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PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc at meetings with state authorities in Bogota given threats faced by trade union leaders

By
Brent Patterson
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The Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) has posted on social media:

“Delegation of trade union organizations and human rights defenders of the Valle del Cauca [Cauca Valley], we meet in Bogota with the competent entities in the implementation of prevention and protection actions for human rights defenders and trade union leadership. We emphasized the imminent risk that human rights defenders live in the Colombian southwest, the urgency of respect and public recognition of our work. We urge the State to comply with international and national legal standards for the protection of human rights that lead to overcoming impunity and stigmatization of our exercise.”

“Sintraunicol receives threats from FARC dissidents”

On March 13, the Verifico platform noted: “By means of a pamphlet, signed by the Jaime Martínez Mobile Column of one of the FARC-EP dissidents, the board of directors of the Union of University Workers and Employees of Colombia (Sintraunicol), of the Cali sub-directive, is declared a military target.”

“This armed group, which claims to be present in the mountains of the department of Valle del Cauca, especially in Jamundí, threatens to take their lives, and says that it is not responsible for their properties. In addition, they prohibit them from ‘proselytizing in the region, meetings with the civilian population of rural and urban areas, putting them against the organization.’”

The Verifico article further notes: “Of the four threatened, two have a security scheme and the other two are unprotected, including the president of the union. Méndez says that with this threat, which puts organizational and union work in distress, he must take self-protection measures, since he has not been benefited by the National Protection Unit (UNP) to provide him with the necessary security.”

Sinaltrainal receives death threats

The National Union of Food  Workers (Sinaltrainal) has been on strike against the Swiss transnational corporation Nestlé for more than 300 days in the municipality of Bugalagrande in Valle del Cauca. According to a statement recently shared by the union, it is demanding: “End of harassment and threats: they denounce that the members of the union have received death threats, and demand guarantees for their safety.”

Following a November 2024 visit to Colombia, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) noted: “Our delegation met with members of Sinaltrainal in the town of Bugalagrande.”

CUPE explains: “The union has been in a labour dispute with Nestlé de Colombia S.A. since the company banned union representatives from engaging with workers. In April 2024, union members set up an encampment outside the gates of the Nestlé plant, and they have stood strong despite attempts to dismantle their camp.”

On February 27, 2025, Periferia reported: “More than 300 days ago, the Bugalagrande sub-directive of Sinaltrainal installed a ‘resistance tent’ outside the plant that the multinational Nestlé has in that municipality of Valle del Cauca, where around 1,200 workers work… Today the tent and union members are still there in protest against the company’s refusals to renegotiate the collective agreement that expired on May 31, 2024.”

“Nestle exploits workers”

“According to reports from the National Trade Union School, delivered to the Truth Commission in 2020, 3,240 trade unionists were killed in Colombia between 1971 and 2018. Sinaltrainal counts 39 members who were victims of the homicidal crusade, the first in 1989 and the most recent in 2018.”

That article further notes: “An investigation is still open against five Nestlé executives into the murders committed by paramilitary groups against two Sinaltrainal executives: Luciano Enrique Romero in 2005, and Víctor Eloy Mieles Ospino in 1999; both were declared crimes against humanity.”

Luciano Romero

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has noted: “On 10 September 2005, trade unionist, human rights activist and former Nestlé-Cicolac employee Luciano Romero was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by members of a paramilitary group. His murder came after a number of death threats that arose in the context of a long-standing labor dispute between the Colombian trade union Sinaltrainal and the Nestlé factory Cicolac.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied NOMADESC since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999.

We continue to follow this.

Portugal cancels purchase of F-35 fighter jets, planned purchase coming under scrutiny in Germany and Canada

By
Brent Patterson
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Poder Aereo reports: “Portugal’s Minister of National Defence, Nuno Melo, announced that the country will not acquire F-35 fighters from the United States, considering the current geopolitical context and the unpredictability of US policy.”

“The minister emphasized that … allied predictability is a crucial factor in deciding on the replacement of combat aircraft.”

The article also notes: “[Melo] mentioned that European production alternatives are being considered, also aiming at economic benefits for Portugal.”

In an interview with Publico, Melo also commented: “And this ally of ours, which for decades has always been predictable, may bring limitations in use, maintenance, components, everything that has to do with ensuring that aircraft will be operational and will be used in all kinds of scenarios.”

Under scrutiny in Germany

EU Today also reported this past weekend: “Germany’s planned acquisition of 35 American F-35 fighter jets has come under scrutiny following concerns that the United States, under President Donald Trump, could disable the aircraft remotely.”

For now though, as Euronews reports: “A spokesperson from the German ministry of defence, however, told Euronews Next that there is no plan to cancel the purchase of F-35 fighter jets in light of the concerns raised.”

Calls to reconsider in Canada

About a month ago, CBC reported: “The government’s facing calls to reconsider or cancel major Canadian contracts with the U.S. including a more than $19-billion deal to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets with U.S. defence company Lockheed-Martin.”

At that time, Global News noted: “One of the biggest joint Canada-U.S. projects, the $73.9 billion purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets, is not a contract that would be ripped up, according to [Bill Blair] the minister [of defence].”

That article added: “Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters … that the government was only looking at limiting non-defence federal contracts to Canadian firms as part of any retaliation.”

As new Liberal leader Mark Carney is sworn in as prime minister tomorrow (March 14), Duclos has reportedly been dropped from cabinet.

Carney has not commented specifically on the planned F-35 purchase yet, but in early-February, CBC reported that: “Carney said 80 per cent of defence purchases made by this country involve the U.S. and that has to change.”

Social media post by Andrew Coyne.

Interview with Lloyd Axworthy.

Quip by Parliament Hill journalist Glen E. McGregor.

If not cancelled, fewer fighter jets for Canada?

Boyko Nikolov has argued in this commentary that Canada will not cancel the F-35 purchase, but concedes: “Some critics might argue that Trump’s unpredictability makes relying on American tech a liability. What if he slaps export controls on F-35 parts or strong-arms Canada into concessions? It’s a fair question.”

He then notes: “But the reality is that the program’s too big and too multinational for even Trump to derail.”

That said, Brent M. Eastwood, the Senior Defense Editor at the National Security Journal, suggests: “It would be a surprise if Canada purchased the full batch of 88 airplanes. The political will is not there. Defense policy will change with a different prime minister after elections are held.”

Eastwood concludes: “The desire to buy the F-35 may fade, or disappear entirely. The deal is too expensive, and funds must be left to rejuvenate other service branches. Canada’s military bureaucracy does not lend itself well to large military purchases. Canada might end up buying only a handful of F-35s.”

We continue to follow this.

To see this petition, click here.

PBI to screen documentary on environmental destruction, militarization and displacement in West Papua

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Germany is co-sponsoring this screening of My Name is Pengungsi (Refugee) on March 16 in Berlin, while PBI-Netherlands is co-sponsoring this screening on March 26 in Utrecht. The 38-minute documentary was made in 2023 by Yuliano Lantipo.

The PBI-Netherland social media post highlights: “This film highlights the worrying situation in West Papua, where there are thousands of internally displaced people, due to civil and armed conflict and ongoing large-scale environmental destruction from mining and logging industries [threatens the livelihoods of the indigenous population].”

And the PBI-Germany promotion notes: “Created by local activist filmmakers, they also tell positive stories of peaceful resistance, struggles for social justice, and the fight against environmental destruction.”

The Walrus has previously noted: “Three of the world’s richest gold mines are now located in the region: Lihir, on Lihir Island [in New Ireland province, operated by the Australian company Newcrest]; Grasberg, next door in West Papua [Mimika Regency, near Puncak Jaya, operated by the American company Freeport-McMoRan]; and, of course, the PJV [Porgera Gold Mine near Porgera, Enga province, operated by the Canadian company Barrick Gold].”

Notably, Global Witness has documented that at least 20 land and environmental defenders were killed in Indonesia between 2012 and 2023, Global Affairs Canada reports that Canada has exported CAD $30 million in “military goods” to Indonesia between 2019 and 2023, and that a Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) could be signed this year that is projected to increase Canadian imports of mineral products from Indonesia by 42 per cent by 2040 and imports of metal products by 18 per cent.

In his review, ‘Alopi Latukefu writes: “My Name is Pengungsi (Refugee) follows the lives and families of two children, both named ‘refugee’, born and currently being raised in parts of West Papua distant from their families’ places of origin. Their displacement is clearly correlated with the increased presence of extractive corporate interests backed in and supported by a military presence. In both children’s cases this has been enabled by the gradual breaking up of the region of West Papua into first two, and now five, separate provinces.”

SA PU NAMA PENGUNGSI is available with English subtitles here.

Further reading: Indigenous environmental defender Adolfina Kuum on “the destruction of our people’s rivers, our forests and way of life” in West Papua (March 10, 2025).

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN as they receive visit from UN Women in Barrancabermeja

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by CREDHOS.

CREDHOS has posted on social media:

“In Barrancabermeja, we received the visit of a delegation from UN Women, in an exercise of socialization of experiences in the framework of #WomenChangingTheirWorld.

This space allowed to know firsthand, the actions developed by the allied organizations, especially FEDEPESAN, in their exercise of water defense; through community monitoring, in the Rosario and San Silvestres streams, political advocacy and the commitment to eco-tourism.”

More to come.

PBI-Canada visited with CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN on the San Silvestre wetland on June 30, 2022, and we continue to follow and help amplify their work.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

PBI-Honduras observes court hearing of three accused Los Pinares/Ecotek defendants

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted on social media:

“Yesterday [March 11], we observed the initial hearing against three defendants from the company Inversiones Los Pinares/Ecotek accused of #environmental damages to the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park. The Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods demands #justice and highlights the alleged existence of a criminal structure that would be behind the installation of the company in the national park and the murder of community leaders, such as #defender Juan López.”

The Los Pinares megaproject

The Pinares-Ecotek megaproject has seven components including: the ASP and ASP2 concessions to dig for iron oxide, a thermoelectric plant that would burn petroleum coke (pet coke) to power the operations, an iron oxide pelletizing plant that could produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange, and the Guapinol River and Ceibita stream concessions that would extract one hundred gallons of water per minute for the pelletizing plant.

Accompaniment

PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson visited Tocoa and Guapinol, Honduras on October 29-30, 2024, to learn more about this case.

A poster of Juan Lopez in Tocoa, the city where he was killed.

The entrance to the village of Guapinol.

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

PBI-Mexico accompanies International Women’s Day marches in Cuernavaca and Mexico City

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still from NotiFactor4 on X.

La Jornada reports: “Members of Peace Brigades International said that they observed the marches in Mexico City, and the one in the capital of the state of Morelos.”

Punto Medio reports: “A10,000 women, mostly dressed in black and purple, marched in the main streets of [Cuernavaca] to commemorate March 8, and demand that the authorities of the three levels of government cease femicides in Morelos, and seek justice for the thousands of disappeared women and for the thousands of victims of femicide.”

That article further notes: “The contingent included observers from Peace Brigades International.”

El Sol de Cuernavaca has also reported: “In Morelos, 584 women disappeared in the period from 1973 to February of this year. …The municipality of Cuernavaca, being the most populous in Morelos, is where the highest number of disappearances of women has been reported, with 157 cases.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Colombia accompanies “Defender La Libertad” verification mission at International Women’s Day march in Bogotá

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted on Instagram:

“This past March 8, in the framework of International Women’s Day and the protest marches that took place in the capital [city of Bogota], we accompanied one of the Verification Commissions. Its objective is to guarantee the free exercise of the legitimate right to protest and demonstration, in the context of the ‘Defend Freedom’ campaign, of which the accompanied organization Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners/CSPP is part of. #humanrights #march8”

Defender La Libertad has explained: “The Defend Freedom: A Matter of All Campaign is a network of organizations that works to denounce arbitrary detentions, judicial persecution, and the criminalization of social protest in Colombia. …The Defend Freedom Campaign promotes the formation of a National Network of Verification and Intervention Commissions of Civil Society in scenarios of social mobilization.”

And the Spanish news agency EFE reported: “In front of the mural of ‘The cuchas are right’, a symbol of the struggle of mothers of victims of forced disappearance, hundreds of women met this Saturday [March 8] in the streets of Bogotá to raise their voices collectively, demand their rights, talk about resistance and paint the city purple and green during the feminist demonstration of 8M.”

The “cuchas” can be translated as “old ladies” and refers to the women who for decades have stated that a garbage dump in the city of Medellin has been used as a clandestine burial ground for some of the thousands of people who have been disappeared by gangs, paramilitaries and Colombian security forces.

More on this: PBI-Colombia accompanies NOMADESC in Cali as mural painters highlight paramilitary and state violence in Medellín (January 29, 2025).

The EFE article adds: “According to the Femicide Observatory Colombia, 886 women were victims of femicide between January and December 2024.”

That article also notes: “That figure [on femicides in Colombia] shakes the hearts of the participants in the mobilization, which also became the stage for tributes such as the one made by Nury Rojas, who wore a T-shirt with the face of Angie Paola Baquero Rojas, her daughter, killed during the September 2020 protests in Colombia against police brutality.”

On September 9, 2020, Angie Paola Baquero Rojas was shot by a police officer after she attended a vigil for law student Javier Ordóñez who was killed by police after being repeatedly tasered by police, an incident that evoked for Colombians the killing of George Floyd in the United States.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSSP) since 1998.

ICC arrest of Duterte raises questions about CANSEC and the export of “military goods” to the Philippines

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: A delegation from the Philippines, led by Defense Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs Teodoro Cirlo Torralba III, at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa on June 1, 2017. The sale of Bell-manufactured helicopters was finalized in December 2017. That sale was suspended in February 2018 after media coverage drew attention to the human rights implications of this sale.

ABC News reports: “Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was detained on Tuesday [March 11, 2025] under an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, which accused him of crimes against humanity in connection with the brutal ‘war on drugs’ he led while in office… Members of the Philippine National Police met the former president as he arrived in Manila, the capital, on a flight from Hong Kong.”

The ICC investigation of Duterte began on February 8, 2018.

Following the arrest of Duterte, the Ottawa-based Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (OCHRP) highlighted: “Duterte’s Drug War (2016-2022) resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths, and hundreds more were killed in his counterinsurgency campaign – as documented by human rights groups – with many victims being extrajudicially executed in what amounted to state-sanctioned murder.”

Canada exports “military goods” to the Philippines

Duterte was the president of the Philippines from June 30, 2016, to June 30, 2022.

During that period, Canada exported about $7 million in military goods to the Philippines ($6,050,640.67 in 2016, $3,219.78 in 2017, $175,497.00 in 2018, $458.00 in 2019, $18,100.00 in 2020, $399.95 in 2021, and $385,000.00 in 2022).

Human rights defenders targeted in the Philippines

Yesterday, OCHRP further noted: “Duterte’s military and police forces (the same as those commanded by current President Marcos Jr.) have participated in red-tagging union organizers, peasant leaders, faith workers, and indigenous land defenders.”

Global Witness has also documented that 17 land and environmental defenders were killed in the Philippines in 2023 and that 298 were killed between 2012 to 2023.

Despite these ongoing human rights violations in the Philippines, Canada exported $514,604.48 of military goods to the Philippines in 2023.

The figures for 2024 will be made public by Global Affairs Canada around the time of the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa this coming May 28-29.

Has Canada raised concerns?

On November 11, 2017, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was asked if he would raise human rights concerns with Duterte during the ASEAN summit in Manila on November 10-14, 2017. Trudeau replied: “There are a range of issues that I could bring up with him, that I may bring up with him, if we have an opportunity. There’s always human rights concerns to bring up with a wide range of leaders.”

On November 12, 2017, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland also commented: “[Canada has] some serious concerns about human rights violations and violations of due process in the Philippines. If we get the opportunity, we will talk about these issues.”

Trudeau reportedly did raise his concerns with Duterte and later claimed that Duterte “was receptive to my comments [about extrajudicial killings] and it was throughout a very cordial and positive exchange”.

Photo: Trudeau meets with Duterte and his partner Honeylet Avancena on November 12, 2017. Photo by Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press.

Canada planned to sell Bell helicopters to the Philippines

On February 8, 2018, The Guardian reported: “This week it was revealed that – despite Trudeau’s concerns – Canada has brokered the sale of 16 combat utility helicopters worth $185m to the Philippine air force.”

That article adds: “The sale of the Bell helicopters – designed by an American company but manufactured in Canada [at the Bell plant in Mirabel, Quebec] – was facilitated by the Canadian Commercial Corporation, an umbrella organization that sells arms to other countries on behalf of the Canadian government.”

The following day, February 9, 2018, the CBC reported: “Earlier this week, Reuters reported the Philippines inked a $233-million deal to buy Montreal-built Bell helicopters. Other reports said the deal was worth up to $300 million. The Canadian Commercial Corporation, which facilitated the deal, wouldn’t confirm the cost.”

Review of the deal

That CBC article adds that following this media attention about the sale of these helicopters: “International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced [on February 6, 2018] he had ordered a review of the deal, which was finalized [on December 29, 2017], after a senior member of the Philippines military said the aircraft would also be used in ‘internal security operations’.”

And yet at that time, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for plans Major Gen. Restituto Padilla countered: “The AFP deal for the acquisition of the Canadian Bell 412 as a combat utility helicopter is a very transparent one. From the very onset, the contract has specified that we are acquiring a CUH.”

“Disingenuous” position of Canadian government

On February 25, 2018, McMaster University professor Netina Tan and graduate student Marvin Mercado commented in The Conversation: “The timing of Trudeau’s public criticism of Duterte’s extra-juridical killings in November 2017 at a Manila summit and the re-signing of the helicopter deal with the Philippines in December 2017 shows a clear disjuncture in public speech and arms trade policy.”

Tan and Mercado further note: “It doesn’t take a security expert to point out that in the Philippines under Duterte’s leadership, the helicopters were likely to be used for combat purposes. There has been major news coverage of the Philippines’ bloody internal conflicts and extra-judicial killings. It would be naïve, if not disingenuous, for the Liberal government to defend its position by arguing that the helicopters would be used only for search-and-rescue and disaster relief.”

Duterte had also publicly threatened to throw officials out of a helicopter

On December 27, 2016, then-president Duterte commented: “If you are corrupt I will fetch you using a helicopter to Manila and I will throw you out. I have done this before, why would I not do it again?”

Signing ceremony

On April 30, 2018, National Post journalist David Pugliese reported: “The Philippine government never hid its intention to use the Canadian-built helicopters in military operations, even going as far as displaying the first batch of those choppers armed with machine guns during an official ceremony in 2015 attended by Canada’s ambassador.”

Photo: Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines, H.E. Neil Reeder (third from the left) at ceremony, August 2015.

Bell tried again to sell the helicopters

On April 30, 2018, the National Post reported: “Just months after a contract to sell military helicopters to the Philippines was cancelled, a Canadian firm is hoping it can revive the controversial deal. … Bell says it is now back in discussions with the Philippines as a potential client for the same helicopters.”

On May 18, 2018, 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. …The CCC confirmed this in its email, saying it ‘merely provides contracting assistance to Canadian exporters’ and that it is those companies [in this instance, Bell] who are legally bound by the terms of the export permit issued by the Canadian government.”

The CCC office is at 350 Albert Street, Suite 1100, in Ottawa.

CANSEC, May 28-29

The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), that facilitated the helicopter sale, and Bell Textron, the manufacturers of the helicopter, are both members of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

Image: CADSI is funded by Global Affairs Canada.

CADSI is the Ottawa-based lobby group that organizes the annual CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre in Ottawa.

The Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (OCHRP) is one of the organizers of the upcoming Shut Down CANSEC protest. Look for updates about this mobilization on Instagram here.

United Nations Special Rapporteur closely following the upcoming sentencing of Wet’suwet’en land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo (from left to right): Frances Mahon, Shaylynn Sampson, Corey Jocko, Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), Quinn Candler.

Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, has posted on social media: “#Canada: In Feb, the B.C. Supreme Court found there had been racist & violent behaviour by the RCMP during the arrest of 3 Wet’suwet’en #HRDs in a peaceful protest against the Coastal GasLink pipeline, yet the HRDs continue to be criminalised for the peaceful defence of human rights & the environment. I will be closely following their sentencing in April @CanadaGeneva”

Last month, APTN reported: “[BC Supreme Court Justice Michael] Tammen says in a ruling delivered in Smithers, B.C., on Tuesday that criminal contempt carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but those convicted typically receive short sentences. The case will be back in court on April 3 to fix a date for sentencing.”

We continue to follow this too.

Further reading:

– Canadian judge finds RCMP C-IRG violated Charter rights of three land defenders in “extraordinarily rare ruling” (February 19, 2025)

– RCMP C-IRG snipers repeatedly deployed against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and water protectors (February 20, 2025)

– Amnesty International could designate three Indigenous land defenders in Canada as prisoners of conscience (February 21, 2025)

The human rights implications of the Brookfield-Isagen Sogamoso dam and La Guajira wind farm in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Opposition to the Brookfield-owned Isagen “invad[ing] Wayuu indigenous territories and desecrat[ing] sacred sites to install wind power projects without consultation.” 

The Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. describes itself in a recent media statement as “a leading global alternative asset manager headquartered in New York with over $1 trillion of assets under management…”

While the decision in October 2024 to move the head office of Brookfield from Toronto to New York “to make its shares more attractive to US investors” has garnered some recent media attention, its investment decisions are also of interest to defenders in Colombia accompanied by Peace Brigades International.

On January 13, 2016, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported: “Brookfield buys Colombia’s Isagen stake for $2.8-billion.”

The Brookfield website highlighting “renewable power generation in Colombia” notes: “Since our acquisition of the business in 2016, Isagen has executed several strategic initiatives that will provide additional growth opportunities. In 2021, the company signed the acquisition of its first two solar generation projects, which when complete, should add 138 megawatts of capacity. The company is also developing its first wind farm, with an installed capacity of 20 megawatts that is expected to be completed in 2022.”

Brookfield and the Sogamoso hydroelectric dam

Isagen owns the Sogamoso Hydroelectric Power Plant in the department of Santander in Colombia, and is in the jurisdiction of several municipalities including Barrancabermeja and Puerto Wilches.

In May 2016, the European news website Euractiv reported that, according to a report by Oxfam, German companies “are complicit in human rights violations through hydroelectric projects in countries such as Brazil and Honduras.” That article also cites: “The Sogamoso dam in northern Colombia, where, between 2009 and 2014, six activists have been killed and many more disappeared without a trace.”

Among the environmental concerns about the dam, in March 2020 El Espectador reported: “The fishermen of the San Silvestre wetland, in Santander, denounce that since the middle of February there is a fish mortality in the place. According to them, this emergency is due to the fact that Isagen, a company in charge of the Sogamoso dam, opened the floodgates to feed the river that bears the same name.”

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) that in turns accompanies the Federation of Artisanal, Environmentalist, and Touristic Fishermen and Women of Santander (FEDEPESAN) who fish in the San Silvestre wetland impacted by the Sogamoso dam.

Photo: PBI accompanying FEDEPESAN and CREDHOS leaders on the San Silvestre wetland, June 2022.

Brookfield and the La Guajira wind farm

On March 20, 2021, Colombian environmental defender Oscar Sampayo tweeted: “The Canadian investment fund @Brookfield owner of @ISAGEN in Colombia, violent and disrespectful sacred sites of the Wayúu community in northern Colombia.”

Sampayo’s tweet follows the tweet from the Nacion Wayuu ONG that says: “Isagen invades Wayuu indigenous territories and desecrates sacred sites to install a wind project in an inconsistent and arbitrary manner.”

At that time, Nación Wayuú ONG called “on the Colombian State, national and international control bodies and Isagen, to refrain from continuing to implement their project until the fundamental right to free and informed prior consent to which indigenous peoples are entitled is fulfilled.”

On February 20, 2025, the Associated Press reported: “Construction started on the La Guajira 1 wind farm — which looms over the cemetery near Cabo de la Vela [in the northern region of La Guajira] — in 2020 after a mix of legal processes, government backing, and controversial negotiations and unsatisfactory prior consultation. It faced significant opposition from the Wayuu and has been producing electricity since 2022, but is not yet hooked up to the interconnected system.”

Image of social media post highlights additional concerns.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) that supports the efforts of the Wayúu Indigenous people of La Guajira to bring legal actions to protect themselves from the impacts of the Cerrejón open-pit coal mine. CAJAR may also be supporting the Wayuu in relation to this wind farm.

Photo: PBI with CAJAR lawyer Rosa Maria Mateus in Bogota, July 2022.

PSI report on Isagen privatization

In May 2024, Public Services International (PSI) and the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), together with the Colombian trade unions SINTRAISAGEN, ORGANISA, SINTRAE, SINEDIAN produced a report on the consequences of this purchase, “the second largest privatisation deal in Colombian recent history.”

In the media release about that report, Mark Hancock, the President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), commented: “CUPE has always opposed the privatization of public assets in Canada and around the world. We support the unions in Colombia in calling for a re-evaluation of Brookfield’s troubled privatization of a key electricity provider in Colombia and its impact on workers, communities, consumers and financing of public services.”

We continue to follow this.

Photo: PBI accompanied defenders from CREDHOS and the CCALCP legal collective outside the Brookfield office in Toronto, November 2019.

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