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Five points to consider with respect to human rights obligations and the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 28-29

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: CANSEC last year.

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) organized CANSEC arms show will take place in Ottawa this coming May 28-29.

Through the lens of PBI-Canada’s work to protect the lives of human rights defenders (HRDs) who are threatened with violence and assassination, we provide this analysis that connects CANSEC with potential risks to HRDs.

Public funding and adherence to UN Guiding Principles

1- The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada has posted that CADSI received $291,400.00 from Global Affairs Canada in 2024 and $208,600.00 from GAC in 2023. This appears to date back to at least to 2010 when they received $142,876.00 from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAITC).

Companies, including “defence and security” companies, have obligations under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Amnesty International has commented: “This means companies must assess and address human rights risks and abuses arising in all aspects of their business, including how clients such as national armies and police forces use their weaponry and related services.”

The Government of Canada says it has adopted these internationally respected guidelines and that it expects Canadian companies operating abroad to abide by them.

And yet Amnesty International has highlighted: “Major industry players including Airbus, BAE Systems and Raytheon [all of which are CADSI members] are not undertaking adequate human rights due diligence which could prevent their products from being used in potential human rights violations and war crimes.”

Transparency about countries that violate human rights

2- In September 2021, The Guardian reported: “[Along with Saudi Arabia, the] countries formally invited by the Department for International Trade (DIT) to the bi-annual DSEI (Defence and Security Equipment International) arms fair at London’s Excel that are considered to be a human rights concern were Bahrain, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and Iraq.”

The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) has previously posted: “At CANSEC 2014, CCC led eight foreign delegations visiting from Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Kuwait, Mexico, Peru, and Saudi Arabia.”

And the organizers of CANSEC posted in 2015 the delegations included: “Argentina; Bahrain; Chile; Denmark; Equatorial Guinea; Israel; Italy; Kuwait; Mexico; New Zealand; Oman; Peru; United States; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom.”

CADSI does not currently publicly disclose the list of the “50+ international delegations” that will be at CANSEC 2025. This information would be very helpful to facilitate the type of public debate The Guardian article generated.

The Canadian Commercial Corporation and accountability

3- In June 2017, the Philippines Embassy in Canada posted on Facebook: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Canadian government corporation, invited and hosted the Philippine Delegation [at CANSEC].”

This invitation to the Philippines from the CCC came a year into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte who has now been arrested on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity dating back to November 2011.

In May 2018, National Post journalist David Pugliese further reported: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation acknowledges it conducts no follow-up to ensure exported Canadian-built equipment isn’t being used to abuse human rights.”

If the Canadian Commercial Corporation did do that follow-up, they might note that Global Witness and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment have documented that “the Philippine military [is] the single biggest perpetrator of lethal attacks [against environmental defenders] across the country.”

Global Witness chart of land and environmental defenders killed.

The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act

4- Both the Project Ploughshares peace research institute and the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries have stated that Canadian military exports to the United States are at least $1 billion a year.

Esprit de Corps has also reported: “The U.S. is the main market for Canadian defence exports, according to CADSI. That is valued at over $4.5 billion annually.”

Last year, Project Ploughshares highlighted: “The Government of Canada does not regulate the majority of Canada’s military transfers to the United States.”

The “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act”, sponsored by US Representative Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. in 2021, proposed: “To suspend United States security assistance with Honduras until such time as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”

The legislation also states: “The Honduran military and police are widely established to be deeply corrupt and commit human rights abuses, including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder, with impunity.”

Project Ploughshares has recommended that Canada should “begin a full reporting of the transfer of military goods, including parts and components, to the United States.”

Without this transparency, we cannot know if Canadian exports to the U.S. help construct the “security assistance” they send to Honduran security forces that the “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” is seeking to suspend.

International laws and the criminalization of protest

5- In January 2024, three Canadian law professors commented: “The International Court of Justice has issued a ground-breaking decision in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, ordering Israel to comply with six provisional measures to safeguard the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from genocidal violence. The court’s order is binding on Israel and formalizes the international legal obligations of other countries that are parties to the UN Genocide Convention.”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has documented this list of companies implicated in this violence and that arguably have obligations under the UN Genocide Convention and, as previously mentioned, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Five CANSEC 2025 sponsors – Google, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Cisco and Leonardo – are on the AFSC list.

It is unclear if the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have sought a legal opinion following the ICJ ruling with respect to their obligations given the States and companies present at CANSEC.

What is clear, however, is that the OPS and the OPP appear to have focused considerable resources on facilitating the entrance of the representatives of arms companies and international delegations (whatever their human rights records might be) to the CANSEC arms show while criminalizing those who assemble on public spaces outside the EY Centre to protest genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

We continue to follow this.

We further note the Shut Down CANSEC Instagram page.

PBI notes COP30 caravans, assemblies and calls for the protection of environmental defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Image by France 24: “Brazil and Colombia were the two countries where the most environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, followed by the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras.”

Peace Brigades International (PBI) teams are monitoring the various initiatives being planned to highlight and amplify the voices of front line environmental defenders in the lead-up to and during the United Nations COP30 climate conference that will take place this coming November 10-21 in Belém do Pará, Brazil.

Environmental defenders continue to be killed

On November 6, 2021, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) tweeted that an image of Berta Caceres was projected onto a building in Glasgow, Scotland during COP26. Caceres was murdered in March 2016, just months after COP15 in Paris. Global Witness has documented on an annual basis the number of defenders killed and that “over 1,500 defenders have been murdered since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change on 12 December 2015.”

No “concrete protections” for environmental defenders

On March 24, Shauna Gillooly and Simón Escoffier from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile noted: “The UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) framework – established under Article 6 of the UNFCCC and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement [that was, as noted above, agreed to at COP21 in 2015] … recognises that education, awareness and participation are essential for achieving climate goals by fostering a society-wide response to the crisis.”

They then comment: “[Latin America] is the deadliest for climate activism, with alarming levels of murders of environmental defenders. Yet [the Action for Climate Empowerment framework] provides them with no legal or financial support or concrete protections or tools to hold governments and corporations accountable.”

Virtual Global Women’s Assembly, June 23-28

On March 8, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) announced they are organizing a virtual “Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond!” that will take place June 23-28.

The Global Women’s Assembly will include a session on June 27 titled: “Implementing the Escazu Agreement: Protecting Women Land Defenders and the Defense of Nature in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The Call to Action from a previous Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice in the lead-up to COP26 stated: “We call on all governments to respect the right of freedom of expression and peaceful protest, and to immediately halt the criminalization of land defenders, whose efforts are central to a climate-just world.”

Lawlor calls on Brazil to make COP30 safe for defenders

On March 5, Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, stated: “There is a great opportunity with COP30 in Belém this year. The Climate COP has historically been a hostile and risky space for human rights defenders. I urge the Brazilian authorities to change that.”

Caravana de Cali a Belém

On February 27, Susana Muhamad launched “the ‘Caravana de Cali a Belém’ initiative to create broad citizen participation towards UN Climate Change Conference COP30 taking place in November 2025 in Belém do Pará (Brazil).”

Mesoamerican Caravan to begin October 12

On February 19, the Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory (APIIDTT) issued this “pre-call” for a “Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life” that is “to be held between October 12 and November 10, 2025”. The route of the caravan begins in Mexico, then crosses through Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Colombia before arriving in Brazil for the start of COP30.

Anti-COP and People’s Summit

And in December 2024, Bernardo Jurema, a Potsdam, Germany-based climate researcher, noted: “Alternative forums, like the ‘anti-COP’ and the People’s Summit gatherings, will likely draw attention to voices often marginalized in official negotiations, further intensifying the dialogue around justice and equity.”

In August 2024, a National Plenary was held in Brazil along with “the public launch of the Peoples’ Summit” and “discussions about the Summit’s role at COP30”. Their “manifesto” calls “upon organizations, networks, collectives, and social movements from various sectors to build the People’s Summit towards COP 30, capable of mobilizing public opinion, strengthening participatory and popular democracy, denouncing and blocking setbacks, as well as pressuring decision-makers in Brazil and around the world.”

We continue to be attentive to updates about these gatherings.

Peace Brigades International will also be announcing its plans shortly, including webinars highlighting the protection needs of environmental defenders.

PBI-Canada monitoring and amplifying PBI-Mexico’s accompaniment of organizations, defenders and communities

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: On March 20, 2025, PBI-Mexico accompanied the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water at  a protest in Mexico City calling for the closure of a landfill.

The Cuernavaca, Morelos-based Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project currently accompanies six organizations. They are:

1-The People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water (FPDTA) in Puebla and Morelos (Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua (FPDTA) en Puebla y Morelos)

On February 3, 2025, the newspaper El Universal reported: “Between February 20 and 23, a robust agenda of activities was developed within the framework of the Global Day: Justice for Samir Flores Soberanes. This day was convened by the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala (FPDTA), the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) with a double purpose: to denounce impunity in the murder of the leader and social communicator Samir Flores after 6 years of judicial paralysis. and to call for the struggle for life and the construction of other possible worlds.”

The People’s Front can be found on Facebook here.

Our most recent article: PBI-Mexico accompanies activities in Amilcingo on the 6th anniversary of the murder of Indigenous Nahua defender Samir Flores Soberanes (February 21, 2025).

2-The CSO Space – Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico City (Espacio OSC – Espacio de Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil para la Protección de Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas en Ciudad de México)

On March 4, 2025, the CSO Space posted: “The organizations that make up the Espacio OSC express our deep indignation and energetic condemnation of the recent murders of human rights defender Cristino Castro Perea and journalist Kristian Uriel Martínez. …We call on the authorities to carry out an urgent review of the shortcomings presented in the framework of the collective protection plan and to urgently strengthen the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, as well as to improve coordination between the different states through a National Public Policy for Protection.”

The website for the CSO Space is here.

Our most recent article: PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC condemn the murders of defender Cristino Castro Perea and journalist Kristian Uriel Martínez (March 5, 2025).

3-The Human Rights Solidarity Network (RSDH) in Michoacán (Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos (RSDH) en Michoacán)

On March 19, 2025, El Sol de Morelia reported: “A year after the forced disappearance of Chinicuila teacher José Gabriel Pelayo, which occurred on March 19, 2024, his daughter Yulissa Pelayo denounced the omission and lack of action to locate him by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Coalcomán, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). …In accompaniment of the Human Rights Solidarity Network (DH), [Pelayo’s daughter Yulissa] demanded that the authorities pay greater attention to the issue and that the founder of the Popular Council of Chinicuila be located alive.”

The Facebook page for the Network is here.

Our most recent article: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Human Rights Solidarity Network at the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on Forced Disappearance (March 20, 2025).

4-The Special Commission for the Search for Persons in Oaxaca (Comisión Especial de Búsqueda de Personas Oaxaca)

There does not appear to be a digital platform for the Special Commission, but the Cerezo Committee has posted: “Delay, lack of coordination and governmental absences in the inspection diligence in the State of Oaxaca for the case of Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya… The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation has accepted that it was indeed the Mexican State that was responsible for the forced disappearance of Gabriel and Edmundo and that for the first time in Mexico a Special Search Commission would be formed by court order and that these people, victims of forced disappearance, would really be searched.”

Our most recent article: PBI-Mexico accompanies reconnaissance activities in Oaxaca in the continuing search for EPR members Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez (July 20, 2024).

5-The Ejido El Bajío in Sonora (El ejido El Bajío en Sonora)

The Ejido has explained: “For more than 10 years we have been fighting against the Penmont mining company, owned by the fourth richest man in Mexico, Alberto Baillères González. …The Penmont mining company has carried out exploration and mining exploitation in the territories of the ejido, illegally, since the nineties. In 2009 and 2013, the ejidatarios filed a series of agrarian lawsuits against the mining company; in July 1013, former magistrate Manuel Loya Valverde issued 44 rulings in favor of the ejido, in which he ruled that the mining company must vacate the territory, must return the lands to the state prior to the mining exploitation and must compensate the ejidatarios for the payment of land rents.”

The website for the Ejido is here.

Our most recent article: PBI-UK notes win by farmers against LSE listed mining company in Mexico, the environmental defenders killed after denouncing abuses (January 31, 2025).

6-The Yoreme Alliance in Sonora (La Alianza Yoreme en Sonora)

The Alliance does not appear to have a digital platform, but on May 9, 2024, the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) Mexico posted: “Today, the Yoreme Alliance, made up of the peoples of Bachoco, El Alto, Buaysiacobe, Cohuirimpo, and Masiacahui, is demonstrating at several public offices in Sonora and marching through its streets.” They further explained this was: “in protest of the ‘electoral piggery’ indigenous people have sprouted from business circles and party leaders to usurp rights that are denied to the Yoreme natives.”

Periodismo de lo possible has also explained: “Centuries of dispossession of territory and violence by the state, businessmen and local caciques [political bosses] were forcing the Yoreme population to abandon their roots and divide between villages. But through a long process in which they began to retake the thinking of the elders, the assemblies as a traditional form of government and the history of the ancestors, memory and trust between peoples were strengthened. Until in 2023, they united to assert their identity and defend their territory.”

And Myrna Valencia, a member of the Mayo-Yoreme tribe, has also stated: “The [Mayo] river, that is one of the most important elements of our identity as a tribe, and it is dry…we continue being treated as foreigners in our own territory, led to a way of thinking that undermines diversity.”

We look forward to learning more about this struggle and documenting, contextualizing and amplifying via this website and our social media channels.

Accompaniment

PBI-Canada will be monitoring the PBI-Mexico physical accompaniments of these organizations, defenders and communities.

For updates from PBI-Mexico, you can find them on the social media platforms Facebook, X, Instagram and on this website.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the one-year anniversary of the murder of two members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted on social media: “The commemoration of the founding of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community 28 years ago has begun. On this occasion, the Community is receiving a visit from the Austrian Embassy and the European Union Delegation. At their meeting, they issued a call to address the continued impunity following the murder of Nalleli and the young Edinson a year ago, and the lack of guarantees in the context of the recent intensification of threats against the community.”

The delegation of the European Union in Colombia also posted on social media: “A year ago, Nalleli and Edison from the San José de Apartadó Peace Community were murdered. Together with [the Embassy of Austria in Colombia], the European Union came to accompany the community in the commemoration and review the authorities’ commitments and their fulfillment. No to impunity #DefendLife”

Last year, the El Colombiano newspaper reported: “Nallely and Edinson were murdered on Tuesday, March 19 at noon, the news reached Apartadó around 6 p.m. and the bodies were collected 24 hours later.”

The threat of “paramilitarism in the northwest”

At that time, El Heraldo reported: “The woman and the child were killed with firearms, apparently by members of a criminal group from which the Community has reported threats.”

Infobae added: “The region where this crime was perpetrated is mainly operated by the paramilitary Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), also known as Clan del Golfo, the country’s largest criminal gang.”

On March 20, 2024, Colombian president Gustavo Petro posted: “Four hundred members of the community of Paz de San José de Apartadó were murdered, two days ago, the whole government was there in Apartadó and we met with members of the community in the Popular Assembly. On our return they assassinated two more community members. Dark forces want to reissue paramilitarism in the northwest of the country.”

Coal deposits and mining titles

Moira Birss, formerly of PBI-Colombia, has written in the NACLA report: “Part of what makes Apartadó and the Urabá region so attractive to armed groups (and the economic interests that often drive them) is the area’s strategic location near the Gulf of Urabá.”

She adds: “The area is also reported to contain significant coal deposits, for which the state issued an exploratory license more than 15 years ago.”

In the days after the murders of Nalleli and Edinson, Franklin Castañeda from the Ministry of the Interior visited Las Delicias. On the evening of March 27, 2024, Castañeda tweeted: “A field inspection will be carried out on the mining titles.”

We await that information.

“Mining kills the land”

On March 13, 2024, just six days before she was killed, Nalleli Sepúlveda painted on a wooden gate that the Peace Community rebuilt after it was destroyed a message that reads: “Mining kills the land. We have the right to protect nature.”

Photos by the Peace Community.

28th anniversary of the Peace Community

Yes! Magazine has reported: “On March 23, 1997, Brígida Gonzáles, 69, along with the others who decided to stay, founded the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. This ‘Peace Community’ declared itself neutral in the conflict, pledging not to get involved in any way and asked to be left in peace.”

Toronto-based Scott Pearce (in a blue t-shirt in this November 2019 photo) was a PBI-Colombia field volunteer who was present in the Peace Community when it was attacked by paramilitary forces in 2000. That story is told in this PBI-Canada article.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó since 1999

Further reading: Hope appears in the peace community of San José de Apartadó: The Colombian government announces measures of protection and recognition of this municipality, with which Rivas cooperates, besieged by paramilitary and drug violence. (March 18, 2025)

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation as implementation of Women Searchers Law faces delays

By
Brent Patterson
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Yanette Bautista: “As a collective, we want to turn our pain into rights. That is why we drafted a bill, to empower women who are searching for victims of enforced disappearance and to promote the rights of those women. The law came into force in 2024. However, our next task is to ensure that it is implemented and realized.”

PBI-Colombia has posted on social media: “In a meeting hosted by the @Norwegian Embassy in COL, and with the presence of @MinjusticiaCo, other embassies, and @PBIColombia, the @nydia_erika Foundation and Mothers for Life, shared the urgency of implementing the #Searchers Law, in dialogue with the same women searchers and builders of #Peace, who continue to face very serious violence, including sexual violence, in the search for their loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared. The accompaniment of the international community is key! @ONUHumanRights @ONUMujeresCol @PnudColombia @SwedeninCOL @EmbAlemaniaCOL @EUinColombia @GBertrand_UE @MinInterior”

The “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) has also posted on social media:

“FNEB and Mothers for Life with the Norwegian Ambassador, Minister of Justice, UN Women, Embassies of the European Union, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Chile, the Netherlands, OHCHR, Amnesty International and PBI in a follow-up meeting on the implementation of the Women’s Searchers Rights Law received broad support as builders of territorial peace.

‘The struggle does not stop with the law’ said the Norwegian Ambassador, who was followed by his peers celebrating the continuity of the UN International Support Group, the importance of the participation of the searchers under Resolution 1325 in the Total Peace dialogues and for a Humanitarian Agreement for the disappeared.

Concern about the risks faced by women in the search for the disappeared, the urgency of measures on impunity and the opportunity to include the issue in the National Plan of Action on Human Rights were issues of vital importance at the Meeting.”

Blu Radio reports: “Lawyer Yanette Bautista, director and founder of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation [explains that] the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers, also known as Law 2364, represents a significant advance in the fight for justice and reparation for women who are searching for their missing loved ones.”

Bautista says: “[This law] arises from the reality of violence against women for 40 years, in which behaviors such as sexual violence, kidnapping, deprivation of liberty, extortion and others suffered by women in the search for the disappeared, particularly victims of forced disappearance, were not criminalized, investigated and punished.”

The Blu Radio article adds: “She stressed that women searchers face enormous risks when trying to find their disappeared, especially in territories dominated by armed groups and, therefore, the protection and support of the State ‘is essential in this process’.”

“Currently, [the law] is in a regulatory process that has presented several challenges. Although it was enacted in June 2024 and a deadline was set for its regulation, there are still articles that have not been implemented, according to the director [Bautista].”

Bautista further notes: “The law establishes that there will be a registry of women searchers so that they can have access to all the rights established by law, which are both civil and political rights, the right to life, liberty, integrity, as well as economic and social rights; access to housing, employment, everything that was never recognized for women.”

The full article is at ¿En qué va la ley de protección a mujeres buscadoras? Abogada Bautista habla de demoras (Blu Radio, March 19, 2025).

Video still from Blu Radio interview with Bautista.

The “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB)

In 1982, then 27-year-old economist and sociologist Nydia Erika Bautista joined the 19th of April Movement (M-19), a social-democratic urban guerrilla movement that combined armed struggle with social work. The current president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, was also a member of M-19 at that time.

On August 30, 1987, Bautista was disappeared near their family home in Bogota in a joint operation of Brigades III and XX of the National Army. This took place at the time of the first communion of her 12-year-old son Erik Arellana and her 10-year-old niece Andrea Torres, who witnessed the abduction.

It is now known that Nydia Erika was held for two days, subjected to torture and sexual violence, and then take to the municipality of Guayabetal, about 90 kilometres south of Bogota, where she was reportedly killed with a single shot to her head.

On September 12, 1987, her body was found on the Bogotá- Villavicencio highway in a state of decomposition that made identification impossible.

On July 26, 1990, authorities exhumed her body.

Yanette Bautista was 27-years-old when her older sister Nydia Erika was disappeared. Yanette has shared: “I found my sister three years after she was taken away and disappeared. I knew it was her. She was wearing the same clothes she had on the day she disappeared.”

The Bautista family had to leave Colombia in 1997 due to threats against them. The “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) was established in 1999 while in exile in Germany.

Yanette has commented: “Our collective, Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista, is designed for women to help each other. There are no hierarchies. It is an exchange of knowledge. We provide legal support, document stories, and do advocacy. We have a leadership school to empower women seekers in different parts of the country. Our collective is mainly made up of women; Our research has revealed that 95% of those searching for loved ones are women, mothers, sisters, and wives.”

Yanette returned to Colombia in 2007.

In September 2014, senator and former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez falsely accused Yanette Bautista of being part of the National Liberation Army (ELN). At one point, the Capital Block of the Black Eagles (Águilas Negras) also declared the FNEB a military target.

In January 2015, Andrea Torres Bautista, who saw her aunt forcibly disappeared and who is now the legal coordinator for Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, said: “[The accompaniment of] my mother Yanette Bautista by Peace Brigades International [has been] much more effective than even the bodyguards provided by the Colombian State, for them to see you alongside us, accompanying us, and all the systems like the office daily rounds, the visits, we think that it provides a lot for us to keep doing our work.”

Photo: Andrea Torres Bautista.

Photo: Nydia Erika’s son Erik in 2017 on the 30th anniversary of his mother’s disappearance.

Yanette’s fight for justice has included advocating for a Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers.

Photo: October 19, 2022, the day the Bill was filed.

On April 4, 2024, Bill No. 242 was approved in the Senate.

Then on June 18, 2024, Law 2364 of 2024, the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers, was ratified by President Gustavo Petro.

Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.

Video:  Yannette Bautista: “When the colleagues of the CINEP [the Center for Research and Popular Education] were killed we got out of the church and the PBI people were beside us. We bent down and we were crying and when we saw them crying we understood the pain had gone through all borders.”

PBI-Honduras visits the “Museum against Forgetting” with the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
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The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) has posted on Facebook:

“#Memory #truth #justice #COFADEH

During the internal tour, PBI visitors saw the building that was used as a detention space for large groups, according to survivors’ testimonies.

They also visited a small building where in March 1999, during an inspection and application of luminol ordered by the First Court of Francisco Morazán, at least 24 fragments of a projectile embedded in one of the walls were extracted and blood was found on the floor and ceiling.

Likewise, in the main house they saw the space that was used to keep the victims in captivity and the room that was used for interrogation under torture, with the objective of extracting information about the political activities of the victims.”

COFADEH then shared an article titled Peace Brigades International tour the Museum Against Oblivion by Online Defenders and noted:

“At least seven Peace Brigades International (PBI) volunteers toured the Museum Against Forgetting, located in Amarateca, Francisco Morazán [35 kilometres north of Tegucigalpa], a space for reflection on the violations of human dignity during the application of the national security doctrine in the 1980s.

PBI has been present in the country for 10 years, accompanying human rights defenders who are at risk due to their work in defense of human rights in the country.”

That article further notes:

“Seven volunteers arrived this day at the Museum Against Oblivion to learn about the crimes against humanity that were known here during the installation of the national security doctrine, orchestrated by the United States and executed by the Honduran Armed Forces.

The voluntary hospitalizations were attended by the general coordinator of COFADEH, Berta Oliva, and by the human rights ombudsman and lawyer in the area of Access to Justice of the Committee, Dora Oliva.

The place, which was baptized by the victims and relatives as the ‘house of terror’ was used by the Honduran Armed Forces as a clandestine prison, torture center and clandestine cemetery, during the application of the national security doctrine in the 80s.”

Remembering Canada in Honduras, 1980-92

Amnesty International has documented: “José Eduardo López was detained on Monday 10 August 1981 in San Pedro Sula [200 kilometres north of Amarateca] after being stopped by the police.  He was taken to the DNI [National Directorate of Investigations] station [where he was severely tortured]. [His wife Nora] was allowed to see him (for a few minutes) on Thursday 13 August.  The following day he was released after she announced she would go on hunger strike outside the DNI headquarters if he was not.”

Amnesty International has further noted that Lopez was subsequently forcibly disappeared on December 24, 1984.

They highlight: “In 1981 he was detained for five days and tortured. On his release he received death threats and in 1982 he fled to the United States where he applied [in Atlanta, Georgia] for refugee status in Canada. In 1984 [just months before he was disappeared] the Canadian authorities rejected his application stating that José Eduardo López had not demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution.”

Photo: José Eduardo López.

During the period that the house in Amarateca was being used to torture people, the prime ministers of Canada were Joe Clark (June 1979 to March 1980) and then Pierre Trudeau (March 1980 to June 1984), John Turner (June to September 1984) and Brian Mulroney (September 1984 to June 1993).

Toronto-based academic Tyler Shipley has written: “Between 1980 and 1992, the US spent some $1.6 billon in military and economic aid to Honduras, intended to establish the apparatus of repression, buttress the institutions of political power, and infiltrate and co-opt the civil society organizations that were best positioned to harness social unrest.”

In 1983, UPI reported: “Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau told a group of about 700 college students [in Toronto] he could not do anything about U.S. foreign policy towards Central America [including Honduras]… Trudeau said that as a major world power the United States was trying to protect its own interests.”

In December 1987, Maclean’s magazine reported: “[Canadian Foreign Affairs minister Joe Clark] announced an additional $13 million in aid to Honduras, which has not yet dismantled its contra base camps or cut supply flights to the rebels [fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua].”

A fuller recounting of Canadian foreign policy towards Honduras during the 1980 to 1992 period is needed to preserve the political memory of that period in which the house visited by PBI-Honduras was used to torture people.

COFADEH

The Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) was founded in 1982 by twelve families of disappeared Hondurans, including Bertha Oliva de Nativí, whose husband Professor Tomás Nativí was disappeared in 1981.

PBI-Mexico accompanies protest at Profepa as the people of Cholula demand the closure of the Calpan landfill

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Mexico has posted on Facebook:

“Today marks one year since the struggle of the Cholultec peoples in Puebla against the intermunicipal sanitary filling of San Pedro Cholula – Calpan. Yesterday, Thursday, March 20, PBI accompanied Frente De Pueblos Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala in the CDMX, in a peaceful protest demanding compliance with the definitive closure order issued on August 21, 2024 as well as the remediation of the damage caused by the sanitary filling, measures that had not yet been taken implemented.

During the day, acts of remembrance were held for the victims of the recent massive discovery of disappearances in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, and to raise awareness of the impunity that persists in cases of disappearances. From PBI, we continue to stand with those who struggle to find their loved ones, for the enlightenment of truth and for justice.”

E-Consulta also reports: “’The people of Cholula are not a garbage dump’ was the slogan with which activists and residents demonstrated this Thursday [March 20] on Insurgentes Avenue [“one of the most important thoroughfares”] in Mexico City, demanding the permanent closure of the Calpan landfill in San Pedro Cholula.”

“The protest began around 2:00 PM on that road, near Eje 7 Félix Cuevas, right in front of the offices of the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa).”

The article adds: “Members of the Union of Peoples and Subdivisions Against the Landfill and in Defense of Water, the National Assembly for Water and Life, Peace Brigades International, the Committee on the Property of the People of Santa María Coapa, and the National Indigenous Congress attended the protest.”

E-Consulta also reports: “The protesters demanded that federal authorities sanction the company Pro-Faj, in charge of managing the landfill, due to its six-month delay in finalizing the closure, despite the closure resolution issued by Profepa (National Commission for the Protection of Public Health) in August of last year.”

“In response, agency personnel met with them to follow up on the necessary actions for the closure of the site, although they did not specify whether sanctions will be applied to the responsible company.”

Poder Noticia adds:

“#Findout Cholultecas demonstrate in front of #PROFEPA in CDMX.

The agency shared that it received the Union of Peoples of Cholula, Peace Brigades International and the Committee of Property of the People of Santa María Coapa, from #Puebla in a meeting led by Deputy Attorney General Gabriela Ortiz.

They reported that they will continue with the work necessary to carry out the closure and decommissioning of the #Cholula landfill.”

And Profepa posted on social media:

“A team from Profepa, headed by Deputy Attorney General Gabriela Ortiz, received the Union of Peoples of Cholula, the Peace Brigades International and the Committee of People’s Assets of Santa María Coapa, in Puebla, to give continuity to the necessary work to carry out the closure and closure of the Cholula landfill.”

Photo by Profepa.

Profepa orders definitive closure must begin within 10 days

Mas Noticias reports: “The Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) gave a maximum period of ten days to the company Pro-Faj Hidro Limpieza to begin the definitive closure of the intermunicipal landfill of Cholula. The determination was communicated on Thursday [March 20] afternoon by the Deputy Attorney General for Industrial Inspection of the federal government, Gabriela Ortíz Merino, to a group of residents of the surroundings of the solid waste deposit who held a protest on Insurgentes and Félix Cuevas avenues in the country’s capital.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras observes hearing of Diamond Rock community members criminalized for defending ancestral territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 20, PBI-Honduras posted: “Today we are closely following the verdict in the criminalization case against 13 defenders of the English-speaking Black people of the community of Diamond Rock, Roatan. In recent days, we have been observing the trial against the 13 people accused of damages, some also for arson and robbery. We are concerned about the criminalization processes against Afro-Honduran and Garifuna communities for defending their ancestral territories against tourism projects. National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, Justice for the Peoples Law Firm, OFRANEH-Garifuna/ Honduran Black Fraternal Organization.”

While the community was waiting for the ruling, the Women Defenders Network posted: “Urgent Alert: Increases the presence of police and military in hearing to issue a verdict against 13 defenders of the English-speaking Black people, unjustly criminalized for defending their right to ancestral land-territory.”

The ruling

The Justice for the Peoples Law Firm has now posted: “Alert: With illegal evidence, Judge Hermes Pineda issues an order of formal prosecution against 4 defenders of the English-speaking Black People for defending territorial rights.”

Background and context

On March 19, the day before this ruling, Reportar Sin Miedo (Report Without Fear) noted:

“In an unexpected twist, the Public Ministry of Roatan today expanded the accusation and requested preventive detention for 13 criminalized people and defenders of the English-speaking Black people, ‘despite the total lack of evidence’, denounced today the Law Firm for the Peoples.

The Justice for the Peoples Law Firm pointed out that the Judiciary continues to be co-opted by the large economic interests in the Bay Islands. Edy Tábora, lawyer for the Firm, reported in a video to the national and international community that the participation of the accused persons in any criminal act has not been proven. He also stated that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is illegally promoting some cases to criminalize the struggle of the peoples.

In its publication, [the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders] detailed that the MP initiated this judicial process against the defenders for defending their right to land and self-determination in a collective property in the community of Diamond Rock, Bay Islands. They added that the Cooper-McNab family intends to usurp this property that has belonged to the community since 1965.

The Mc Laughlin family reported in a statement that on January 5, 2025, they decided to lift the gates, remove the wooden fence, clear the entrance and recover their property. The McLaughlins are members of the Native Black people of these islands, under the tutelage of the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (Ofraneh).

They added that they carried out such actions after nearly 20 years of filing usurpation complaints against the powerful Cooper-McNab family. They also indicated that in this way they exercised their self-determination with the support of their ancestral title.”

The full article from Reportar Sin Miedo can be read at Ordenan prisión preventiva contra 13 personas negras en Roatán.

The call to accompany the hearing

To encourage accompaniment of the trial the Justice for the Peoples Law Firm had posted:

“Jakira Lucas McLaughlin, criminalized defender, is grateful for the support provided by Ofraneh and various national and international organizations

Ask for support in the culmination of the initial hearing against 13 people defending the English-speaking Black people, criminalized by the MP for defending their territorial rights

Wednesday, March 19, 8:30 AM, Roatan Letter Court

We demand respect and guarantee for our ancestral territories rights! _

*Close the case permanently now!*”

And the Calan Institute has also highlighted (in both English and Spanish):

“35 national and international human rights organizations send a public letter to the Attorney General of Honduras, Johel Zelaya, regarding the process of criminalization and displacement against the McLaughlin family, members of the Native Black Islander community of Diamond Rock, Roatán.”

We continue to follow this.

BBC investigative reports raises concerns about Ecopetrol links to armed actors and threats against FEDEPESAN

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: PBI-Canada visited with Yuly Velásquez and toured the San Silvestre wetland with FEDEPESAN, CREDHOS and PBI-Colombia in June 2022.

A new BBC Eye Investigations report by Owen Pinnell titled “Oil giant’s leaked data reveals ‘awful’ pollution” raises significant questions about Ecopetrol polluting sources of drinking water in Colombia, their use of private security and possible links with armed groups, and the threats experienced by water protectors.

Ecopetrol pollutes

The BBC reports: “Colombian energy giant Ecopetrol has polluted hundreds of sites with oil, including water sources and biodiverse wetlands.”

“Data leaked by a former employee [and now whistleblower Andrés Olarte] reveals more than 800 records of these sites from 1989 to 2018, and indicates the company had failed to report about a fifth of them. The BBC has also obtained figures showing the company has spilled oil hundreds of times since then.”

The article also highlights: “Ecopetrol’s main refinery stretches along on the banks of the Magdalena River near Barrancabermeja The data from the regulator includes hundreds of spills in the Barrancabermeja area where [Yuly Velásquez, the president of the Federation of Artisanal, Environmentalist, and Touristic Fishermen and Women of Santander (FEDEPESAN) and other fishers] live [and depend on the waters for their livelihoods].”

FEDEPESAN is accompanied by the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS), which is accompanied by Peace Brigades International.

Photo of Ecopetrol refinery as seen from the San Silvestre wetland. The bottle contains a sample of oil tainted water taken from the wetland that day. Photo by PBI-Canada.

Threats against Velásquez and FEDEPESAN

The BBC article further reports: “[Velásquez] and her colleagues have been monitoring biodiversity in the area’s wetlands, which feed into the Magdalena River. Ms. Velásquez and seven other people also told the BBC they had received death threats after challenging Ecopetrol. She said an armed group had fired warning shots at her house and spray-painted the word ‘leave’ on the wall.”

The article adds: “Ms. Velásquez remains determined to continue speaking out, despite the threats. ‘If we don’t go fishing, we don’t eat,’ she said. ‘If we speak and report, we are killed… And if we don’t report, we kill ourselves, because all these incidents of heavy pollution are destroying the environment around us.’”

Photo: Velásquez with PBI on June 30, 2022, just days before an armed attack against her and her bodyguard (standing just behind her in the photo) on July 5, 2022.

Ecopetrol, private security and armed groups

This BBC article also notes: “Mr. Olarte [the former Ecopetrol employee] has [also] shared internal Ecopetrol emails showing that in 2018, the company paid a total of $65m to more than 2,800 private security companies.”

“Matthew Smith, an oil analyst and financial journalist based in Colombia, says he does not believe Ecopetrol managers are involved in threats by armed groups. But he says there is an ‘immense’ overlap between former paramilitary groups and the private security sector. Private security firms often employ former members of paramilitary groups and compete for lucrative contracts to protect oil facilities, he says.”

The article continues: “‘There is always that risk of some sort of contagion between the private security companies, the types of people they employ, and their desire to continually maintain their contract,’ Mr. Smith says. He says this could potentially even include kidnapping or murdering community leaders or environmental defenders in order to ‘ensure that Ecopetrol’s operations proceed smoothly’.”

“[Felipe Bayón, Chief Executive Officer of Ecopetrol from 2017 to 2023,] said he was ‘convinced that the checks and due diligence were done’ regarding the company’s relationships with private security companies. Ecopetrol says it has never had relationships with illegal armed groups. It says it has a strong due diligence process and carries out human rights impact assessments for its activities.”

Other allegations of paramilitary links

In May 2022, Al Jazeera reported: “Local environmental defenders and a representative of the JEP [Special Jurisdiction for Peace] told Al Jazeera that they suspected a connection between the paramilitary groups intimidating them and the state-owned Ecopetrol, which is behind the fracking project. The company has been accused of having ties with the Gulf Clan [AGC] specifically.”

At that same time, on this PBI-Canada webinar, Carolina Agón, a member of the CREDHOS human rights committee, stated: “This is not a secret. Ecopetrol has ties and is working hand in hand with the illegal armed groups.”

Juan Camilo Delgado of CREDHOS also commented on that webinar: “It’s very concerning when we look at the historic relationship between the oil companies and organized illegal groups, specifically paramilitary structures, which has led to human rights violations and attacks against social leaders and environmental leaders from the municipality of Puerto Wilches [48 kilometres north of Barrancabermeja].”

Photo of participants in the PBI-Canada webinar.

Ecopetrol ownership

The BBC article adds: “Ecopetrol, which is 88% owned by the Colombian state and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.”

The searchable database on the Banking on Climate Chaos website shows that the Canadian bank Scotiabank is the largest source of finance for Ecopetrol.

Amounts are in millions USD.

On that May 2022 PBI-Canada webinar, Bronwen Tucker of Oil Change International also noted: “Since 2012, Export Development Canada has given CAD $1.4 billion in government backed loans to oil and gas in Colombia. This is 44 per cent of all G20 international public finance for energy in Colombia in this period.”

We continue to follow this.

Photo: PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson, Yuly Velásquez, and now PBI-Canada Board member Javier Garate, near Barrancabermeja, June 30, 2022.

PBI-Mexico accompanies the Human Rights Solidarity Network at the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on Forced Disappearance

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Mexico has posted:

“On the first anniversary of the disappearance of the defender José Gabriel Pelayo, PBI-Mexico accompanies his relatives and the Human Rights Solidarity Network  to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.

We make a call for a thorough investigation with focus on #humanrights in this case.”

In this statement issued on the one-year anniversary, the Human Rights Solidarity Network further explains: “On March 19, 2024, around 10:30 a.m., [territorial defender José Gabriel Pelayo] was last seen in Coalcomán de Vázquez Pallares, while driving a green Ford Explorer truck with sand-colored stripes.”

The El Sol de Morelia newspaper in Michoacán also notes: “He is the founder of the Popular Council of Chinicuila that has sought to denounce, defend and end the invasion of companies, as well as organized crime, which have dedicated themselves to dispossessing people of their lands and natural resources.”

Photo by Canal 13.

Another article by El Sol de Morelia also reports: “A year after the forced disappearance of Chinicuila teacher José Gabriel Pelayo, which occurred on March 19, 2024, his daughter Yulissa Pelayo denounced the omission and lack of action to locate him by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Coalcomán, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR). …So far, Yulissa Pelayo said, the agencies have not updated the data on where he can be found or who would be responsible for his disappearance, although the family has let them know who it is, even expressing an abandonment of the case.”

Yulissa Pelayo says: “The regional prosecutor’s office of Coalcomán expressed that there are no lines of investigation when they have been given many clues by family, acquaintances and friends about the lines of investigation that they should follow, this regarding different situations and organizations that may be involved, I think this is a clear example of how the authorities do not do their job, how there is no justice for the disappeared.”

That El Sol de Morelia article adds: “Studies by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) indicate that Michoacán is the most dangerous state for the exercise of the defense of the environment, human rights and in general. Their activism has led to a series of disappearances and murders.”

Animal Politico has also reported that Pelayo was threatened by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) before being disappeared.

Canadian mining companies in Michoacán

In October 2024, EL PAÍS América reported: “The indigenous peoples of Michoacán have faced collusion between companies, organized crime and the government, according to the organization Peace Brigades International (PBI), organizer of the meeting in Madrid in which [María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz is an Indigenous Purhépecha lawyer and member of the Human Rights Solidarity Network] participated.”

That article further highlighted: “14.61% of the state’s surface is exploited by 12 national and six foreign mining companies, according to official figures from 2018.”

That official report from the Mexican Geological Service (SGM), an agency of the Mexican government, lists addresses of 18 “companies exploring in the state – metallics” (see pages 24-25). That chart shows that 5 of the 6 foreign mining companies have addresses in Canada: Catalyst Cooper Corp., Terra Nova Gold Corp., Fischer Watt Gold Company Inc., Rome Resources LTD-IMMSA and Candente Gold Corp. The sixth foreign company listed in that chart, Silver Shield  Resources Corp., is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada (the chart just does not provide an address for the company).

Accompaniment

The Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria DH) is accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project.

Photo by José Pelayo Sociodigital Network.

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