Canadian corporation positioned to become a major global supplier of critical minerals and energy metals, including nickel, lithium and rare earth elements.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International began accompanying Maya Q’eqchi’ frontline journalist, human rights defender and environmentalist Carlos Ernesto Choc in April 2025.

PBI-Honduras follows Inter-American Court of Human Rights hearing on Garifuna Community of Cayos Cochinos vs Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 22, PBI-Honduras posted:

“From PBI, we will be closely following the sentence of the @corteidhoficial [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] after the hearing in the case ‘Garifuna Community of Cayos Cochinos and its members vs. Honduras’, which took place in Guatemala City yesterday. During the hearing, #defender Mabel Robledo of the #Garifuna #community of Nueva Armenia denounced how the Cayos Cochinos Foundation would not be conserving the territory but restricting Garifuna artisanal fishing and lending the islands for the filming of international reality shows. Recently, we accompanied the Garifuna defender on a visit to a recovered territory outside of Nueva Armenia, another area where the Garifuna people warn about the grabbing of their #ancestral territory by third parties, in this case the #Palmaafrican palm company Palmas de Atlántida.

A live stream of yesterday’s hearing was posted on the IACHR Court’s channels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydOOAAHlhwA.”

Mabel is on starting at about the 19-minute mark in the YouTube link.

Introduction to the IACtHR hearing

HCH Digital Television notes: “The present case concerns the possible international responsibility of the State of Honduras for the alleged violation of the right to collective property of the Garifuna Community of Cayos Cochinos and its members, as well as for the lack of adequate and effective remedies to remedy that situation.”

Criterio.hn further explains: “This hearing stems from a lawsuit filed on October 29, 2003 by OFRANEH before the IACHR against the State of Honduras for the multiple violations of rights and aggressions directed at the Garifuna community of Cayos Cochinos. In other words, more than 20 years have passed since this petition was presented and to this day the aggressions and systematic violence against the Garifuna people of Cayos Cochinos continue to be present.

Contra Corriente also reports: “On May 21, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) held a public hearing in Guatemala City on the case of the Garifuna community of Cayos Cochinos and its members Honduras vr. the State in the framework of its 176th period of sessions of the inter-American system. The case was presented by the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) which accuses the State of Honduras of violations of the territorial and cultural rights and self-determination of the Garifuna community.”

The article highlights: “Mabel Robledo, tells us in an interview with our editorial director Jennifer Avila, that, since 1993, when the Cayos Cochinos Foundation was created with the supposed objective of protecting the territory and safeguarding natural resources, the Garifuna communities have lived a process of systematic exclusion. It also points out that, far from benefiting the indigenous peoples, the Honduran State facilitated the Navy so that, through this foundation, the right to food was violated and restrictions were imposed on fishing, one of the fundamental pillars of community life.”

Testimony by Mabel Robledo

Another article in Criterio.hn reports:

“Mabel Ávila Robledo raised the unequal relationship in which the Garifuna live under the administration of the Cayos Cochinos Foundation, which manages the protected area. They point out the forced disappearances, threats, raids and deforestation of which the Garifuna are victims and that they point to the Foundation and military stationed in the area as responsible for them.

In addition to this, he raised how during the filming of reality shows – for which the Foundation is remunerated – their movement, fishing and other economic activities are restricted. Nor, he said, are they taken into account in the development of environmental management plans. She said that when members of the Navy arrive in Chachahuate, they open the doors without a judge’s order and regardless of the time.

Ávila Robledo also denounced that while the Garifuna populations are restricted from artisanal fishing, the Cayos Cochinos Foundation has allowed industrial fishing by third parties. She remarked that the Garifuna people are not against conservation, but that the reality of the Foundation is that it puts profit before protection. She exemplified this situation with the filming of reality television shows in Cayo Paloma and El Playón, nesting sites for birds and sea turtles.

“Let them go! The Foundation is not there to conserve. We are not against conservation, I come back and repeat. What we are against is the monopoly that the Foundation has to continue getting rich. The Foundation came to that area and saw that it had opportunities to make money… They build management plans that they themselves do not respect,” she remarked.”

Accompaniment

Criterio.hn reports: “The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras has documented and recorded multiple attacks against Garifuna communities defending their territorial rights. OFRANEH continues to be one of the most attacked organizations in the country, as they are the ones who are in direct confrontation with this capitalist, racist system of dispossession against the Garifuna people.”

PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Mabel Robledo on Garifuna territory in Honduras on October 31, 2024. More on what we learned at that time at PBI-Honduras visits Garifuna community of Nueva Armenia following police violence after recovery project (November 3, 2024).

PBI-Mexico accompanies Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at demonstration seeking dialogue on proposals

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Mexico has posted:

“Today, May 22, PBI accompanies the Peoples Front [in Defence of Land and Water] Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala at a peaceful demonstration in San Andres Cholula that seeks the opening of dialogue tables with the Municipal Presidency, with the objective of initiating a conversation about the integration of the proposals of the Peoples in the Urban Development Plans. We call on the competent authorities to establish an open dialogue respectful of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples.”

Context

On May 22, Urbano reported: “Demanding that the Urban Development Program of San Andrés Cholula take into account the needs of the indigenous communities, inhabitants of that municipality closed the federal highway to Atlixco. It was before 11 a.m. on Thursday [May 22] when residents placed tires at the height of the main church of San Bernardino Tlaxcalancingo, in front of the sports field.”

That article adds: “They assured that three universities have ruled that their proposals are viable and necessary to protect their territory, but they accused the municipal president, Guadalupe Cuautle Torres, of closing herself to dialogue.”

Periódico Enfoque notes: “Juan Carlos Flores Solís, lawyer for the demonstrators, criticized the municipal government’s refusal to incorporate the studies carried out by specialists from UDLAP [Universidad de las Américas Puebla], the Universidad Iberoamericana and the BUAP [Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla], which question the model of “compact cities” that is sought to be implemented in San Andrés Cholula.”

E-consulta further highlights: “The contingent, made up of about 100 people, closed the road in both directions this Thursday morning, affecting traffic to Puebla and San Andres Cholula. During the demonstration, the attendees expressed: ‘Enough of dispossession of water for the people of Cholula, of actions against us, of those who defend our territory against private companies such as Grupo Proyecta’.”

That article quotes the group stating the reason for their blockade of the highway: “It has been more than six months since the rulings [from the three universities] were issued and the dialogue has not been reestablished. That is why we are holding this demonstration today, to demand that the president Guadalupe Cuautle and state government officials come. …All the real estate speculation, the displacement that the towns are experiencing, the increase in taxes, the difficulty in obtaining deeds and the scarcity of water are due to an urban model that favors real estate investment.”

Cholultec Peoples Demand Dialogue for Urban Charter

Angulo 7 also explains: “The members of the Choluteca peoples explained that, in 2024, the [three universities] ruled that their proposals had a technical and legal reason for the preservation of their territory and that there should be no more movable developments that affect the soil and natural resources. They recalled that on November 7 of last year, the municipal president of San Andrés Cholula, Guadalupe Cuautle Torres, promised to follow up on the working groups, include a diagnosis and a proposal for water management within the PMDU [Municipal Urban Development Program]. However, the Cholultec peoples accused that since then the mayor did not give continuity to the agreements made with the City Council in September 2023 and that she herself ratified.”

Municipios Pueblos also notes: “They pointed out that the objective is to integrate the proposals of these peoples and put an end to real estate speculation, silent displacement, tax increases, water scarcity due to the lack of a development program. Neighbors came and participated in this blockade, and pointed out that since 2018 this program was presented with a vision of development contrary to what the towns request, generating land dispossession to have dense cities and large avenues. They charged that these actions have led to a loss of more than 30 percent of the territory of the Indigenous Peoples, with ejidos that were agricultural and that today are large subdivisions.”

In response to the highway blockade, El Sol de Puebla reported: “Regarding the situation, the City Council of San Andrés Cholula issued a press release, where it reported that Mayor Guadalupe Cuautle Torres went to Casa Agua to participate in the dialogue table with the Indigenous Peoples and with representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, however, they were still waiting for the first to arrive. Therefore, it was made clear that the local government is open to dialogue to address issues of social interest.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala since early 2020. In August 2022, that accompaniment was extended for another three years.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Tosepan Cooperative assembly where the security situation of communities is discussed

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Mexico has posted:

“Last Sunday, May 18, PBI was invited by the Tosepan Cooperative, integrated by more than 200 communities of the Sierra Norte de Puebla, to accompany their assembly in which they discussed the security situation in the communities.”

Tosepan Kali has explained: “Tosepan Kali, which in our Nahuatl language means ‘Our House’, is a cooperative of alternative tourism, created under the cooperative movement of the Tosepan Titataniske Cooperative Society, an organization comprised of indigenous peasant families from the Northeastern Sierra of Puebla, working together to improve our quality of life.”

Their webpage adds: “At Tosepan Kali, we are committed to conducting tourism activities in harmony with nature. For this reason, all our facilities are equipped with eco-technologies, such as the use of alternative materials, rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment systems, solid waste management, and solar energy capture systems.”

El Pais has also reported: “In 1977, a group of Nahua indigenous people from the Sierra Norte de Puebla, in Mexico, organized to go on horseback to collect four packages of sugar in Zacapoaxtla, a municipality 140 kilometers away, to get rid of the intermediaries and get a fairer price. …That same year, the peasants collected nine tons of pepper with the contribution of a part of their crops: their product was sold outside the region and the price they obtained was three times higher than that paid by the intermediaries. In 1978, they did the same with coffee, and in 1980 they officially formed the Tosepa Titataniske Regional Agricultural Cooperative Society, which means United We Will Overcome.”

That article adds: “Its network has also extended to the defense of the territory against extractive projects in the mountains, generating a strong commitment to issues of environmental conservation, gender equality, human rights, education and identity, explains its president.”

Alberto Feliciano Severiano, current president of the Union of Tosepan Cooperatives, says: “Thanks to the existence of Tosepan, it has not been possible to install megaprojects in Cuetzalan that would damage the environment in an irreparable way. For example, in 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice invalidated the mining concessions, which were more or less about 745 thousand hectares, and which they wanted to exploit in the open pit. That seems to me to set a very important precedent for history.”

In 2018, the Cooperative also commented: “It is important to point out the work in defense of the territory that we carry out hand in hand with other social organizations in the region, which aims to protect the villages from the environmental deterioration that concessioned extractive projects seek to install in the mountains.”

We continue to follow this.

Sentencing of Indigenous land defenders who defended Wet’suwet’en territory from megaproject set for Smithers court, October 15-17

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 22, a Keepers of the Water-organized webinar on the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders in Canada was hosted by Jesse Cardinal.

The webinar featured Sleydo’ – Molly Wickham, Wing Chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation; Chief Na’Moks, Hereditary Chief, Tsayu Clan, Wet’suwet’en Nation; Gwii Lok’im Gibuu – Jesse Stoeppler, Gitxsan hereditary leader and co-director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC); Shaylynn Sampson, Gitxsan from Wilp Spookxw of the Lax Gibuu with Wet’suwet’en family ties; Erin Riley-Oettl, Manager, Human Rights Law, Campaigns And Advocacy at Amnesty International Canada; and Frances Mahon, a Vancouver-based criminal defence lawyer.

During this webinar, Mahon stated: “We are moving on to the sentencing process [for Sleydo’, Shaylynn and Corey Jayohcee Jocko], that will happen October 15th, 16th and 17th on Gidimt’en territory in Smithers, British Columbia. I really encourage anybody who is in the area or is able to travel to actually come up and to witness that.”

UN Special Rapporteur

This is a sentencing that has already garnered international attention.

When it was unclear if the sentencing would be in April, Mary Lawlor, the Dublin-based United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, posted on social media that these “HRDs [human rights defenders] continue to be criminalised for the peaceful defence of human rights & the environment [and that she] will be closely following their sentencing.”

The UN Special Rapporteur also tagged @CanadaGeneva in her post. That’s the Permanent Mission of Canada to the World Trade Organization, United Nations & Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Background

On April 3, 2025, the Prince George Citizen explained: “In January 2024, [BC Supreme Court Justice Michael] Tammen found Wet’suwet’en Nation’s Molly Wickham (aka Sleydo’), Gitxsan member Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jocko, a Mohawk from Akwesasne guilty of contempt of court” for disobeying in November 2019 a court injunction that prohibited impeding the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.

“[Then] on February 18, Tammen decided they will face reduced sentences for disobeying an injunction, but dismissed their application to stay the charges [despite ruling that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Community-Industry Response Group had] breached the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of life, liberty and security of person [during a militarized raid on November 18-19, 2021].”

“[Now after a Thursday] April 3 BC Supreme Court scheduling hearing in Smithers, Tammen said that his schedule and the time needed for pre-sentencing reports have delayed the three-day [sentencing] hearing until fall [at some point in the months of September, October or possibly as late as November].”

“[That’s because] one cannot proceed [with the sentencing of the three land defenders] prior to preparation of Gladue Reports, which analyze the history of an Indigenous defendant and how family and personal suffering contributed to their offence [and] those reports may not be done until July or August.”

The article further noted: “[Justice Tammen] adjourned the matter until April 25 for another scheduling hearing.”

That is where the October 15-17, 2025, sentencing date was set.

Prisoners of conscience designation

At the time of the February 18 ruling, the Canadian Press reported: “Tammen says that criminal contempt carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but those convicted typically receive short sentences.”

Ana Piquer, the Mexico City-based Americas director at Amnesty International, has previously commented: “If the Canadian state decides to unjustly criminalize and confine Sleydo’, Shaylynn, and Corey, Amnesty International will not hesitate to designate them as prisoners of conscience. Canada is on the sadly long list of countries in the Americas where land defenders remain at risk for their essential work.”

On the Keepers of the Water webinar, Riley-Oettl at Amnesty International Canada reiterated: “When we are looking at the next chapter, the sentencing is in the fall. Amnesty International designated Chief Dsta’hyl as the first ever prisoner of conscience held in Canada. For Amnesty International, we will make a lot of noise and we’ll do it again. We will make a lot of noise to say it is not okay to criminalize individuals and hold them in their house or in jail, either house arrest or jail time, solely for political, religious or consciously-held beliefs or an unchangeable characteristic about themselves. They have not used violence and they are being detained and it’s unlawful. And so we hope that there is no need, but if it happens again in the fall where anyone has house arrest or jail time, then we are prepared to also declare prisoners of conscience again.”

Peace Brigades International in Geneva and Ottawa, along with PBI teams in multiple other countries, continues to follow this situation.

To watch the full webinar, click here.

Questions and concerns continue one year after the #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests in Kenya

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Tear gas used against Kenya budget protests, June 26, 2024. Image from Wikimedia/Capital FM Kenya.

We are at the one-year anniversary of the protests in Kenya against the Finance Bill, widely known as #RejectFinanceBill2024.

The legislation was introduced by the Kenyan government on May 13, 2024, online protests began soon after on May 18, that then evolved into protests on the streets of Nairobi that began on June 18, the President then declined to sign the legislation on June 26, and protests continued throughout July and into August 2024.

The Guardian has also explained: “In June 2024, protests erupted in Kenya’s capital. They were triggered by a draft finance bill that proposed tax hikes on essential items, increasing the burden on citizens already struggling through a cost of living and inflation crisis. …The protests were peaceful, with songs, placards and chants. But politicians dug their heels in, and the police began to use water cannon, release teargas and shoot into the crowds. …Brute repression not only did not work, it inflamed tensions.”

Now, BBC reports: “Leading human rights organisations have renewed calls for investigations into the killing of protesters by Kenya’s security forces during demonstrations against a rise in taxes last June.”

That article adds: “BBC Africa Eye’s Blood Parliament documentary revealed how security forces brutally responded to youthful protesters who breached Kenya’s parliament on 25 June 2024, the day lawmakers voted to approve the proposed tax hikes.”

That 37-minute documentary can be seen here.

Tear gas

On May 12, 2025, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported: “Tear Gas Made in Israel Has Been Used to Violently Suppress Protests in Africa.”

The Omega Research Foundation notes: “Our open-source research revealed that security forces used tear gas grenades, most of which, we believe, were manufactured by ISPRA Ltd, an Israeli company specialising in developing and manufacturing devices for riot control, crowd management, anti-terror equipment, and police gear. ISPRA’s products include tear gas grenades, anti-riot guns, and various types of ammunition, some of which have been used by security operatives in the Kenyan protests.”

Their research concludes: “As Israel leverages its expertise in surveillance and crowd control technologies for diplomatic and economic gains in Africa, concerns grow about the potential consequences. The deepening of dictatorships and weakening of democracy across the continent can no longer be ignored. In light of these developments, it is imperative to critically examine how Israel’s involvement in African security matters might be impacting the political landscape. The increasing use of Israeli-supplied crowd control equipment, such as tear gas, not only affects public health but also influences the dynamics of civil unrest and state responses. This calls for a nuanced understanding and rigorous scrutiny of the long-term consequences of such exports on the democratic fabric and human rights conditions in African countries.”

The Who Profits Research Center has also explained: “Ispra is a private Israeli company that manufactures and markets non-lethal weapons and gear for crowd control and suppression. The company manufactures a range of products including rubber bullets, tear gas, stun and smoke grenades, and non-lethal guns and launchers. The company also manufactures equipment to military, police and homeland security agencies.”

Video: Barack Obama’s sister speaks to CNN after getting tear gassed during Nairobi protest (CNN, June 25, 2024).

PBI-Kenya

In May 2024, Peace Brigades International-Kenya coordinator Alberto Fait commented: “Marching against tear gas to exercise constitutional rights requires courage. Making changes requires courage.”

By July 17, 2024 ,PBI-Kenya had signed a statement with other organizations that urged the investigation and prosecution of “police officers and their commanders who have violated Kenyans’ rights during the ongoing protests. It remains a matter of public concern that no single officer, as yet, has been arrested for the arbitrary arrests, abductions or unlawful killing of Kenyans in recent weeks.”

Missing Voices

The Missing Voices report published earlier this month also notes: “Missing Voices is a coalition of human rights organizations whose mission is to end enforced disappearances (EDs) and extrajudicial killings (EKs) in Kenya. …Since the release of the first report in 2019, Missing Voices has documented 970 incidents of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings over the last 6 years. These include 167 incidents of enforced disappearances and 803 incidents of extrajudicial killings.”

The report provides this chart that suggests most of the extrajudicial killings in Kenya are committed by the national police. A significant additional question may be what countries and companies supply the weapons used in these extrajudicial executions.

Page 29 of the Missing Voices report.

CANSEC arms show, May 28

It is possible that Kenya will be one of the 50+ international delegations that will be present at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa this coming May 28-29.

That list is not made publicly available by the organizers of CANSEC and a previous request to Global Affairs Canada by PBI-Canada in June 2022 asking for the names of the delegations attending CANSEC was never answered.

We remain attentive to this issue.

Further related reading: PBI-Canada to observe the Shut Down CANSEC mobilization in Ottawa, May 28.

Instagram: @shut.down.cansec

PBI-Guatemala observes the court hearing of army-paramilitary violence against Achi women, sentencing on May 30

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 20, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday #PBI observes the continuation of the hearing of conclusions of the #mujeresachi [Achi women] case in which the court gave them the floor:

“I represent the Achí women, I ask the court to pass sentence against the accused. I recognized them, I suffered in my own flesh what they did. It would not be possible for them to go free. For the people of Guatemala, for the women, I ask that they be sentenced.”

“I did not come here to lie, I have only told the truth. I already learned that we women have rights, so if justice is not done then they are going to violate our rights as women. Now I am bitterly living my life because of what they did to us.

La continuation of the findings will follow on May 30 at 8:30 am.”

On May 19, Agence France-Presse reported: “Two indigenous Mayan women recounted in court on Monday the suffering they experienced after being raped by paramilitaries who collaborated with the Guatemalan army in the 1980s, during the civil war.”

Prensa Libre also reported:

“On May 19, in the High Risk Court B, the debate continued on the Achí Women case, where a group of women accuses three former members of a paramilitary force of the crime of sexual violence, which they would have committed during the time of the Internal Armed Conflict.

The court gave the floor to the aggrieved parties in the process, who requested a conviction against the three defendants. However, due to the non-appearance of a lawyer for the defendants, the court postponed the continuation of the debate to May 30. It will be the turn of the defendants to give their last word before the debate closes and a sentence is handed down.”

Agencia Ocote further confirms: “On May 30, the three accused of committing sexual violence and other crimes against humanity could know the final sentence of the High Risk Court B.”

The Internal Armed Conflict

In September 2018, Aljazeera reported: “Over the course of the war, which began in 1960 and formally ended in 1996, more than 200,000 people were killed and another 43,000 were forcibly disappeared. More than 80 percent of the victims were indigenous Maya people. The worst of the atrocities took place in the Maya Ixil region, 225km northwest of Guatemala City.”

Human Rights Watch has also noted: “[Former Guatemalan president] Rios Montt was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the crime of genocide and 30 years for crimes against humanity in a sentence that was handed down on May 10, 2013, by Judge Yassmin Barrios in Guatemala City. In her decision, Barrios said Rios Montt was fully aware of plans to exterminate the indigenous Ixil population carried out by security forces under his command [during his 17-month rule from 1982 to 1983].”

Who armed genocide?

LaHora.gt has noted that the three members of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PAC) allegedly committed crimes of duty against humanity and rape against women from the Achí community of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, during the Internal Armed Conflict between 1981 and 1982.

In December 2023, Professor Mark Lewis Taylor wrote:

“In Guatemala of the 1980s, a counterinsurgency by U.S.-backed military governments slaughtered Maya indigenous and tens of thousands of other dissidents and suspects. There was no social media to cover it.

The period [of 1981 to 1983] is often called a “hidden/silent holocaust,” the “Guatemala holocaust” or the “Maya holocaust.”

I knew something of Israel’s history of war and repression in Palestine, but I did not know then, in 1987, of its connections to supplying police and military equipment as well as advisors in technology and surveillance to Guatemala.”

Lewis Taylor also specifies: “In an infamous massacre, one of many, the Israeli connection was clearly present. At the village of Dos Erres on December 6, 1982. Israeli-trained commandos left the village completely burned down, after shooting, torturing and/or raping over 200 villagers. A UN investigative team reported: “All the ballistic evidence recovered corresponded to bullet fragments from firearms and pods of Galil rifles made in Israel” (Trans. of Spanish report, volume 6, appendix 1, p. 410).”

His full article can be read at Israel and Genocide: Not Only In Gaza (CounterPunch).

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International is accompanying processes related to both the paramilitary assaults against Achi women and the Dos Erres massacre.

The Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) is a coalition of survivors from 22 communities in five regions of the country that suffered as a result of the scorched earth policy between 1978 and 1985. Peace Brigades International began accompanying the AJR Board of Directors in April 2024.

FAMDEGUA was accompanied by PBI from 1992 until 1999, when PBI’s Guatemala Project was temporarily closed. PBI began accompanying FAMDEGUA again in April 2024.

Peace Brigades International is also now accompanying Maya Q’eqchi’ frontline journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc. He has posted on social media: “#FreePalestine “Colonization is the same everywhere. Indigenous people carry this trauma and we’re watching it recreate it over and over again, but that’s where the most intense solidarity comes from – this should not happen to anyone,” Landsem told @hyperallergic.”

Nipinet Landsem is a nonbinary, queer, Anishinaabe and Michif illustrator. They are a descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota and an enrolled citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation in Manitoba, Canada.

Further reading:

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Famdegua at hearing on Inter-American Court ruling and acquittal of three soldiers in Dos Erres massacre (April 27, 2024)

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) at #MujeresAchí trial (January 30, 2025).

PBI-Mexico accompanies march in solidarity with the disappeared during the Mendez Arceo National Human Rights Award in Cuernavaca

By
Brent Patterson
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The Cerezo Committee has posted: “30th Mendez Arceo National Human Rights Award in Cuernavaca, Morelos”

El Sol de Cuernavaca reports: “Mothers of the Disappeared Receive Sergio Méndez Arceo Award for Their Struggle in Mexico.”

 “Veronica Rosas, mother of Diego Maximiliano, who disappeared in the State of Mexico, received the award in the individual category, and the collective Returning Home Morelos received it in the group category. …The collective was founded by Angelica Rodriguez and Edith Hernandez in 2012, following the disappearance of their daughter Viridiana and her brother Israel, respectively.”

The article also notes: “The mothers and other relatives of missing persons made a short march from the Cathedral, through the Plaza de Armas, to the memorial to the victims outside the Government Palace, and back to the Cathedral.”

And it highlights:

“During the speech, read by Francisco Cerezo, member of the Comité Cerezo, the serious situation of forced disappearance in Mexico was exposed. In addition, the issue of migration was addressed, especially with the tensions with the United States, given the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

“Enforced disappearance and disappearance committed by private individuals, as well as the phenomenon of migration in our country, continue. It is not by denying the problem of these phenomena that the Mexican State will solve and guarantee justice. On the contrary, only by accepting this situation, it is possible to take the necessary and urgent measures to generate processes of justice, truth, memory and comprehensive reparation, which really bring relief to the suffering of all the people in our country,” he said.

He added: “More than 13,000 disappeared and more than 75,000 unidentified bodies, after a six-year term where the word ‘change’ was recurrent, denies in fact this change. We cannot say that we are the same, but we are not better off, and that is what thousands of mothers, fathers and family members searching for their loved ones point out in every step they take to find them.”

The full article can be read at Madres de desaparecidos reciben Premio Sergio Méndez Arceo por su lucha en México (El Sol de Cuernavaca, 17 de mayo de 2025).

PBI-Canada participates in community screening of “The Lab” in the lead-up to the CANSEC arms show

By
Brent Patterson
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On Sunday May 18, PBI-Canada participated in a community screening of The Lab. The screening and discussion was organized by Labour for Palestine Ottawa with the support of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the Anti-Imperialist Alliance, Anakbayan Ottawa, Shut Down CANSEC, and others.

The synopsis of the documentary by Yotam Feldman and Gum Films notes: “Since 9/11, the Israeli arms industries are doing bigger business than ever before. Large Israeli companies develop and test the vessels of future warfare, which is then sold worldwide by private Israeli agents, who manipulate a network of Israeli politicians and army commanders, while Israeli theoreticians explain to various foreign countries how to defeat civil and para-military resistance. All based on the extensive Israeli experience. The film reveals The Lab, which has transformed the Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank from a burden to a marketable, highly profitable, national asset.”

The 59-minute documentary can be watched online here.

Israel has supplied weapons used in the genocide in Guatemala (including the Galil rifles used in the Dos Erres massacre); fighter jets, small arms, artillery, ammunition, transport aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft for repression in Honduras; Colombia has purchased Israeli-manufactured weapons, drones and spying technologies for decades; Mexico “has looked toward Israel for help in repressing dissent, Indigenous communities and activists”; the Indonesian government has reportedly used the Israeli spyware Pegasus against activists; and that Kenyan security forces may have used gas grenades manufactured by an Israeli company against recent popular protests.

The documentary also notes that Israeli weapons were used in extrajudicial executions by police in Brazil, while the discussion also mentioned that Israel supplied weapons to the right-wing terror in El Salvador, apartheid South Africa, and repression in the Philippines (Israel’s second largest arms export market that accounted for 12 percent of Israel’s arms exports during the period of 2019 to 2023).

France bans Israel from Eurosatory arms show

The Lab also included an interview filmed at the Eurosatory arms show in Paris (presumably in June 2012) in which former Israeli Minister of Defence then Minister of Trade and Industry Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is asked by filmmaker/journalist Yotam Feldman: “Why the demand for Israeli weapons?”. His response: “People like to buy things that have been tested. If Israel sells weapons they’ve been tested, tried out.”

Notably, Defense News reported in May 2024: “France has banned Israeli firms from participating in Eurosatory, Europe’s largest defense show, a little over two weeks before the event kicks off in Paris, with the government citing Israel’s military actions in Gaza.” Once Eurosatory was underway in June 2024, Euronews reported: “For the first time, Israel was barred from the event due to its ongoing offensive in Gaza.”

More than 70 Israeli companies had been scheduled to participate in Eurosatory, including Israel’s three largest weapons manufacturers, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems.

Shut Down CANSEC, May 28

The film was shown in the lead-up to the community mobilization against the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa this coming May 28.

Along with Elbit, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) is expected to exhibit at CANSEC 2025.

IAI North America (the U.S subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.) and Elbit are members of CADSI, the Ottawa-based association that organizes CANSEC. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has listed both IAI and Elbit as companies profiting from the genocide in Gaza.

Further reading: Front Line Defenders documents the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders, many by Israeli airstrikes (May 18, 2025).

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