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PBI-Honduras observes International Women’s Day (IWD) march in Tegucigalpa

By
Brent Patterson
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On International Women’s Day, PBI-Honduras posted:

“Today we observe the march within the framework of #8March. The organizations of #women demand a halt to the structural #violenceagainst #women, greater access to the PAE [the Emergency Contraceptive Pill or “morning-after pill”] and greater protection for #women #defenders of #humanrights

From PBI, we express concern about the high rates of #femicide and attacks against women defenders and we remember that #Honduras has not yet approved a Comprehensive Law against Violence towards Women, requested by the organizations.”

Honduras has the highest rate of femicide in Latin America

In August 2023, The Globe and Mail reported: “A UN report, which detailed a breakdown by country [in 2021], found that among 11 Latin American countries, Honduras had the highest rate of femicide – murders of women that are gender-motivated – with 4.6 cases per 100,000 women. Women’s organizations estimate that 90 per cent of Honduran femicides go unpunished.”

That article adds: “Luis Martinez Estrada, a sociologist and the co-ordinator of the Regional Violence Observatory, said the rise of violence in Honduras spans decades but intensified in the 2000s. Although he said some progress was being made in human rights, the 2009 coup that ousted president Manuel Zelaya reversed some of that. ‘We saw a militarization of our society and how politicians with connections regained the power of the country,’ he said.’”

Their banner says: “Because you are frightened by those who fight and not by those who die?”

Abortion remains illegal, the ”morning after pill” legalized on IWD 2023

In April 2024, The Guardian reported: “Honduras is one of five Latin American countries – along with Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic – where abortion is prohibited in all circumstances, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant woman’s life is at risk. Until last year, it was also the only country to outlaw emergency contraceptives.”

In March 2023, the BBC reported: “Honduras, a largely Catholic Central American country, banned the use of the morning-after pill following a coup in 2009 that ousted Xiomara Castro’s husband, then-President Manuel Zelaya. …The country’s first-ever woman leader said she had made the change by executive order [legalizing the pill] for International Women’s Day, on 8 March.”

This placard says: “This M8 I don’t want flowers, I want rights.”

A Comprehensive Law against violence against women is still pending

On March 9, 2024, La Via Campesina called for: “The immediate submission of the proposed Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women by President Xiomara Castro and its approval in the National Congress, in the face of the wave of murders we cannot stand idly by.”

Reporting on the IWD march that took place in Tegucigalpa on March 7, La Tribuna highlighted: “The women called for the approval of the Comprehensive Law against violence against women, the Purple Alert Law for the search for missing women, and the regulations of the Law for the protection of women in contexts of humanitarian crises, natural disasters and emergencies.”

This sign says: “If abuses were fire, Honduras would be in flames.”

Women human rights defenders are under attack

In December 2023, the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras) documented the murders of “Juana Maria Martinez, woman defender of the Indigenous Pech Peoples and Soraya Alvarez, trans defender of LGBTI rights in Honduras.”

In 2022, IM-Defensoras noted: “In Honduras, we registered 70 attacks against 15 women defenders of women’s right to a life free from violence.”

In July 2021, The Guardian reported: “Between 2016 and 2019, 48% of all incidents targeting female defenders in the region [of Central America] occurred in Honduras [according to research by IM-Defensoras].”

We continue to follow this.

Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’ highlights liberation struggle, CRCC systemic investigation of RCMP C-IRG reaches two-year point

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) C-IRG officers during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo by Michael Toledano.

Our questions: What is the current status of the CRCC systemic investigation of the C-IRG?  What can be expected from it? What are key dates that have passed? What do Indigenous land defenders have to say about colonial processes?

The Ottawa-based Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) announced its “systemic investigation” of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) on March 9, 2023.

Three months later, on June 7, 2023, a spokesperson with the CRCC told PBI-Canada via e-mail: “The CRCC strives to complete its systemic investigations within 12-18 months; however, the timely provision of requested information and access to RCMP personnel will largely determine when the CRCC’s report will be available.”

The first “Investigation Update” was posted on their website on November 23, 2023. That update highlights: “Recently, the CRCC met with the RCMP to express concerns about the delays, and a way forward was agreed to, including bi-weekly meetings with the C-IRG Officer in Charge to provide updates on the status of CRCC requests. Since that meeting, the CRCC received more than 400 files. Significant amounts of materials remain outstanding but are expected to be received in the coming weeks.”

That update further notes: “The CRCC is monitoring progress closely and will provide an investigation status update in the new year.”

The CRCC then released in its Annual Report 2023-2024, on October 23, 2024, a two-point “Status of the Investigation” section that noted: “While delays in receiving relevant materials persisted throughout 2023, improvements in this regard are notable and the investigation is progressing.“ It added: “To date, the CRCC has received and is analysing thousands of documents as well as more than 17,000 videos and images.”

That Annual Report also noted: “The CRCC hired an Indigenous owned law firm to interview individuals and groups who have had interactions with C-IRG. Information derived from the interviews will be compiled into a report and may be used to exemplify the CRCC’s findings and inform any recommendations.”

The “CRCC Truth Gathering/Truth Sharing” webpage of Richmond, BC-based Turtle Island Law LLP notes: “The nature of our work for the CRCC will involve us conducting interviews with impacted individuals in a decolonial, Indigenized, and trauma-informed manner. …Your narrative will inform a public report that we will be drafting which brings to light the nature of the interactions between you and the C-IRG.”

Most recently, on February 21, 2025, the CRCC told PBI-Canada by e-mail: “The investigation continues and most of the material collected by the CRCC has been reviewed. Currently, investigators are analyzing this material and conducting interviews with RCMP members. CRCC investigations consider all relevant information to make findings and recommendations, including applicable jurisprudence. Since this investigation is ongoing at this time, we would not speculate on the contents of our final report or when it will be available.”

“Applicable jurisprudence”

The mention of “applicable jurisprudence” in the CRCC email to PBI-Canada most likely refers to the recent abuse of process ruling.

On February 18, 2025, BC Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen ruled that “multiple offensive and discriminatory comments [against Indigenous land defenders] made by multiple officers in the wake of Nov. 18 and 19, 2021, arrests that is potentially a sign of a systemic attitudinal issue within the C-IRG.”

That said, Justice Tammen further commented that there was “no evidence” that this “attitudinal issue” extended into the higher ranks of the C-IRG unit or the RCMP and found “nothing inherently flawed” in the C-IRG’s heavily armed raid, arrest and removal of land defenders from Wet’suwet’en territory.

“Systemic investigation recommendations can include…”

Now that we are 24 months into a systemic investigation that the CRCC has said it normally “strives to complete” within 12-18 months, it may also be useful to consider what we might see in the report when it is released.

The CRCC Annual Report 2023-2024 highlighted that systemic investigation recommendations can include: “That the RCMP implement more widely a method, procedure or protocol worthy of emulating; That RCMP policies, procedures, or guidelines be developed, clarified or amended; That the RCMP develop, amend or modify training for members.”

The demands of land defenders

We contrast these types of recommendations with those asserted in this letter that was signed by land and environmental defenders and multiple organizations just after the CRCC systemic investigation began: “There is no set of reforms that would make it acceptable for Canada to have a paramilitary force designed specifically to manage the assertion of inherent and constitutionally-protected Indigenous rights in the face of unwanted development. The C-IRG should not exist, and it needs to be disbanded entirely.”

“Together we are achieving liberation”

Among the signatories of this letter was Sleydo’, a Wing Chief of Cas Yikh, a house group of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

Last month, on the afternoon of February 18, just after Justice Tammen’s ruling, Sleydo’ stated: “My hope is that this decision will signal to the RCMP that they can no longer violate their own laws, and they cannot act with impunity.”

“However, we will never see justice from the courts for the amount of violence that we have experienced over the last specifically six years of repression by the state.”

“I celebrate the yintah [territory] for her resiliency throughout all of the destruction and for continuing to provide for us and our movement and for keeping us safe. I celebrate every single person who has stood with us, who went to jail, who lost their livelihoods, who continue to be harassed and intimidated by the state, and who are still in this colonial legal process. Together we are achieving liberation.”

Sleydo’ concluded: “Justice for us looks like RCMP off the yintah. CGL off the yintah. And the freedom to live self-determined lives as Indigenous people on our own lands. And we know that with all of the support and everybody who stood with us and the continued eye of the world watching what has been happening on Wet’suwet’en territory and to Indigenous people all over the globe that we will achieve that.”

Having responded to Sleydo’s video appeal on September 25, 2021, to come to the yintah, Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to follow this.

Photo: PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson drives on the Morice Forest Service Road on Wet’suwet’en territory, November 20, 2021.

Peace Brigades International co-organizes side event in Geneva on the day Nicaragua withdraws from the UN Human Rights Council

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI co-organized side event in Geneva, February 27.

On February 26, the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) issued a press release that stated: “Nicaragua’s Government has dismantled the last remaining checks on its power, systematically executing a strategy to cement total control of the country through severe human rights violations, UN experts warned today in a new report. The experts called for decisive international action to address these violations.”

The following day, February 27, Peace Brigades International co-organized a U.N. Side Event at the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council on constitutional reform in Nicaragua. You can read more about that at in this PBI-Switzerland article: Nicaragua Side Event: A Systematic Erosion of Rights.

That same day, Reuters also reported: “Nicaragua announced on Thursday [February 27] it would withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following a UN report that urged the international community to address human rights violations by President Daniel Ortega’s government.”

Then on this Friday March 7, Democracy Now! noted: “Nicaragua announced last week it is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following a U.N. report that slammed the government’s human rights violations and warned the country was becoming an authoritarian state.”

To watch their interview with Reed Brody, a member of the U.N. expert panel, click here. Democracy Now! also explains: “[This comes] 40 years to the day since the release of his landmark 1985 fact-finding report Contra Terror in Nicaragua, which laid out how U.S. policy attempted to destabilize Nicaragua’s Sandinista government by funding the Contras and their campaign of torture, rape, kidnapping and murder.”

Video still: Reed Brody talks about the current situation in Nicaragua.

In September 1983, 10 Peace Brigades International volunteers maintained a short presence in Jalapa, close to the Honduran border, interposing themselves between US-backed contras and the Sandinista forces to deter hostilities. This initial PBI work was taken over and continued by Witness for Peace. JoLeigh Commandant, who became the first director of PBI’s Toronto-based Central America Project around November 1982, was part of our presence there.

To read more about that time, please see: PBI in Jalapa, Nicaragua in 1983 as “tracer bullets lit up the sky”.

Following the political crisis in Nicaragua in 2018, PBI began an accompaniment project for Nicaraguan organizations and social groups exiled in Costa Rica. The project provides capacity development for exiled human rights defenders, from psychosocial support to organizational strengthening and security and protection strategies, focusing on improving their conditions for an eventual return to Nicaragua.

For more on the current work of PBI-Nicaragua, please click here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomam People at “plantón” against sand mining

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Today #PBI accompanies the women of the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomam People in their stand-off/sit-in against the sand mills operating in #Chinautla. Extractive activity causes earth movements, health problems and is killing white mud, one of the raw materials and livelihoods of women potters.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained:

“In 1997, the State began to issue mining licenses in the area, without taking into account its inhabitants, and therefore ignoring the right to prior, free and informed consultation contained in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), ratified by the Congress of the Republic on March 5, 1996.

The mining exploitation [has] strong negative impacts on the population: pollution of the environment that causes, among others, respiratory diseases; landslides and infrastructure collapses; [and] cracks in houses.

The absence of a response to these problems has made the situation in Santa Cruz de Chinautla unbearable, leading the indigenous authorities of Chinautla to start a sit-in on June 27, 2022, to stop the illegal operation of the sand companies.

With the beginning of the sit-in, located at the entrance of the Piedrinera San Luis company at km 12 of the road to Chuarrancho (where trucks constantly pass carrying tons of stones and sand destined for the construction sector), our accompaniment and our visits to the encampment intensified.

Since the sit-in began, the security situation has worsened, increasing threats against people in the Resistance. All this keeps the population in fear and worry.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada travelled to Poqomam territory, met with the community, observed some of the mining activities, and visited the plantón on May 1, 2023.

PBI-Colombia amplifies statement on Catatumbo signed by accompanied organizations CAJAR, CSPP and CJL

By
Brent Patterson
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Image by the CAJAR lawyers’ collective: “For a social pact for Catatumbo with guarantees: we call for presidential rectification” 

Organizations accompanied by PBI-Colombia, including the “José Alvear Restrepo” Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR), the Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP), and the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL), “strongly reject” a recent statement made by Colombian president Gustavo Petro.

They say Petro’s comment puts the lives of defenders at risk.

“Attention. Human rights platforms and social and victim organizations reject statements made by Gustavo Petro during the Council of Ministers in which he links civil society organizations and their members with armed groups operating in Catatumbo. This puts their lives at risk and turns them into military targets. We demand rectification.”

Repost by PBI-Colombia.

This joint statement signed by numerous other organizations notes that during a televised session of the Council of Ministers on March 3 on the situation in Catatumbo, Petro stated: “we know that many of the social organizations presented by Alexander are permeated by weapons, subordinate to arms”.

Context to understand this statement

“Alexander” appears to refer to Alexander López Maya, the director of the National Planning Department (DNP) whose had resigned three weeks ago, but whose resignation was not announced until March 6.

Caracol Radio reported: “The delay in his departure, according to government sources, has to do with the fact that the head of state would have entrusted him with the presentation of the Social Pact for Catatumbo, one of the government’s main bets to address the humanitarian crisis in this region.”

The Social Pact of Catatumbo, as explained by the President’s Office this past week, sees the sub-region as a “territory organized around water with social and environmental justice, supported by the right to education, health, drinking water, habitat and sustainable social development [with a strategic axis of] education, health, infrastructure, economy, territorial planning and total peace.”

And, slightly differently, El Pais explains: “It was known that his temporary stay was due to the need to present the Catatumbo Plan, a key project for investment and development in one of the regions most affected by violence in Colombia.”

The Catatumbo Plan reportedly includes the Petro government seeking “to eradicate 25,000 hectares of coca in the Catatumbo region within 140 days, as part of an effort to decrease violence and weaken rebel groups that profit from the cocaine trade. …Farmers in Catatumbo will eradicate their coca plantings voluntarily and will be paid by the government while they transition to legal crops.”

“Social leaders put at risk”

The statement signed by CAJAR, CSPP and CJL highlights: “By irresponsibly relating the work of social organizations and social leaders with the actions of the armed organizations operating in the Catatumbo region, they are put at risk, and even in the condition of military targets, given the current context of violence in the area, unleashed, among other reasons, for the accusation against peace signatories of allegedly collaborating with one of the armed groups in confrontation.”

It continues: “The language used by the President is not only irresponsible and disrespectful to those who dedicate their lives to the defense of human rights in contexts of armed violence, but also deepens the risk that they face for exercising this work. This public stigmatization reinforces the narrative that has historically sought to criminalize social struggles, legitimizing the persecution against those who seek to build a country in peace with social justice, as well as phenomena as serious as the forced displacement of communities, the murder of civilians by armed actors, and the political annulment of social organizations in regions especially affected by the conflict.”

And the joint statement concludes: “From human rights platforms and social organizations, we call on the President of the Republic to rectify his statements and guarantee the rights of social leaders who, with courage and dignity, work for peace, justice and human rights.”

Humanitarian Caravan

PBI-Colombia recently accompanied the Board of Directors of the Catatumbo Peasant Association (ASCAMCAT) during the Humanitarian Caravan for Peace that arrived in the municipality of El Tarra in the department of Norte de Santander in the Catatumbo region on February 4 of this year.

For more on that: PBI-Colombia accompanies Humanitarian Caravan that seeks an end to armed violence against civilians in Catatumbo (February 5, 2025) and PBI-Colombia accompanies Board of Directors of ASCAMCAT during the Humanitarian Caravan to Catatumbo (February 12, 2025).

FEDEPESAN fishers in Colombia face collective displacement due to ongoing threats against them by armed groups

By
Brent Patterson
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We express our concern about the situation being experienced by members of the Federation of Artisanal, Environmentalist, and Touristic Fishermen and Women of Santander (FEDEPESAN) in Barrancabermeja, Santander, Colombia.

FEDEPESAN is a federation of fishers accompanied by the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) an organization which in turn is accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project.

An Amnesty International urgent action notes: “On 15 February, the fishers’ association FEDEPESAN announced that they feel forced to carry out a collective displacement from the lakes and rivers surrounding the city of Barrancabermeja, Colombia. In recent years, including the first two months of 2025, FEDEPESAN members have been subjected to numerous instances of harassment, threats, robbery, extortion, and even attempted murder by armed groups seeking control of the waters to their own benefit, or in retaliation for denouncing potential cases of pollution and corruption affecting the environment.”

That alert also notes: “[Members of FEDEPESAN] particularly those who carry out their fishing activities in the lake of Ciénaga de San Silvestre as well as the rivers Sogamoso and Magdalena, Caño San Silvestre, Caño Rosario, and Quebraza El Zarzal, in the Barrancabermeja area … felt forced to leave their territory … [because they] face multiple forms of harassment, including telephone and direct threats— sometimes for extortion, other times because they are seen as obstacles to armed groups seeking control of the region’s lakes and rivers. Additionally, they have been attacked after denouncing water pollution or potential acts of corruption that undermine environmental policies in their territory.”

On March 1, in response to the Amnesty International urgent action, Yuli Velásquez, the president of FEDEPSAN, posted on social media: “No more impunity in Barrancabermeja. We demand that investigations be accelerated.”

On March 2, she also posted: “A city drowned in blood, hunger, displacement, extortion, unemployment, corruption, and threats is uninhabitable. Unlivable, we demand permanence in the territory guarantee for the right to life, freedom of expression.”

On that same day, Velásquez was quoted in the Bucaramanga, Colombia-based newspaper Vanguardia saying: “There is a lack of clear answers from the institutionality. Of all the complaints we have made, there is no response or progress in the investigations. In January and February of this year we have denounced threats and there is no response. As there are no guarantees for permanence or for carrying out our fishing tasks, what we announce is a massive displacement to be able to protect our lives.”

And the next day, March 3, Agenciapi.co also reported: “Yuli Velásquez, president of Fedepesan, denounced that, despite multiple calls for help, they have not received protection from the local government or progress in the investigations. In the absence of guarantees for their safety and the exercise of their work, at least 10 families announced their imminent displacement. ‘We are tired of so many threats. We have no choice but to leave the territory to protect our lives,’ said the community leader.”

We continue to follow this with great concern.

Photo: Brent Patterson, Yuli Velásquez, Javier Garate; June 30, 2022.

The integration of Canadian and US military production puts Canada at risk of complicity in violence against human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Indigenous Lenca defender Berta Cáceres was murdered on March 2, 2016 due to her opposition to the construction of the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. Her organization, COPINH, is accompanied by Peace Brigades International.

Our question: Would it be possible to have a Canadian-version of the proposed US “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” that, if implemented, would suspend “security assistance” to Honduras until trade unionists, journalists, lawyers, Afro-Indigenous activists, Indigenous activists, small-farmer activists, LGBTI activists and others being attacked are no longer at risk of violence from the Honduran military and police?

Canadian and US military production is deeply integrated. That integration, and the lack of transparency around Canadian military exports to the United States, can lead to risks to the lives of human rights defenders and a lack of accountability within Canada for both preventing and addressing human rights violations.

“Deeply embedded in U.S. supply chains”

Andrew Latham, a Minnesota-based Senior Washington Fellow with the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy in Ottawa, recently noted: “Many Canadian defense firms are deeply embedded in U.S. supply chains, manufacturing critical components for American platforms, including fighter jets, naval vessels, and munitions. The Defense Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA), in place since 1956, was specifically designed to ensure a seamless defense production relationship between the two countries.”

Latham cites the example of: “Magellan Aerospace, a key Canadian supplier, provides crucial parts for the F-35 fighter jet program.” In their article about Canadian suppliers of F-35 parts, The Breach has further specified: “Magellan Aerospace, PCC-Dorval, Apex; Kitchener ON, Dorval QC, Moncton N.B. – Machined parts.”

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has documented: “Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza.”

Photo: Human rights defender Ihab Marwan Kamal Faisal.

On January 16, 2025, Ihab Marwan Kamal Faisal of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. In February 2024, in two separate incidents, two of PCHR’s lawyers, Nour Abu Al-Nour and Dana Yaghi, were also killed along with their families by Israeli airstrikes.

Tariffs applied to the “defence trade”

When US President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on March 4, the Canadian “defence” sector was not excluded.

The Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the “national industry voice of more than 900 Canadian defence and security companies”, commented: “We are profoundly disappointed by the tariffs imposed today by the Trump Administration on Canadian imports, which will impact defence trade. Canadian-made parts, components, and raw materials make their way into everything from the life-support systems used on injured American soldiers to the jets patrolling U.S. airspace. CADSI will continue working closely with Canadian government officials across multiple departments to seek clarity, provide feedback on responses, and track the effects of these tariffs and the Canadian countermeasures on our sector.”

Questions about F-35s and warships

This tariff war has prompted calls for a reconsideration of Canada’s purchase of US manufactured weapons systems.

Esprit de Corps, “Canada’s only independent monthly defence magazine”, has noted: “Canada’s planned purchase of the Lockheed Martin stealth fighter jet, the F-35, could be headed for some turbulence. Questions are being asked around official Ottawa about why Canadian taxpayers should spend $19 billion on a product from a country whose president has threatened to economically destroy Canada and then annex it as the 51st state.”

Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese has also recently reported: “Having an American-controlled command system running Canada’s new warships [Canadian Surface Combatants] poses a serious risk, particularly at a time when the U.S. is openly hostile to this country, warns the former commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.”

A $1-billion question mark

It does not appear, however, that the tariff war has yet prompted a critical re-evaluation of the Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA).

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, perhaps more.

Last year, Project Ploughshares highlighted: “The Government of Canada does not regulate the majority of Canada’s military transfers to the United States.” It has further recommended that Canada should “begin a full reporting of the transfer of military goods, including parts and components, to the United States.”

And yet there are troubling questions about how these exports could be implicated in human rights violations.

US “security assistance” linked to civilian harm

Professor Patricia L. Sullivan at the Department of Public Policy, Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina, has noted: “Between 2002 and 2019, US$300 billion in US security assistance flowed to foreign governments and at least one million foreign nationals received US military training.”

Professor Sullivan adds in her Sage Journals article: “Does American military aid increase the risk of civilian harm? …Until very recently, there have been few systematic attempts to evaluate the effects of security sector assistance. …The results of this study suggest [there] is strong evidence that ‘lethal’ aid—military equipment, weapons, military training, and combat assistance—increases extrajudicial killings by security forces in states without effective institutions to constrain executive authority.”

US legislation to protect human rights defenders

The “Human Rights Defenders Protection Act of 2024” introduced by US Senator Benjamin L. Cardin notes in its Section 2:

“(12) The United States has neither a coherent strategy to strengthen protections for human rights defenders, nor adequate measures to prevent and respond to cases in which members of foreign security forces, law enforcement, judicial institutions, criminal groups, or private companies contribute to attacks on human rights defenders. The United States also lacks adequate consular resources and authorities to facilitate temporary evacuation of human rights defenders facing immediate lethal danger.

(13) While the United States possesses multiple tools to hold perpetrators of reprisals accountable, including sanctions, export controls, visa restrictions, and diplomatic pressure, the United States deploys such tools unevenly and without clear connections to a broader strategic framework to strengthen protections for human rights defenders.”

The Berta Cáceres Act

Similarly, the “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act”, sponsored by US Representative Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. in 2021, proposes: “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.”

Section 2 of that legislation further states:

“(1) 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.

(21) In this context of corruption and human rights abuses, trade unionists, journalists, lawyers, Afro-Indigenous activists, Indigenous activists, small-farmer activists, LGBTI activists, human rights defenders, environmental defenders, and critics of the government remain at severe risk; and previous human rights abuses against them remain largely unpunished.

(23) United States agencies allocated approximately $39 million that Congress appropriated through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, to the Honduran police and military for fiscal year 2017.”

Next steps in Canada to protect the lives of defenders

What do we do given this link between Canadian “military goods” exported to the United States and the human rights violations linked to US “security assistance”?

Currently, there is also no coherent strategy within “Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders”, specific mention in the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA) or evident use of the Defense Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) that specifically provides for the protection of human rights defenders from weapons and military components produced in Canada that are either directly or indirectly exported to countries where the rights of human rights defenders are violated.

While there is limited information publicly available about the direct export of Canadian military goods, and some information that has been gained through diligent independent research efforts about specific military exports to the United States, most information about Canadian military exports to the US are not disclosed to the public.

The full disclosure of the export of Canadian “military goods” to the United States would at least enable a measure of transparency, the possibility of some accountability for human rights violations committed using those goods, and perhaps provide for other measures to protect the lives of at-risk human rights defenders.

PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC condemn the murders of defender Cristino Castro Perea and journalist Kristian Uriel Martínez

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 4, the Civil Society Organizations Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) 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.

Cristino Castro Perea, who was part of the collective “Environmental Defenders of Barra de la Cruz” in Oaxaca, was murdered on Friday, February 28, in the community of Barra de la Cruz, Santiago Astata, Oaxaca.

Kristian Uriel Martínez Zavala, journalist and director of El Silaoense MX, was murdered on March 2 in Guanajuato.

Both had received protection measures, derived from previous aggressions against them, but these were not effective in preventing the attempts on their lives. The authorities knew the level of risk to which both were exposed, and despite that there was no forceful response. The murders and impunity that persist in the attacks against human rights defenders and journalists must be addressed.

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.

We demand that the corresponding prosecutors’ offices advance promptly and efficiently in the investigations of these crimes, taking as a primary line of investigation their work in defense of human rights and freedom of expression. It is imperative that international standards are followed in the treatment of these cases and that the necessary efforts are made to bring those responsible for these violent acts to justice.”

Their full statement can be read here.

Espacio OSC is accompanied by Peace Brigades International (PBI) – Mexico Project.

PBI-Honduras present as COPINH marks the 9th anniversary of the murder of Indigenous Lenca defender Berta Cáceres

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 3, PBI-Honduras posted on Facebook (and X and Instagram):

“Yesterday, we supported Copinh Honduras during the ninth anniversary of the planting of Berta Cáceres. The admirable work of environmental defender Lenca continues to be an example in defending land, water and indigenous peoples.

From PBI we highlight the importance of achieving comprehensive justice for Berta, Juan and all the defenders who have been killed for their work defending human rights in Honduras.”

On X, PBI-Honduras added:

“From PBI we emphasize the importance of achieving #justicia comprehensive relief for Berta, Juan and all the people #defenders who have been murdered for their work defending human rights in Honduras.”

RadioHouse.hn also reported:

“On Sunday, March 2, the commemoration of the ninth anniversary of the sowing of the national heroine, Berta Cáceres, took place. The event was held at the “Utopia” Meeting and Friendship Center, in La Esperanza, Intibucá, bringing together family, friends, social organizations and human rights defenders who honored her memory and struggle.

During the day, various cultural activities and reflection allowed remembering the legacy of Cáceres, who dedicated her life to the defense of the territory, natural resources and the rights of indigenous peoples. Attendees stressed the importance of continuing his struggle for justice and environmental protection in the face of the threats that persist in the region.”

And on March 2, the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organisations in Honduras (COPINH) also posted this media statement:

“Almost a decade after her murder, the road to justice has been arduous and marked by obstacles created by those working to guarantee impunity for the masterminds of the crime.

In November 2024, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the sentences against seven men convicted of Berta Cáceres’ murder and the attempted murder of Gustavo Castro.

Among them, David Castillo, president of DESA and former military intelligence officer, was named a co-perpetrator. However, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence, exposing the influence of powerful interests over the Honduran judicial system.

This ruling confirmed the existence of the criminal structure that killed Berta, linked to the Atala Zablah family and state security forces. Yet, impunity still protects the masterminds. Members of the Atala Zablah family continue to use their power to obstruct truth and justice.

The persecution and criminalization of social movements and land defenders have not stopped. The same strategies used to silence Berta have been repeated against other activists.

The murder of environmental defender Juan López on September 14, 2024, is proof of this. Like Berta, he was threatened and had precautionary measures from the IACHR. Yet, he was murdered.

Although we have made progress, justice remains incomplete. We demand the identification and prosecution of all those responsible. To those who planned and financed this assassination. Daniel Atala remains a fugitive from justice because evidence has clearly shown his connection to Berta’s murder.”

The full statement from COPINH can be read at Nine Years Without Berta! May There Not Be Ten Without Justice.

COPINH’s coordinators have been accompanied by PBI Honduras since May 2016.

Front line voices highlight concerns about Canadian mining companies as MISN marches against PDAC convention

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by MISN. The banner says: “CANADIAN MINING COLONIZES DESTROYS KILLS”

We are following the Instagram video posts from the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) on the protest today against the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto.

Video still from MISN.

MISN highlights: “From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sami Indigenous territory in northern Norway, from Sudan to the Philippines, from Cree to Wet’suwet’en territory to Palestine, Canadian mining kills, destroys and colonizes.”

Speakers at today’s protest include Cree and Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Canada, an Indigenous Sámi delegate from Norway, and representatives from the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Sudan Solidarity Collective, the Congolese community, and the Anakbayan collective in the Philippines.

Video still of Wet’suwet’en land defender Eve Saint.

To their voices, we add these concerns expressed about the Canadian mining companies now at the PDAC convention in Toronto and their activities in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia and Honduras.

NICARAGUA – Calibre Mining Corp.

Wangki, an organization of Indigenous Peoples on Nicaragua’s North Atlantic coast, has highlighted: “Between 2022 and 2024, the Canadian company Calibre Mining Corp and its subsidiary, Desarrollo Mineros de Nicaragua (Desminic S.A.), obtained 13 mining concessions in Nicaragua, covering 369,378.86 hectares. Of these, 7 concessions are located in titled indigenous territories, affecting 169,174.18 hectares. These awards were made without respecting the processes of prior, free and informed consultation, violating the fundamental rights of indigenous communities.”

GUATEMALA – Gold Group Management Inc. (a group of companies that includes Volcanic Gold Mines Inc.)

“Volcanic Gold Mines operates in southeastern Guatemala through its subsidiary Minerales Sierra Pacífico S.A. The company continues exploration activities under El Dorado LEXR-813, a license that expired in 2007. Despite lacking a valid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Volcanic controls 2,096 km² of land across 30 municipalities, including ecologically fragile areas and indigenous territories of the Ch’orti’, Poqomam, and mestizo peoples. The Holly-Banderas project, a centerpiece of Volcanic’s operations, directly threatens water sources (Río Grande de Zacapa, Río Motagua, and Río Santa Rosa), communal forests, and sacred hills, sparking resistance from local communities. In 2021, Volcanic began drilling without proper permits, and their recently approved Cirilo I license (LEXR-017-10) is tainted by irregularities, having been explored before its legal approval.”

COLOMBIA – Libero Copper

In March 2024, Mongabay reported: “Soraida Chindoy [an Indigenous woman from the Inga community in the Condagua reservation, situated north of Puerto Asis, in Putumayo, Colombia] leads her people’s fight against the Canadian mining company Libero Copper. The company plans to mine the Ingas’ sacred mountains to extract copper… [This territory] was recognized as an Indigenous reservation, a status that implies community ownership and that is characterized as inalienable, indispensable, and non-seizable, with the condition that any project in the territory must have the approval of its ancestral owners. In spite of this, the Colombian state granted four mining titles in 2006, without prior consultation with the Indigenous community. …Since May 2018, [these four mining titles] have belonged to Canadian company Libero Copper, which operates in Colombia under the name Libero Cobre.”

MEXICO – Alamos Gold Inc.

In November 2020, the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water-Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala commented in a statement in opposition to the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) megaproject: “[Then-Mexican president] Lopez Obrador’s [support for the PIM] betrays the peasant and the promise of change of his government, to favour transnational corporations [including] Canadian miners like Alamos Gold.”

We continue to follow these struggles with particular attention to the risks faced by the land and environmental defenders who oppose extractive megaprojects.

The Toronto-based Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) can be found on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.

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