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Constitutional Chamber accepts admission of appeal from the Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted: “On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed a writ of amparo [injunction] against the open town meeting called for today [June 13].”

Now, Crtierio.hn reports: “The effects of the resolution of the questioned open town hall held in Tocoa, Colón, were suspended, after the Constitutional Chamber notified the admission of the appeal for amparo filed by the members of the Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa.”

“The decision of the Constitutional Chamber was made on Wednesday, June 12, one day before the celebration of the town hall, and notified until this Friday, June 14, that is, one day after the controversial consultation in which only four people chosen by the mayor participated.”

The article adds: “Until there is a final sentence, it will be known whether or not the Supreme Court of Justice validates the decision made at the town hall, which was carried out when it was notified belatedly of the Supreme Court’s decision.”

The full article can be read at Corte Suprema suspende efecto de ilegal cabildo realizado en Tocoa por Adán Fúnez (Criterio.hn, June 14, 2024).

The megaproject

The EMCO Holding Group megaproject appears to include an open-pit iron oxide mine and a petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant to provide the electricity to power a pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted would be processed to convert it into pellets (semi-processed iron) to be exported to the United States.

Criterio.hn adds: “The Ecotek thermoelectric project is one of the seven components of the mining megaproject installed in the Montaña de Botaderos National Park, Carlos Escaleras Mejía. The license for the ASP mining component expired in 2024, while ASP2 was never granted a permit.”

On October 26, 2023, Inversiones Los Pinares asked for a renewal of its ASP mining concession for up to 30 more years.

Opposition and criminalization

Criterio.hn also notes: “Eight water defenders in Tocoa were criminalized and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty for more than 900 days, for opposing the mining megaproject in the nature reserve. …In 2023, defenders Jairo Bonilla, Alí and Oquelí Domínguez, the latter two brothers of fellow defender Reynaldo Domínguez, were murdered.”

We continue to follow this.

Selected dates

August 1, 2018: The community establishes a Camp in Defence of Water and Life that blocks the construction of the access road for the mine.

August 11, 2021: PBI-Honduras visits with the criminalized water defenders at Olanchito prison where they had been held since September 1, 2019.

February 9, 2022: Six of the eight water defenders are found guilty in a Honduran courtroom.

February 10, 2022: The Constitutional Chamber annuls the trial and orders the release of the water defenders from prison.

PBI-Honduras accompanies Municipal Committee filing injunction against town hall meeting for thermoelectric plant

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted:

“On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed a writ of amparo [injunction] against the open town meeting called for today [June 13].

On repeated occasions, the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods and the affected communities of the area have opposed the installation of the ECOTEK thermoelectric plant.

From PBI, today we are very attentive to the security situation of the people of the community.”

Criterio.hn reports:

 “On Tuesday, June 11, the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa filed an amparo action before the Constitutional Chamber against the third municipal call to open town hall, invoking the protection of the right to a healthy environment, water, health and life.

The letter pointed out that the council was convened by “instructions from the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), Lucky Medina, with the aim of accrediting in the file SLAS-0000076-2020/Ecotek Electric Plant a socialization and community approval of a project for the generation of electricity based on petroleum coke.”

[Despite this, on Thursday June 13, Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez proceeded with a town hall meeting that] allowed the participation only of people related to the interests of the mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek, both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez.

At the end of the event, which began more than three hours late and lasted less than half an hour, the National Police proceeded to repress the population that complained to Fúnez about the absence of real participation by the communities in a decision that has implications beyond the municipality of Tocoa.

[Following this] Adilia Castro [of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa] demanded that the Supreme Court of Justice immediately rule on the appeal filed on Tuesday, June 11 by the Committee in Defense of Public Goods of Tocoa against the third municipal call to open town hall.”

The full article can be read at Adán Fúnez impone proyecto termoeléctrico en ilegal y arbitrario cabildo (Criterio.hn, June 13, 2024).

About the megaproject

The megaproject appears to include an open-pit iron oxide mine and a petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant to provide the electricity to power a pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted would be processed to convert it into pellets (semi-processed iron) to be exported to the United States.

Criterio.hn notes:

“The petroleum coke-based thermoelectric plant is one of the seven components of the controversial mining megaproject of Inversiones Los Pinares and Inversiones Ecotek [both of the EMCO Group, chaired by businessman Lenir Pérez], installed in the Montaña de Botaderos National Park, Carlos Escaleras Mejía.

Its original purpose was to provide electricity to the pelletizing plant for iron oxide, a mineral extracted from the natural reserve, but now it is justified by the ruling party as the answer to the energy problem that Tocoa is experiencing.”

In October 2022, NCR also explained:

“About a decade ago, Inversiones Los Pinares, formerly the Honduran EMCO Mining Company and based in Tocoa, applied for a concession to build an iron oxide mine in the protected Carlos Escaleras National Park. Then-President Juan Orlando Hernández authorized the request in 2013, a decision locals said was made without following protocol of consulting residents of the area.

The open-pit mining project was upstream of the Río Guapinol, a channel that stems from the larger Río Aguan, a river that flows through tropical mountains from the Atlantic on the northern side of the Central American country.

When the Río Guapinol in 2018 started to turn a chocolate brown, locals took that as a cue to act against Inversiones Los Pinares.”

EMCO Holding Group has also explained:

“In the Steel Division, the group operates the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, which is responsible for the extraction of iron oxide in Tocoa, Colón, complying with high quality standards, responsible mining and environmentally responsible processes.

Also in the Steel Division, there is a company Inversiones Ecotek that is developing the construction of a modern pelletizing plant in which the iron oxide extracted in Tocoa will be processed to convert it into pellets. This process will allow the export of the material with a great added value. This plant will be unique in Central America. In the Energy Division, the group is developing an important power generation project with the company Puente Alto Energy, located in the community of Puente Alto, in Puerto Cortés, which plans to produce more than 100 megawatts (MW) in its initial stage.”

EMCO has also specified:

“After 8 years of work, Phase 1 of raw iron production as a raw material began in Los Pinares and at the end of 2021 Phase 2 will start to export semi-processed iron to the United States.”

In January 2023, Bloomberg Linea further reported:

“A mining project by the Honduran company Los Inversiones Pinares will produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Honduras aware of security situation as protests take place against controversial thermoelectric plant

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras has posted:

“On Tuesday [June 11] we accompanied @guapinolre [Guapinol Resists – Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods] to the Supreme Court of Justice where they filed an appeal for protection against the open town meeting convened for today [Thursday June 13].

On several occasions, the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods and the affected communities in the area have opposed the installation of ECOTEK’s thermoelectric plant.

At PBI, today [at 12:08 pm in Honduras] we are very aware of the security situation of the people of the community.”

That situation refers to a highway blockade this morning followed by a protest.

This morning Noticias 24/7 reported: “The inhabitants of the Aguán Valley took the CA-13 highway at the height of the La Ceibita community, in a protest against the call for an open town hall scheduled for this day. With burning tires and banners in hand, the demonstrators expressed their opposition to the installation of a thermoelectric plant in the region.”

Photo of protest on highway.

That article adds: “The Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, together with the communities of Lempira and Guapinol, have mobilized to Tegucigalpa to express their rejection. According to community leaders, the instruction to carry out the open town hall came from the Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), Lucky Medina.”

By the afternoon, La Tribuna reported: “Residents protesting against a thermoelectric project in the community of Ceibita, Tocoa, Colón, threw stones at Mayor Adán Fúnez, in an open town hall. Preliminary information highlights that the mayor of Tocoa was arriving at the Basic Education Center of the community of Ceibita, to talk with the locals about the project. However, tempers flared and the demonstrators threw stones at the Mayor, however, the Honduran National Police managed to protect the mayor. The social organizations of Tocoa have organized a protest in rejection of the installation of a thermoelectric plant that they consider polluting.”

Video clip.

Contracorriente further explains in a tweet: “Amid claims and aggressions to journalists, the mayor of the municipality of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, declared approved the Ecotek thermoelectric plant, which will operate based on petcoke. The mayor left the establishment after declaring the project approved, accompanied by a contingent of police. The communities complained that the Guapinol board of trustees was prohibited from participating in the open meeting.”

We note that lawyer Edy Tabora tweeted: “Adán Funez and Lenir Perez’s Ecotek company say they approved a thermoelectric project in Tocoa, without having been put to a vote. The communities reject the project and the Executive Branch reacts by protecting Lenir P. The town hall was illegal! The population said no!”

Video still.

And the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has tweeted: “We express our solidarity with the community of Tocoa, Colón, which is being militarized as an act of intimidation and violence after a peaceful mobilization against the open town hall of the thermoelectric plant. Tocoa has already rejected this highly polluting thermoelectric megaproject on 6 occasions, owned by the mayor of the Libre party, Adán Fúnez, but the sovereign decision of the people has not been respected by the authorities. We denounce the arbitrary actions, violence and intimidation by the National Police and the military to impose this illegal open meeting that tries to approve the Ecotek petroleum coke thermoelectric plant, part of the EMCO mining megaproject.”

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Honduras visits with National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) that sees little change in unequal land ownership

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted: “[On June 3] we met with Melany Chavarria, general secretary of the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] in La Paz. From the CNTC they shared their concerns with us about the little progress regarding land titling and obtaining legal status for peasant bases.”

Unequal land ownership

In their report Breaking Down in Order to Rebuild: The Human Rights Situation in Honduras (published in May 2022), PBI-Honduras noted: “As is common to almost all of Latin America, the question of unequal land ownership is an historic and persistent problem in the Republic of Honduras. Approximately 80% of land held in private hands does not have a corresponding or accurate land title.”

Additionally, fewer than 5% of landowners control 60% of the fertile terrain.

“Legal uncertainty in land tenure, property rights, and land use; private land titles granted over ancestral lands; and authorities’ limited capacity to prevent and resolve land conflicts and guarantee peasant and indigenous communities’ rights to land and territory are some of the most alarming aspects of this issue.”

Notably, the CNTC in Yoro department has reported that “90% of the small-scale farming companies that are members of the organization face criminal prosecutions.”

The report adds: “The agrarian reform approved under the administration of Manuel Zelaya is just one example [of a sign of hope] pointed to by peasant organisations. However, this wide-reaching decree was one of the victims of the 2009 coup d’état, when it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the National Congress.”

The promise of Castro

In December 2021, Reuters reported: “Last month, after more than a decade of conservative governments roiled by corruption and drug-trafficking scandals, Hondurans elected Xiomara Castro, a leftist, to assume the presidency next year.”

That article continues: “A former first lady of a president toppled in a 2009 coup, Castro has promised to revive land reform programs that fueled anger among property owners before her husband’s ouster. The coup was led by the military but supported at the time by many of the country’s moneyed class.”

More than two years after Castro was sworn into office on January 27, 2022, Melany Chavarria of the CNTC, as noted above, sees little progress.

Accompaniment

The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for the distribution of land.

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying the CNTC since May 2018.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Peace Community of San José de Apartadó as paramilitary threat intensifies

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Colombia has posted on Instagram:

“We will continue to seek development that respects life and rights” – Germán Graciano, Legal Representative of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó.

Last June 5, we accompanied @sanjoapartado in a meeting with diplomatic body and government to follow up on their social and environmental justice processes.

On June 12, El Espectador reported in an article titled Apartadó Peace Community Denounces Paramilitaries Starting “Extermination Plan”:

“This week, new threats against leaders of the population [of the Peace Community] located in the rural area of Urabá in Antioquia have once again set off alarms about the growing control in the area of the Clan del Golfo, which has also revived the paramilitary ghost that has plagued that area of the country.

It is paradoxical, and a symptom of recycling violence in that region, that these violent acts occur in the same week that a Florida court found the multinational Chiquita Brands guilty of financing paramilitary groups in Colombia, in the 90s, precisely in that part of Urabá.

Although the harassment against the residents began almost at the end of December, the highest peak of the conflict was evident a few months ago after the murder on March 19 of Nallely Sepúlveda and her brother-in-law Édinson David, 14, wife and brother of the humanitarian coordinator of that community.

A person close to the community, who for security reasons did not want to reveal his name, told Colombia+20 that, although there is a risk for several of the leaders of that population, in particular Germán Graciano, their legal representative, he is in the sights of the Clan del Golfo.

On its website, the Peace Community of San José has published two statements with the details of the violent events that have occurred between April and May. Among them are phone calls with death threats against Graciano, illegal retentions, theft of machinery, death of animals, alleged acts of espionage carried out by people who identify themselves as paramilitaries. Also, complaints of alleged illegal registrations and bad actions by the Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the inhabitants’ complaints, in mid-April a meeting was held by paramilitaries with leaders of community action boards in the township of San José de Apartadó. The community affirms that in that encounter a man who identified himself as Mateo said that the community would be exterminated.

For Graciano, some of the reasons for these events seem to be copied from what happened when the banana company Chiquita Brands was there. “Things have changed, but many not so much. The only thing the Community does is protect the territory and life in it, and that is why it wants to finish us off and kill us. That ruling uncovered that rotten pot of Urabá with the banana plantation, and you know that those businessmen are still there. This has some political and economic interests of this port of Antioquia. What we do here is exercise authority and autonomy in favor of our rights to our land, but that does not serve many people, the armed forces, some authorities, so they want to kill us,” he said.

The Clan del Golfo, which emerged after the demobilization of the paramilitary groups of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), is today one of the largest criminal groups in the country. In addition, it controls various illegal economies in several rural areas in several regions of the north of the country, including Urabá.””

The full article can be read at Comunidad de Paz de Apartadó denuncia que paramilitares empezaron “plan de exterminio” (El Espectador, June 12, 2024).

There is also this short video clip with PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) lawyer Sebastian Escobar.

For more on the Chiquita ruling, you can read US banana giant ordered to pay $38m to families of Colombian men killed by death squads (The Guardian, June 11, 2024).

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

PBI-Guatemala accompanies media conference denouncing attacks and evictions of Maya Q’eqchi’ communities

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 11, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies UVOC and the Campesino/Peasant Council, formed by CCDA, CUC, New Day and UVOC, at their press conference in which they denounced the complicity of the authorities of Alta Verapaz with the farmers to evict Indigenous and peasant communities.”

Factor 4 further explains: “The Peasant Council – the Verapaz Union of Peasant Organizations (UVOC), the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC), the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) and the Nuevo Dia Ch’orti Indigenous Association (Nuevo Dia) — condemns the evictions and threats against rural communities that fight for their right to land and a dignified life. …They regret the loss of lawyer José Alberto Domingo Montejo on June 5 and Marcelo Yaxon, both activists of the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC).”

Photo of UVOC coordinator Carlos Morales by Rony Morales.

Killings of CUC lawyer and activist

Grassroots International also provides this context: “Tragically, on June 5, armed paramilitaries assassinated José Alberto Domingo Montejo, human rights lawyer and legal counsel for our partner the Comité de Unidad Campesina/Peasant Unity Committee (CUC), and fatally wounded CUC activist Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, who died on June 10. They also severely wounded CUC activist Gustavo Yaxón.”

The Associated Press has also reported: “A Guatemalan lawyer who worked closely with organizations representing farmworkers and Indigenous groups was killed in an apparent ambush. José Domingo was with two members of the United Farmworkers Committee [CUC] when they were shot by a group of men Wednesday [June 5] south of the capital, said Daniel Pascual, a leader of that organization. …Domingo was helping to legalize a land title in the area… The Council of the Wuxhtaj Peoples also condemned the attack and said Domingo was of the Popti or Jakalteko people and a ‘defender of Mother Earth.’”

Photo: José Domingo.

Still from video clip.

Eviction of two Maya Q’eqchi’ communities

Grassroots International adds: “The brutal attack on these peasant rights defenders took place on the very same day that members of Guatemala’s National Civil Police (PNC) — which acts at the behest of local judicial authorities and their private interests — forcibly displaced 35 families of the Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ living in the community of San José el Tesoro in the Alta Verapaz department. Weeks prior, on May 22nd, the PNC also expelled dozens of Indigenous Mayas Q’eqchi’ from traditional territories in the community of Buena Vista in the Izabal department.”

Still from video:” Burning of houses in violent eviction in the community of San Jose el Tesoro, Coban, Alta Verapaz.”

Prensa Comunitaria has also reported on the two forced evictions:

“Homes turned to ashes, burned crops and displaced Q’eqchi’ families is the scenario that remains in the community of San José El Tesoro, in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, after an eviction involving more than a thousand agents of the National Civil Police (PNC). On Wednesday, June 5, some 1,500 PNC agents mobilized to Cobán to evict the families who live on the farm known as “El Tesoro,” located at the entrance to the villages of Las Pacayas and Chitocán.

This is the second eviction reported during the government of Bernardo Arévalo, since, last May in Buena Vista, in El Estor, Izabal, women who were accompanied by their daughters and sons were evicted from the Tz’inté farm. Simultaneously with the state security forces, Arriaza Migoya’s crews and private security agents from the company VIP Security SA participated, who could have destroyed the houses and crops of the families. The families who lived in the Buena Vista community sought refuge during the night in the Santa Rosita community, others spend the night on the side of the road.”

Grassroots International comments: “This violence follows conflicts in late 2023 and early 2024 during which social movements mobilized against the ruling elite as it attempted to cling to power after being ousted from the presidency through democratic elections. While the current presidency represents a break from the Corrupt Pact (Pacto de Corruptos), the right-wing regime continues to hold on to power in parts of the government, including the legislative and judicial branches, the latter of which can decide on PNC [National Civil Police] actions. According to CUC [Committee for Peasant Unity], the ‘Covenant of the Corrupt’ is doing everything in its power to force a rupture between the recently-elected Semilla Party and progressive forces nationwide.”

Accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces since July 2018 and the Union of Campesino Organizations for the Verapaces (UVOC) since 2005.

We continue to follow this situation.

Tweet: “The Peasant Unity Committee -CUC- With deep regret and sadness, we unite to mourn the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion José Alberto Domingo Montejo.”

Tweet: “With deep regret, sadness, and indignation, for the vile murder of our dear brother, friend and companion: Marcelo Yaxón Pablo, community leader and member of the CUC structures.”

Wet’suwet’en land defenders continue their abuse of process claim against the RCMP in Smithers court

By
Brent Patterson
-

Gidimt’en Checkpoint has posted:

“We have another week coming up in the colonial courts attempting to criminalize us. This week will be part of our Abuse of Process claim. Please join us in Smithers at the court house from June 17-21 9-4 each day. On June 17th there will be a rally at noon with speakers and singing. On June 21, celebrated in so-called Canada as National Indigenous Day we will celebrate the end of one more week of survival at the Main Street stage at 5pm with food and music! Please join us whenever you can and stay tuned for updates.”

The first part of the abuse of process application was heard in a courtroom in Smithers, British Columbia on January 12-19 this year.

Their application alleges the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) used excessive force and violated the Charter Rights of Indigenous land defenders resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.

Land defenders Sleydo’ (Wet’suwet’en), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan) and Corey Jocko (Mohawk) were arrested by C-IRG officers on November 19, 2021.

Our overview of the first hearing can be read at Twelve concerning things we learned about the RCMP C-IRG during the first week of the abuse of process hearing (January 20, 2024).

Members of the Abolish C-IRG coalition will be monitoring the hearing this coming Monday June 17 to Friday June 21.

International delegation

In addition, Amnesty International has noted: “A delegation of Amnesty International representatives from France, Germany, the United States and Canada will attend the trials of Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Smithers, British Columbia, during the week of June 17, 2024. The delegates will be there to watch the criminal court proceedings and be in solidarity with the criminalized defenders, Sleydo’ Molly Wickham (Wet’suwet’en), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan) and Corey Jayohcee Jocko (Mohawk).”

Amnesty further notes: “In December 2023, Amnesty International published the report ‘Removed from our land for defending it’: Criminalization, Intimidation and Harassment of Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders. …Based in part on witness testimony of four large-scale Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raids on Wet’suwet’en territory marked by the unlawful use of force, the report finds that Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters were arbitrarily detained for peacefully defending their land against the construction of the pipeline and exercising their Indigenous rights and their right of peaceful assembly.”

#RCMPofftheYintah

Ottawa activist threatened with arrest for asking Members of Parliament their position on arms sales to Israel

By
Brent Patterson
-

Ottawa-based activist Jonathan Machado has posted on his Instagram account: “The Canadian Parliament Hill Parliamentary Protective Service threatens to arrest me for asking Canadian politicians to stop Canadian weapons manufacturers’ from selling weapons to war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.”

In the video, the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) officer says: “I’ve been informed that you are harassing Members of Parliament, we got a complaint, so if you do it again you will be under arrest.”

Thirteen MPs asked

On Machado’s Instagram page, there are clips of him over the past six weeks asking questions about arms sales and the situation in Gaza to Heather McPherson (NDP), Ken McDonald (Liberal), Blake Richards (Conservative), Francis Drouin (Liberal), Ben Lobb (Conservative), Darrell Samson (Liberal), Martin Shields (Conservative), an unidentified Member of Parliament (Liberal), Anthony Housefather (Liberal), Glen Motz (Conservative), Ali Ehsassi (Liberal), Bob Zimmer (Conservative), Ryan Turnbull (Liberal), Alexandre Boulerice (NDP), Andrew Scheer (Conservative), Jasraj Hallan (Conservative).

While Machado poses his questions respectfully, many of the Members of Parliament appear rude and disrespectful to him. And while there is a concern about the reported increased harassment of Members of Parliament, none of the videos suggest anything more than Machado asking MPs their position on a key public policy issue.

Arms Embargo Day of Action, June 13

Additionally, ArmsEmbargoNow.ca website notes: “On June 13th we’re taking action at MP offices across the country to demand they sign onto the call for a full and immediate arms embargo on Israel.”

Activists will be asking 30 more Members of Parliament to sign on to this statement in support of an arms embargo.

To date these 42 MPs have signed the statement.

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Kenya stands in solidarity with the families of victims of police killings at trial of officer Ahmed Rashid

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 12, PBI-Kenya posted: “Today, we stand in solidarity with families of victims of police killings. The #TrialOfAhmedRashid, formerly of Pangani 9, continues before Justice Kavedza at Kibera Law Court. Rashid was charged with the 2017 murders of Jamal Mohammed and Mohammed Dhair Kheri in Eastleigh.”

Yesterday, the Mathare Social Justice Centre posted: “Join us tomorrow & Thursday, June 12 & 13, at the Kibera Court from 9 am, as we attend the court case of killer-cop Ahmed Rashid. We will be there to demand justice for all of our loved ones killed by his bullets. We all have a right to life! @MothersVictims”

Citizen Digital has previously reported: “The case gained notoriety after a video surfaced on social media on March 31, 2017, showing Rashid, clad in civilian clothes, shooting two young individuals on the ground in the Eastleigh area. The incident which occurred in broad daylight and in the presence of onlookers, led to Rashid being branded the ‘killer cop’.”

PBI-Kenya and the Social Justice Centre Working Group are members of the Missing Voices Coalition (MVC).

Missing Voices on Ahmed Rashid case

The Missing Voices Coalition has explained: “Ahmed Rashid, the police officer who served for many years at Pangani Police Station and was said to allegedly belong to a group of officers called the ‘Pangani Six’, was charged at Kibera Law Courts on March 14th, 2024, with the murder of two teenagers, Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dhahir Kheri. He allegedly shot the two fatally in 2017, and the incident was recorded in a video that went viral thereafter.”

Missing Voices also notes: “It is important to maintain pressure from the public if police impunity and brutality are to be dealt a blow in Kenya. Both human rights activists and the general public have maintained their interest in the case [of Ahmed Rashid], making it difficult for plans to delay its commencement to succeed. In particular, human rights activists, especially members of the Social Justice Centres (SJC), who are members of MVC, have used the case to educate the public on extrajudicial killings and its negative impact on the rights of individuals as guaranteed by the country’s constitution and the international instruments, which Kenya has ratified.”

The Missing Voices Coalition commentary on this case can be read on pages 21-23 here.

Missing Voices documents police killings

The Missing Voices annual report released in April 2024 noted: “The first of the important developments in 2023 was MVC’s reporting of a reduced number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances from the figures it recorded in 2022. As this report shows, the number of those killed extra-judicially reduced by 9.2%, from 130 in 2022, to 118 in 2023, while enforced disappearances reduced from 22 in 2022 to 10 in 2023, a 54.5% decrease.”

We continue to follow this case.

PBI-Mexico accompanies communities at protest in Mexico City demanding closure of Cholula garbage dump

By
Brent Patterson
-

On June 11, PBI-Mexico posted: “Today we were accompanying the communities that are asking for the definitive closure of the Cholula landfill due to the environmental impacts in their concentration in front of the PROFEPA headquarters in Mexico City.”

Voices in Movement has also tweeted:

Municipios Puebla reports: “Residents of Puebla demonstrated this Tuesday outside the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) in Mexico City to demand the definitive closure of the Intermunicipal Sanitary Landfill that is located on the road to Calpan 4702, Fraccionamiento Maravillas de San Pedro Cholula and is owned by the company Pro-Faj Hidrolimpieza.”

That article adds: “Alejandro Torres, one of the people who protested and blocked Insurgentes Avenue and Félix Cuevas, in front of Profepa, in Benito Juárez, said that for 11 years the open-air dump has been operating and has contaminated land and water with leachate. They stated that although Profepa put closure seals because Pro-Faj Hidrolimpieza has failed to comply with guidelines, the workers of the landfill removed them. Those affected also demand a ‘restitution plan’ and that ‘not one more kilo of garbage be received’ and affirmed that ‘they are already carrying out reforestation campaigns to sow life where they sowed death.’”

Angulo7 also reports: “The residents of the Union of Towns and Villages against the Landfill, in Mexico City, held a protest at the Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) to demand that their demands be met due to the lack of response from state authorities.”

That article continues: “Juan Carlos Flores Solís, one of the representatives, commented that there is a resolution from a judge to an amparo trial in which the agency is ordered to verify if the corrective measures imposed have been complied with, as well as if the useful life has concluded, which will have to be carried out during this week. However, he accused that Profepa ‘does not commit itself’ by arguing that a procedure has to be followed, despite the fact that there is a court order and evidence has been given that the landfill cells are saturated and should be closed definitively, for which reason he committed himself to attend to said request.”

And Oro Noticias Puebla notes: “The company ProFaj Hidro Limpieza, in charge of the operation of the Cholula landfill, filed at least five complaints against the group of residents who have not allowed the operation of the landfill for almost three months. This was revealed by the head of the office of the Ministry of the Environment of Puebla, Norma Sandoval Gómez, who indicated that the ‘social’ conflict is the only thing that prevents 21 municipalities from depositing their waste in the Cholula landfill.”

Flores Solis comments: “On the one hand, we must be attentive to any repressive action that may be taken, we will wait for the inspection to take place this week, the five-day term for the company’s arguments and then, what we consider, the repositioning of the closure seals.”

We continue to follow this.

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