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PBI-Mexico shares news of win by Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water in struggle against landfill in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Residents have maintained a permanent blockade at the entrance of the landfill since March 21, 2024. PBI-Mexico accompanied the Peoples’ Front highway blockade on that day two years ago.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has shared the news of an important win:

“For more than two years, the Cholultec peoples have fought for the closure of the sanitary landfill in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla.

The landfill, which received garbage from all over the region and even from neighboring states, was built on aquifers. Leachate from the landfill was contaminating the local water supply and the fields of surrounding farmers.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defense of Land and Water (FPDTA), which has worked with like-minded groups such as the Union of Peoples Against the Landfill, to stop the operation of the landfill and draw attention to this environmental crisis.

For more than two years, the Union of Peoples Against the Landfill and the People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water have maintained a constant sit-in to monitor the landfill and ensure that no more garbage enters.

During that time, they have endured threats, acts of intimidation and criminalization. Despite all this, they have persisted in their resistance and on March 25, 2026, they won an important victory.

In a meeting with the company that owns the landfill and with various levels of government, a series of agreements were signed. The company and the government definitively agreed to desist from any attempt to reopen the landfill and agreed on a closure plan to stop leachate seepage into the local water supply.

The fight will not end until the company and the government comply with their agreements, removing all machinery from the landfill and completing the environmental restoration plan. However, the agreements signed on March 25 are an important victory, the result of two years of courageous non-violent struggle.”

PBI-Canada extends its congratulations

PBI-Canada welcomes the news about this important win on March 25.

The previous month we spent four days with the Peoples’ Front and PBI-Mexico, including a visit to the encampment in San Pedro Cholula on February 21.

Photo: PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson looks at a field adjacent to the garbage dump where the community would be lost to an expansion of the landfill.

More photos by PBI-Canada from February 21, 2026 visit.

PBI-Canada has followed the struggle against the landfill, including remembering seeing the poster in the days before March 21, 2024.

Photo: “Demonstration. Out landfill! We demand total cancellation and abandonment plan.”

We will now watch from Canada to see if the company and the government comply with the agreements they made on the landfill.

Angulo7 notes: “The agreement of March 31 … to desist from the expansion of the Cholula landfill on the adjacent land will be followed up. Another of the agreements reached … is that they will carry out an inspection in the coming days to review the leachate leaks after the closure of the Cholula landfill.”

We welcome the news that on April 9, El Sol de Puebla reported: “15 days after the signing of the agreement for the remediation of the property where the intermunicipal landfill of Cholula is located, on April 9, work began by the company Pro-Faj, to carry out the definitive closure of this space.”

We will be paying attention to the follow-up table that is scheduled to be held on Tuesday May 12 at 11:00 am.

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water – Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala since February 2020.

The Peoples’ Front is an organization made up of 11 Indigenous Nahua communities from the states of Morelos, Puebla, and Tlaxcala.

They organize to defend their territory and to promote and exercise their right to self-determination as Indigenous peoples in the face of companies and projects seeking to industrialize their lands—efforts that have resulted in environmental harm and contamination.

As part of their opposition to megaprojects in the region, members of the FPDTA–MPT have faced killings, threats, attacks, repression, defamation, harassment, and criminalization.

Photos: It was a privilege to meet with Juan Carlos Flores Solis, the co-founder of the Peoples’ Front. He is a lawyer who provides legal advice to Indigenous Nahua communities that fight against the extraction and contamination of water. He was unjustly persecuted and imprisoned for ten months starting on April 7, 2014, for his work supporting people affected by the Morelos Integral Project (PIM) gas pipeline megaproject.

PBI-Colombia with the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) at May Day rally in Bogota

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by the CSPP.

The Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) has posted on social media:

“As CSPP, we took part in the May Day march as CVI, providing support at various points along the route across the country to safeguard and defend the right to protest.

On the streets, we reaffirmed that protesting is a right, not a crime, and that human rights support is key to safeguarding life, dignity and social mobilisation.

#DefendFreedom #MayDay”

Accompaniment

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

Additional reading: PBI-Canada observes vígil for the Toboso 19 outside the Embassy of the Philippines, May Day call to shut down CANSEC in Ottawa (May 2, 2026).

PBI-Canada to observe rally in Ottawa to defend the Global Sumud Flotilla and the immediate release to two civilians from Israeli custody

By
Brent Patterson
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Starting at 2 pm on Saturday May 2, community members will gather outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa to “defend the Global Sumud Flotilla and continue the global pressure to break the illegal siege on Gaza.”

The social media promotion for this protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office highlights: “On the night of April 29-30, the zionist entity illegally intercepted 22 boats of the flotilla and kidnapped 180 civilians, among them 2 Canadians. An act of piracy, with full impunity. We denounce Canada’s silence and complicity with those violent attacks, the illegal siege on Gaza, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

The civilians intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters were reportedly transferred by an army ship to Greek boats that then took them to Crete.

But the Flotilla says: “The nightmare isn’t over. Greek police are now trapping our battered crew on buses, denying them the freedom to leave while Saif and Thiago have been abducted and taken back to Occupied Palestine. Our participants remain unbroken: 60 participants have immediately launched a hunger strike.”

Canadian rescued by Greenpeace ship

The Canadian Press notes: “The Global Sumud Flotilla has identified the Canadians as Marie Tota, a nurse from Ontario, and Umir Tiar, a student from Quebec City. It said Luiza Noura, a third Canadian, was rescued by Greenpeace and Spanish NGO Open Arms after her boat was destroyed and she was left adrift in the sea.”

Greenpeace photo by Max Cavallari.

Two Flotilla members still in custody

The day before this protest, the Associated Press reported: “Israeli authorities said Friday [May 1] they were taking two high-profile activists [Spanish-Swedish citizen of Palestinian origin Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila] who led an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, and who were captured by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, to Israel for questioning. The governments of Spain and Brazil accused Israel of ‘kidnapping’ its citizens.”

Alllegations of abuse

Novara Media adds: “Global Sumud Flotilla participants say they were punched, kicked, dragged across the floor with their hands tied, and shot at with real and rubber bullets on board an Israeli warship after they were kidnapped in international waters more than 500 nautical miles from Gaza.  …34 wounded participants – including two Brits – have been taken to hospital in Crete, flotilla organisers said, with broken bones and other injuries. One participant was reportedly knocked unconscious for several minutes, while another has serious injuries to their neck. Several have broken ribs and noses, and some appear to be wearing blood-stained clothes.”

The Guardian also reports: “Zack Schofield said the activists were held by Israel on a transport ship. He said the vessel had been retrofitted as a prison, with the main deck dominated by shipping containers surrounded by barbed wire. ‘They took people into the fourth shipping container and beat them with the butts of their rifles and batons, and with their fists and their feet,’ he said. ‘I saw a man shot at point-blank range with a rubber bullet in the leg and in the back.’ …Schofield alleged he witnessed a young Colombian woman being repeatedly punched in the ribs by an IDF soldier.”

The Flotilla continues

Novara Media highlights: “Flotilla organisers say the remaining boats – only 22 of 57 were intercepted – will continue to Gaza.”

Shut Down CANSEC, May 28

Al Jazeera reports: “Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla, described Israel’s boarding of its vessels as ‘a straight-up attack on unarmed civilian boats in international waters.’”

Deutsche Welle also reports: “Israeli military boats seized 15 ships near Crete, hundreds of miles from Gaza, according to the mission organizer, Global Sumud Flotilla. ‘Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as Israeli, pointing lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees,’ the organization said in a post on X.”

Tariq Ra’ouf also told Al Jazeera that drones had surrounded the Flotilla and had been flashing them with lights.

The navy vessels, military speedboats, lasers, semi-automatic assault weapons, drones and the component parts and technology that make them work are what the nearly 300 exhibitors at CANSEC will market to the 60+ delegations, including Israel, this coming Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28 in Ottawa.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada observes vígil for the Toboso 19 outside the Embassy of the Philippines, May Day call to shut down CANSEC in Ottawa

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 1, Anakbayan Ottawa and allies held a vigil outside the Embassy of the Philippines in Canada in Ottawa for the nineteen people killed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Toboso, Negros Occidental on April 19, 2026.

Among the 19 people killed were Lyle Prijoles, a Filipino American who advocated against US taxpayer dollars funding the bullets and bombs used by the AFP and Philippine National Police, community researcher Errol Wendell, university student Alyssa Alano who was studying land grabbing and militarization, journalist RJ Ledesma, and agrarian reform advocate Maureen Keil Santuyo.

The speakers at the vigil included Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, the National Chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), who is on an advocacy tour in Canada. Ka Daning held a drawing of Errol Wendell as he spoke. Wendell was a 24-year-old researcher with the Union of Agricultural Workers. He was also an artist.

The Toboso 19 were remembered with a moment of silence and the placing of drawings of them, flowers and candles at the front door of the Embassy.

The situation in the Philippines

The Anakbayan Ottawa social media post notes: “This massacre is directly connected to the current conditions of the Philippines which does not serve the people, but foreign interests and those in power.”

Militarization

Anakbayan says: “They chose to go to Negros because they understood the importance of being there, to learn from and serve the people. The people who are heavily exploited by land-grabbing, big landlords, displacement. All of which is backed by heavy militarization from the US backed Marcos Jr, regime who exploits the Philippines for its cheap export of natural resources.”

Land and environmental defenders

Global Witness and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) have reported: “Since 2012, the Philippines has been ranked as the deadliest country in Asia for people protecting land and the environment, with mining linked to a third of all killings documented by Global Witness. …The military has been linked to the highest number of documented killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines over the past decade. These abuses have gone unchecked.”

The demand for an investigation

Numerous groups have called for an immediate and independent investigation into the Toboso massacre, including BAYAN Canada, the human rights group Karapatan, the Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN), and the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) network.

May Day march

Those who had gathered at the Embassy then joined the annual May Day march.

The Philippines at CANSEC

Despite the well-documented human rights violations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), there will be a delegation from the Philippines at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa this coming May 27-28.

CANSEC brings together 60+ international delegations and nearly 300 weapons and technology companies including the biggest and most profitable weapons companies, such as Lockheed Martin (that has sold F-16 Block 70 fighter jets for “air-to-ground support” to the Philippines).

Highlighting the connections between militarization and human rights violations, Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos and Rosie Lucente from the International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) spoke at the May Day rally outside the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) not long after the emergency vigil at the Embassy of the Philippines in Canada.

CADSI, located at 251 Laurier Avenue West, is the association of weapons and surveillance companies – including Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, BAE, General Dynamics, Elbit – that organizes the annual CANSEC arms show.

For updates from the Shut Down CANSEC campaign, click here.

We continue to follow this.

Additional reading

–PBI-Canada meets with Filipino human rights defender Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos in Ottawa (April 29, 2026)

–Journalist, researchers killed by Armed Forces of the Philippines on eve of Operation Balikatan exercise with Canadian soldiers (PBI-Canada, April 25, 2026)

–Filipino human rights defenders and allies rally in Ottawa as thousands protest corruption in the Philippines (PBI-Canada, November 30, 2025).

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc at ceremony in Yumbo for those killed in the National Strike, including Kevin Anthony Agudelo

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still from Nomadesc.

The Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc) organized a gathering on April 28 in the city of Yumbo, Colombia to remember those killed by the state during the National Strike and social uprising in 2021.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project was there to accompany Nomadesc and the community gathered at the remembrance.

Kevin Anthony Agudelo

A Nomadesc video from the day shows one of the PBI-Colombia volunteers standing near a displayed photo of Kevin Anthony Agudelo.

The Associated Press reports: “Kevin Anthony Agudelo wanted to live in a country where corruption was not part of everyday life. That dream motivated the electrician to join thousands of Colombians in a series of demonstrations against the government [that started on April 28, 2021]. He never returned home from his third protest.”

He was 22 years old when he was shot to death by police on May 3, 2021, in the Siloé neighbourhood of the city of Cali.

Killed by a Tavor assault rifle

His mother Ángela Jiménez says: “I took a video of him at the morgue. The bullet entered through the right side of his chest and came out on the left side, went through his left arm. The friends who were with him told me that my son had done absolutely nothing and that they (the police) had killed him, that it had been a rifle shot.”

Human Rights Watch has also posted: “He died of his wounds. He had been participating in a candlelight vigil for people injured in previous protests, two witnesses said. Demonstrators at a roundabout were peacefully blocking traffic when ESMAD agents began firing flash bang cartridges and teargas, three witnesses said. …Human Rights Watch reviewed a photo of Agudelo’s body, with wounds to the chest and arms, which IFEG [International Forensic Expert Group] forensic experts said were consistent with being shot by live ammunition. A justice sector official familiar with the case said initial evidence indicates the police were responsible for the shooting.”

Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps confirmed that these police officers fired 5.56mm Tavor rifles.

The Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) website notes that their company “has been a world leader in the production, marketing, design, and development of unrivalled weapons for over 85 years. IWI’s products are deployed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and worldwide. All of IWI’s weapons have been battle proven around the world under adverse and extreme environmental conditions.”

The Israel Weapon Industries website adds: “The TAVOR Assault Rifle was developed in close cooperation with Israel Defense Forces (IDF). …The TAVOR line of Assault Rifles also been chosen by government bodies as well as military, law enforcement and police units worldwide.”

IWI at CANSEC in Ottawa

In May 2015, the Embassy of Israel in Canada noted: “Ambassador Rafael Barak is pleased to welcome a delegation of 14 Israeli defence and security companies to Ottawa, as part of CANSEC 2015. …The delegation is led by the Director of the International Defence Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Defence (SIBAT).”

That statement concludes that Israel Weapons Industries (IWI) was present at CANSEC. A Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) backgrounder about CANSEC also indicates that an international delegation from Colombia was present, along with the Canadian trade commissioner from Colombia.

We cannot yet establish a date that the rifles were purchased, but a post from the National Police of Colombia indicates that they acquired spare parts for the rifles in April 2018, a few years after CANSEC 2015.

Nomadesc message to Canada

On December 1, 2021, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted on social media: “The Canadian embassy @CanadayColombia visits the office of @Nomadesc in Cali to talk about the causes of the protests and learn first-hand about cases of police violence. Nomadesc requested guarantees that Canada does not assist the Colombian police with equipment.”

Then again on June 1, 2022, during CANSEC that year, Nomadesc posted: “We Colombians want no more weapons, no more massacres, no more disappearances, no more threats. No more fear. #StopTheGenocide. We demand truth, justice and guarantees that this will never happen again. Do not send us any more weapons. That makes you accomplices to barbarism.”

Shut Down CANSEC

This coming May 27-28, 2026, 60+ countries, including Colombia, will be in Ottawa to meet with nearly 300 weapons and surveillance companies, including the world’s largest and most profitable transnationals: Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and General Dynamics.

A wide range of social movements, peace groups, faith communities, non-governmental organizations, and individuals will be mobilizing to protest the CANSEC arms show on Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28.

Peace Brigades International-Canada is highlighting the dangers faced by communities from the arms exports promoted at the CANSEC arms show as part of our commitment to holistic protection accompaniment.

PBI-Honduras accompanies the Muñecas Collective-Arcoíris LGTB Association in complaint about defamatory Facebook account

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“‘I am being affected by the use of my image,’ says Jennifer Cordoba, Director of the Muñecas Collective at @arcoirishn [Rainbow LGTB Association of Honduras].

A few days ago, a fake Facebook account was created using her image, through which defamatory comments were posted on the pages of sexual diversity organisations such as Kukulcán and in relation to the human rights defender Danny Montesinos.

Jennifer, who has already filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office with the support of PBI, is demanding that the case be followed up and investigated, as well as the closure of the account.”

The situation in Honduras

In an update posted on March 12, 2026, Outright International noted:

“LGBTIQ people in Honduras continue to face severe legal and social challenges. While same-sex sexual activity is legal, the country does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, nor does it provide a legal framework for gender identity recognition, despite a 2021 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordering such measures. Violence against LGBTIQ individuals remains a critical issue, with high rates of violent deaths in the country.

The government elected in 2021 demonstrated some support for LGBTIQ people’s rights. In 2022, Honduras joined the UN LGBTI Core Group. In 2024, a positive step was taken with the lifting of a long-standing ban on blood donation by ‘homosexuals’ and ‘bisexuals’, following years of advocacy by Honduran organizations. The conservative-leaning government elected in January 2026 has not presented any specific proposals regarding the rights of LGBTIQ people.”

PBI-Canada visit

On November 1, 2024, PBI-Canada met with Arcoíris and the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls. It was an accompaniment of their 16th anniversary gathering.

Criterio.hn has noted: “The Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls [Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris] was founded in 2008, with the aim of claiming and strengthening the human rights of the trans woman population in Honduras.”

Photo: We appreciate the time given to us at that time by Jlo Córdoba and Donny Reyes for a conversation, and the hospitality of the Arcoiris community. Afterwards, it was nice to watch together a couple episodes of The Secret of the River (a TV series now on Netflix).

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International began accompanying the Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras in 2015.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc at first day of commemoration of the 5th anniversary of the national strike

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc) is marking the 5th anniversary of the national strike and social uprising in Colombia.

Yesterday, they posted on social media: “First day of commemoration. Yumbo has become a space of memory, meeting and complaint. It’s been 5 years since April 28, 2021, and there are still names the country can’t forget. Today we raise our voices again for the killed, missing and displaced young people, because without justice there is no closure, and without memory there is no country.”

Amnesty International has summarized: “Throughout the 2021 National Strike, Colombia witnessed mass demonstrations across the country. The protests made visible the historical claims of marginalized populations in the country.  Inequality, racism, violence and the consequences of the internal armed conflict were key structural causes of the social explosion. …Instead of listening to the demands of the thousands of people who demonstrated, the government of Iván Duque responded with repression and violence to discourage the peaceful protests and ultimately to punish those who were demanding change in the country.”

On this 5th anniversary of the national strike in Colombia, we highlight again the solidarity expressed by the labour movement in Canada at that time.

Click on the hyperlinks to see statements from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Unifor, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the United Steelworkers (USW), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the Union of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the British Colombia General Employees Union (BCGEU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

We continue to follow this from Canada.

Further reading

-Nomadesc organizes 5 actions to end impunity on the 5th anniversary of the Social Uprising in Colombia (PBI-Canada, April 25, 2026)

-Questions remain about the use of Canadian armoured vehicles and helicopters during the national strike in Colombia (PBI-Canada, May 5, 2022).

PBI-Colombia accompanies the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó as it constructs memorial to the Mulatos and la Resbalosa massacres

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:

“We are accompanying the Peace community in Apartadó, in the village of La Resbalosa, with the construction of a memorial to the Mulatos and La Resbalosa massacres, as part of the Amicable Agreement with the Colombian State.

We reiterate the importance of remembrance and acts of reparation following the recognition of the community as a victim of the Colombian State.”

The Massacre

PBI-Colombia has previously explained: “On February 21, 2005, the villages of Mulatos and La Resbalosa (Antioquia), located five hours from La Holandita, the main settlement of the Peace Community, were the scene of a heinous crime that, once again, hit its inhabitants.”

“Among the 8 victims of this massacre, 7 were members of the Peace Community: Luis Eduardo Guerra, historical leader and founder of the Community, Bellanira Areiza, his companion and Deiner Andrés Guerra, his 11-year-old son; Alfonso Bolívar Tuberquia Graciano, the coordinator of the Humanitarian Zone of La Resbalosa, Sandra Milena Muñoz Posso, his wife, Natalia and Santiago, their two children aged 5 years and 20 months.”

“The massacre was perpetrated by a commando of around 60 paramilitaries from the Heroes of Tolová Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) along with troops attached to the Army’s 17th Brigade.”

That article adds: “In the months following the massacre, the XVII Brigade and the Ministry of Defense stated that, given the modus operandi employed, there was no doubt that the massacre had been perpetrated by the FARC-EP guerrilla group.”

Construction of the memorial site

The Peace Community

For Peace Presence explains: “In the middle of the 1990s, as violence escalated and peasant farmers suffered from extrajudicial deaths at the hands of armed actors as well as forced displacements, the people began to organize themselves in order to return to their land and to escape from the spiral of violence.”

It adds: “Conscientiously objecting to the war and demanding their rights as civilians not to be involved in a conflict, the community denounced the use of arms within their territories and committed to a variety of principles in the process (including cooperative communal work, prohibition of alcohol, the non-use of illicit drugs, the no-entry of armed actors, non-use of weapons and the refusal to provide information to armed actors).”

Accompaniment

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

PBI-Mexico meets with Yoreme Alliance about their security situation during visit to the state of Sonora

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has posted on social media:

“Last week, @PBI_Mexico was in the state of Sonora carrying out various activities as part of its international accompaniment of human rights defenders and communities.

We met with local authorities from various municipalities, where we emphasized the importance of dialogue with civil society and respect for the rights of indigenous communities, such as prior, free, informed, culturally appropriate and good-faith consultation.

We were able to meet with members of the Yoreme Alliance in the community of Buaysiacobe, Etchojoa, where they shared with us their security situation as well as their concerns regarding the exercise of their community rights.

We recognize the legitimate work they do.”

Yoreme Alliance

The Indigenous Mayo (Yoreme) people in Sonora face serious threats to their existence, culture and territory. The main risks they face include land grabs for industrial projects, such as petrochemical plants, physical violence and the criminalization of environmental defenders, as well as the pollution of their natural environment.

PBI-Mexico has noted on its website:

“The Yoreme Alliance was officially formed in 2022 by the Indigenous communities of Bachoco el Alto, Buaysiacobe, Cohuirimpo, and Masiacahui.

Its mandate focuses on the defense of territory, Indigenous rights, and the preservation of Yoremnokki culture and language through this alliance of communities, which have adopted the motto of the Indigenous Government of Cohuirimpo: ‘For the respect of people, vegetation, animals, sea, and land.’ Their actions are based on the harms experienced and/or identified by the four member communities.”

Sonora

In August 2023, Aljazeera reported: “According to Global Witness, more than half of the lethal attacks on environmental defenders in 2021 took place in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Mexico led the way with 54 recorded killings, almost half of them Indigenous people. Around two-thirds of these murders were carried out in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and the southern state of Oaxaca.”

Accompaniment

PBI has worked with the Yoreme Alliance since 2023 and received their formal request for accompaniment in 2024.

PBI-Canada meets with Filipino human rights defender Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos in Ottawa

By
Brent Patterson
-

This morning PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, National Chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and Rosie Lucente of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).

PBI recently launched a Southeast Asia Project to accompany human rights defenders in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. This meeting between PBI-Canada, KMP and ICHRP in Ottawa was a first in-person opportunity to connect and learn about each other’s work.

One of the many interesting points of connection was the similarity between the struggles of peasants in the Philippines and those PBI-Canada learned about when they met with the PBI-Honduras accompanied National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in Honduras last month. For more on this, please see PBI-Canada and PBI-Honduras meet with the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in Tegucigalpa (PBI-Canada, March 4, 2026) and Israeli military exports linked to eviction of CNTC farming community, violence against human rights defenders in Honduras (PBI-Canada, April 22, 2026).

Another issue of common concern is human rights violations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, military “cooperation” between Canada and the Philippines, and the supply chain – weapons exports and the CANSEC arms show – that enables this violence against human rights defenders. For more on this, please see Journalist, researchers killed by Armed Forces of the Philippines on eve of Operation Balikatan exercise with Canadian soldiers (PBI-Canada, April 25, 2026).

Danilo “Ka Daning”

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-Canada) has previously highlighted: “Ka Daning, a farmer himself, is a staunch human rights defender and environmentalist. KMP has effective leadership over a total of 1.3 million rural people with 65 provincial chapters and 15 regional chapters nationwide.”

AlterMidya has reported: “Ka Daning is a survivor of the 1987 Mendiola Massacre. He was among the tens of thousands of poor farmers from Luzon who marched to the then Ministry of Agrarian Reform and later to Mendiola. They were demanding free land distribution to the then Cory Aquino administration when the Philippine Constabulary (now PNP), opened fire at the protesting farmers, killing 13 and injuring scores of others.”

In February 2024, PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) expressed “deep concern about the reported incidents of surveillance and red tagging that Danilo Ramos, chairperson of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP), has recently faced.”

They further noted: “Many cases of human rights violations, including political killings, involve activists red-tagged by the government. We are outraged that Ramos is facing real threats to his life for standing up for the rights of landless Filipino peasants.”

Attacks on HRDS in the Philippines

In September 2025, Global Witness stated: “Once again, the Philippines had the highest number of murders and long-term disappearances in Asia, with eight cases in 2024. At least six of these attacks were linked to government bodies, notably the armed forces in four cases.”

Global Witness adds: “Filipino human rights alliance Karapatan documented 14 killings of human rights defenders in 2024.”

Between 2012 and 2023, at least 298 defenders were killed in the Philippines (the third highest in the world after Colombia and Brazil). The military was responsible for 64 out of 117 killings of Indigenous defenders in the Philippines during this period.

Ramos in Ottawa, April 29

In their promotion of Ramos speaking at Carleton University tonight (April 29), Anakbayan Ottawa notes: “We will discuss the many struggles imposed upon Filipino farm workers and the Filipino population as a whole.”

Event poster.

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