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Stand.earth report implicates banks in destroying the Amazon rainforest where land defenders are killed

By
Brent Patterson
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Stand.earth and the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) have released a new report titled GREENWASHING THE AMAZON: How Banks Are Destroying the Amazon Rainforest While Pretending to be Green.

The report highlights: “Major banks are claiming to protect the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and our climate, while they are simultaneously investing in destruction that is irreversible for one of the most strategic ecosystems for life on the planet. …Efforts to stop the devastation have been met with violence. An alarming number of leaders and land defenders have been killed while protecting Amazonia, which is currently the most violent region on the planet for Indigenous leaders and land defenders.”

The report focuses on five transnational banks Citibank (USA), JPMorgan Chase (USA), Itaú Unibanco (Brazil), Santander (Spain) and Bank of America (USA) that “together account for more than half of the loans to companies in this sector.”

Royal Bank of Canada, USD $1.2 billion over 15 years

The Stand.earth Amazon Banks Database further notes: “[The top 8] banks have profited from oil and gas despite the fact that the threat of an Amazon collapse has increased dramatically over the same time period.”

Number 7 on their list is RBC [the Royal Bank of Canada] with USD $1,163,458,000 in direct financing over the past fifteen years.

Frontera Energy in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador

The Stand.earth searchable database also shows numerous current bank bonds to the Canadian oil and gas company Calgary-based Frontera Energy from Citibank, Credit Suisse, Itau Unibanco, Morgan Stanley, BCP Securities LLC, Citibank, HSBC, Merrill Lynch & Co, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.

Colombia

In December 2019, then UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst wrote: “In the context of efforts to defend land and environmental rights, at least 202 defenders have been prosecuted since 2012. By way of example, during the Special Rapporteur’s visit, eight leaders from San Luis de Palenque were arrested and accused of collusion to commit an offence, violence against a public servant and obstructing a public road, and two of them with attempted homicide in connection with their participation in and leadership of the social protests between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads.”

His report then highlights: “The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation.”

Forst then explains: “In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$ 1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities. On 4 December 2018, the army and the police accused the aforementioned leaders of being members of ‘Los Jinetes con Careta’, an illegal armed group whose existence has yet to be recognized by the competent authorities. Furthermore, since 2015, Ecopetrol, the main Colombian hydrocarbon exploitation company, has signed five cooperation agreements with the Attorney General’s Office for a total of US$ 24,698,485 to strengthen the investigative and prosecutorial capacity of the Attorney General’s Support Office to deal – inter alia – with crimes of obstruction of public roads during social protests that affect the functioning of Ecopetrol and/or its associated companies, such as Frontera Energy.”

Since the arrest of the social leaders on November 27, 2018, and Forst’s report on December 26, 2019, bonds were issued to Frontera by Citibank, Credit Suisse, Itau Unibanco, Morgan Stanley, and BCP Securities LLP.

The Amazonia region in Colombia includes the departments of Amazonas, Caquetá, Guainía, Guaviare, Putumayo and Vaupés. The department of Casanare is situated north of Caquetá, Guainía and Guaviare.

Peru

Frontera Energy has also been implicated for its past business practices in Peru. In the report CANADA’S FAILURE TO UPHOLD EXTRATERRITORIAL OBLIGATIONS: CORPORATE ABUSES BY CANADIAN COMPANIES IN THE AMAZON RAINFOREST, a case study focuses on Frontera Energy in Peru.

The Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada has reported that the submission names: “Frontera Energy Corp. in northern Peru, which, The Globe has [previously] reported, incurred 33 environmental fines related to oil spills in the time it operated there [2015 to February 2021]. In response to questions, Frontera said it is honouring its contractual commitments and will continue to comply with its outstanding social and environmental obligations.”

Photo: “Natanael Sandi’s job as an environmental monitor is to track and report the oil contamination. On this excursion in December, 2022, he stops by Frontera’s abandoned offices [in an area known as Block 192 in Peru].” Photo by Patrick Murayari.

Ecuador

There may also be concern about Frontera’s present and future operations in Ecuador. In March 2022, Oil & Gas Journal reported: “Frontera Energy Corp. discovered oil on the southern portion of the Perico block in Ecuador. …Frontera holds about 16,700 net acres in the Perico and Espejo exploration blocks in Ecuador. The blocks lie near existing production and infrastructure in Sucumbíos Province [that is part of the Amazonian region in Ecuador].”

We continue to follow this.

Na-Cho Nyak Dun win court challenge against proposed Metallic Minerals quartz mine on their territory in the Yukon

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: “A group of demonstrators, comprised of First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun (FNNND) citizens and allies, rally outside the Yukon Territorial Court ahead of the hearing [in November 2023] for the Yukon government’s appeal of a decision earlier this year to reverse approval of mine exploration work on the First Nation’s traditional territory. (Matthew Bossons/Yukon News).”

APTN reports: “The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun (FNNND) is celebrating a recent court decision over proposed mining exploration on its land.”

That article adds: “In 2021, the territorial government approved a mineral exploration project proposed by Metallic Minerals to go on to the next stage of the approval process. …[The FNNND] took the government to court over a lack of consultation and won in January 2023. In November, the government appealed and argued that the judge erred and that the consultation was conducted properly. However, [the] decision [of the court on Tuesday April 9] states otherwise.”

As CBC News has previously explained, Vancouver-based Metallic Minerals Corp. had proposed “a quartz exploration project to happen over 10 years on 52 claims located north of Mayo [within the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun].”

APTN has also previously noted: “Proposed by Metallic Minerals, the project would entail exploration activities every summer for ten years in the heart of the [Beaver River Watershed], also known as Tsé Tagé.”

And Yukon News reported in March 2021: “Metallic Minerals’ application involves its 52 quartz claims approximately 64 kilometre north of Keno. The claims were staked in 2018 and 2019. The application seeks permission to construct roads and clearings in its claims to support mapping, soil sampling and excavation. It acknowledges that the work ‘might have significant environmental or socio-economic effects’ on the nation’s traditional territory.”

APTN now reports: “Yukon government said it’s reviewing the decision [of April 9 that sides with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun].”

We will continue to follow this.

CREDHOS: “We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine”

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Iván Madero Vergel is the president of CREDHOS.

On June 8, the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) posted: “We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. In the midst of a rally in Munich, Germany, we express our solidarity with the People of Palestine who resist with dignity. And today, in unison, we say: Stop the genocide!”

A student encampment in solidarity with Palestine was set up in mid-May at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Last year, Deutsche Welle reported: “As elsewhere around the world, Saturday [October 21, 2023] saw thousands in Germany take to the streets in support of Palestinians trapped in Gaza. …Police say pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place in Cologne, Frankfurt, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Münster and Stuttgart. The largest, however, appears to have taken place in the western German city of Düsseldorf, where an estimated 7,000 people marched under the motto, ‘For peace, justice, and human dignity in Palestine.’”

That article adds: “A march scheduled to take place in central Berlin on Sunday [October 22, 2023], however, has been canceled by police, who cited the ‘imminent danger’ of incitement, antisemitic slogans and violence or the glorification thereof at the event. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that although everyone in Germany has the right to demonstrate and freely express their option, ‘there is a clear red line: no tolerance for antisemitic or anti-Israel agitation and no tolerance for violence.’”

This week, Amnesty International in Germany noted: “In 2024, there was no blanket ban in Berlin. However, the protests reportedly led to numerous cases of police violence.” They further asserted: “Criticism of Israeli and German government policy must not be criminalized across the board” and “the suppression of Palestinian solidarity voices in public discourse are incompatible with human rights.”

Arms sales

Aljazeera has reported: “In 2023, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($354 million), a tenfold increase compared to the previous year, providing 30 percent of the Israeli military’s weapons, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.”

In early-April, the BBC also reported: “A group of [German] civil servants wrote to the German leader [Chancellor Olaf Scholz] calling on the government to ‘cease arms deliveries to the Israeli government with immediate effect’. ‘Israel is committing crimes in Gaza that are in clear contradiction to international law,’ the statement said, citing January’s ICJ [International Court of Justice] ruling.”

In this statement from February, Peace Brigades International called on the international community “to show its strong support for such important institutions for global justice as the International Court of Justice” and “to suspend the supply of arms to Israel and the armed groups involved in the conflict.”

Additionally, Peace Brigades International-Canada has signed this statement that says: “As the catastrophe wrought by Israel’s continued assault on Gaza grows, Canadian civil society organizations across multiple sectors are calling on the Canadian government to immediately suspend all trade in arms and military technology with Israel.”

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

Also:

COPINH (accompanied by PBI-Honduras): “Since #8YearAnniversary of the Sowing #BertaCáceres, we stand in solidarity with the people of #palestine, who face a painful humanitarian and environmental crisis on the part of the State of Israel.”

Bernardo Caal Xol (accompanied by PBI-Guatemala): “Palestine: cry until you drown @elsaltodiario”

Comite Cerezo (accompanied by PBI-Mexico): “A talk with those who fight for the #Human Rights of working people: Palestine 100 days of Genocide Guest: His Excellency Mohamed Saadat – Ambassador of the Palestinian State in Mexico Join us!”

Further reading: More than 800 human rights defenders killed in Palestine over the past six months (April 26, 2024).

Yuli Velasquez of FEDEPESAN receives Amnesty International Human Rights Award in Berlin, Germany

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The award ceremony took place on June 4 in Berlin.

Amnesty International Deutschland has posted: “The Colombian fishermen’s organization FEDEPESAN [the Association for Traditional Fishing, Environmental Protection and Tourism in the Department of Santander] receives the Human Rights Award 2024 from Amnesty International in Germany. The award is given for selfless commitment to human rights that is associated with personal danger.”

Photo: Velasquez receives award.

CREDHOS photo.

Amnesty International continues: “Since 2019, the association has been committed to protecting the rivers and wetlands as well as the way of life of the region’s fishermen. FEDEPESAN documents environmental pollution, organizes demonstrations, carries out clean-up campaigns and lobbies the relevant authorities. FEDEPESAN is also taking legal action against the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, which he holds jointly responsible for the pollution of the wetlands in the region. The activists of FEDEPESAN are exposed to great dangers. They are threatened and physically attacked, tools and boats are stolen. They are defamed as members of armed groups because of their activities. Nevertheless, the fishermen of FEDEPESAN continue their commitment.”

Clan del Golfo threat on March 1

Noting this award from Amnesty International, der Freitag reports on an incident just three months ago: “Yuli Velásquez can’t believe her eyes when she glances at the screen in the living room on the morning of March 1, which shows images from three surveillance cameras. ‘Get out – Clan del Golfo’ is written in huge letters on the side wall of her house in the San Silvestre district of Barrancabermeja. She immediately sends the footage to a few friends, including Iván Madero Vergel, along with a call for help. ‘The request to leave the district came from the Clan del Golfo, one of the most brutal paramilitary associations in Colombia,’ explains the expert from the human rights organization Credhos.”

CREDHOS accompaniment

Iván Madero Vergel is the president of the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS). His organization accompanies FEDEPESAN. In turn, CREDHOS is accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project.

The Der Freitag article continues: “Standing up for the preservation of biodiversity is risky in Barrancabermeja. At least four armed militias operate there. Two of them – the paramilitary associations Águilas Negras (Black Eagles) and the Clan del Golfo (Gulf Clan) – have declared Velásquez and other FEDEPESAN activists to be legitimate military targets. There have been three attacks on Yuli Velásquez and her family since then.”

The third attack against Velasquez occurred just days after she, Madero and other members of FEDEPESAN and CREDHOS showed members of PBI-Colombia and PBI-Canada the San Silvestre wetlands in July 2022.

On July 5, 2022, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Today serious attack against environmental leader Yuli Velásquez, president Fedepesan, leaving an escort injured. It occurs days after verifying environmental impacts in Ciénagas Barrancabermeja with @Credhos_Paz PBI-Colombia and @PBIcanada.”

When Velasquez participated in a PBI-Canada webinar on April 29, 2021, she said: “We are working hard to stop fracking. Pollution will impact future generations. As fisherpeople we are impacted by water pollution. We can’t allow corporations and contractors to come in and affect the well-being of our communities. We have faced various threats and assassination attempts, but we will continue working and contributing to the protection of the environment.”

Velasquez also spoke on the PBI-Canada webinar on December 7, 2022, on defending the San Silvestre wetlands as well as another webinar we organized on December 7, 2023, on the UN COP28 climate summit and environmental defenders.

We continue to follow this closely.

Photo: Brent Patterson (PBI-Canada), Yuli Velasquez (FEDEPESAN) and Javier Garate (then with PBI-Colombia, now with PBI-Canada), June 30, 2022.

PBI-Mexico amplifies RSDH call for the release of Indigenous Ocumicho environmental defender María de la Cruz

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Mexico has posted: “From PBI we express our concern about the arbitrary detention of the environmental defender María de la Cruz, Councillor of the Ocumicho Communal Council and delegate of the CNI [National Indigenous Congress]. We call on the competent authorities to guarantee their comprehensive protection.”

This follows the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos/RSDH) posting: “María de la Cruz was arbitrarily detained while she was fulfilling her duties as Councillor for Ecology and Environment of the autonomous community of Ocumicho. The State has the responsibility of guaranteeing their rights as a traditional authority and defender of human rights.”

On June 6, the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán explained on Facebook: “We denounce the harassment that the state systematically does against those who are activists particularly against our colleague Maria Cruz Paz Zamora, who is currently part of the Municipal Government Council of the Autonomous Community of Ocumicho, as an ecology and environment advisor and is a delegate of the Indigenous National Congress and the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán.”

Their post adds: “Our companion arbitrarily detained today, June 5, at 8:00 am on the federal road Morelia – Zamora, at the height of the community of Carapan by subjects of the Michoacan ministerial police and transferred to the Uruapan prison center, according to the report. No explanation was preceded by this act on the reasons for his deprivation of liberty.”

In a solidarity statement, the Autonomous Council of the Chiapas Coast, the Center for Human Rights Digna Ochoa and the Network of Women of the Costa in Rebellion have also posted: “In view of the events that took place [on June 5], including the arrest of the compañera and acts of systematic harassment of communities and indigenous peoples who defend the forest and their territories against illegal logging, we strongly oppose these acts of violence and criminalization, which are threatening the lives of indigenous peoples.”

And the National Indigenous Council/Indigenous Governing Council (CNI-CIG) has posted: “In recent years, comrade María Cruz Paz Zamora, as Ocumicho’s councillor for ecology and the environment, has promoted massive reforestation in her community, has created brigades to fight forest fires, has defended forests from loggers and organized crime, and has fought against avocado monocultures. Her constant struggle has been for life.”

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos).

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Detienen a María Cruz Paz Zamora defensora ambiental de Ocumicho (en15dias).

PBI-Honduras visits Museum Against Forgetting/Oblivion in Amarateca used as torture centre in the 1980s

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted: “Yesterday [June 5] we visited the Museum Against Forgetting in Amarateca, located in a property used as a torture center during the National Security Doctrine in the 1980s, redefining it as a space for memory and reflection. From PBI, we highlight the work of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras [COFADEH] to reclaim the memory of the victims of human rights violations, especially the crimes of torture and forced disappearance.”

On December 9, 2023, Defensoresenlinea.com posted: “The opening of the first phase of the Museum Against Oblivion, in the Amarateca Valley, Francisco Morazán, by the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), constitutes a space for reflection, analysis and learning of the historical memory of the disappeared and murdered political detainees of the decade of the 80s.”

That article further notes: “One of the survivors of persecution and torture during the time of state terrorism in Honduras was the leader of the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) of the municipal directorate and General Coordinator of the Honduran Communal Movement, Jesús Chávez. Chávez described the opening of the Museum Against Oblivion as an extraordinary action and of great recognition to the heroes and martyrs fallen, kidnapped and tortured by the Honduran Armed Forces (FFAA) and by the 3-16 battalion.”

At the opening of the Museum, COFADEH general coordinator Berta Oliva commented: “This is a place of memory, it is a meeting place, a place of life. Memory is not a word, memory is resistance, memory is teaching, memory is continuity.”

Canada and Honduras, 1980-92

Lawyers Without Borders Canada has noted: “Honduras is sometimes forgotten when it comes to enforced disappearances, since the country was not as badly affected as other Latin American countries, such as its neighbors Guatemala and El Salvador. However, at least 184 people were victims of enforced disappearance during the implementation of the national security doctrine in the 1980s.”

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

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

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

Global Affairs Canada has noted: “The El Mochito mine became Canada’s first formal mining interest in Honduras when purchased by a Canadian listed company, American Pacific Mining, in September 1987. Breakwater Resources, another Canadian company, acquired the company and the property in March 1990. In the early 1990s, a series of Canadian junior exploration companies, including Breakwater were able to acquire exploration licenses throughout the country.”

Amnesty International has also documented that journalist José Eduardo Lopez was forcibly disappeared in Honduras on December 24, 1984. They highlight: “In 1981 he was detained for five days and tortured. On his release he received death threats and in 1982 he fled to the United States where he applied for refugee status in Canada. In 1984 [just months before he was disappeared] the Canadian authorities rejected his application stating that José Eduardo López had not demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution.”

Photo: José Eduardo López.

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

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

COFADEH

Lawyers Without Borders Canada has noted: “The Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH) was founded in 1982 by the relatives of victims of enforced disappearances in the 1980s and 1990s with the aim of tracing their family members and obtaining justice for these crimes.”

PBI-Honduras has a longstanding relationship with COFAEDH.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula to socialize Observatory of Extractive Industries research

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Saturday [May 18], #PBI accompanied the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula in activities to socialize the findings of a research work conducted in conjunction with the OIE – Observatory of Extractive Industries (OIE).

A video was projected about the impacts of antimony mining exploitation in the Los Manantiales Quarry, the historical struggle of the Ch’orti’ people against it and the irregularities in the granting of the license. 

Afterwards, they took a walk through one of the communal lands.”

The Observatory of Extractive Industries (OIE) is a research platform dedicated to providing data on mining companies and other extractive industries in Guatemala.

PBI-Guatemala has previously highlighted: “The communities of Olopa are confronting the company American Minerals S.A., which was granted a 25-year antimony extraction license in 2012, without prior consultation with the communities. In 2016, when mining activities began, the communities became aware of the negative impacts of these activities on water and the environment, and demanded the closure of the project.”

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) has also highlighted: “A study conducted by the Observatorio de Industrias Extractivas [Extractive Industries Observatory / OIE] in the Maya Ch’orti Indigenous territory revealed that extractive activities have exacerbated the precarious socioeconomic conditions and vulnerability of the La Prensa, El Amatillo, El Carrizal, El Cerrón, La Cumbre and El Paternito communities in Olopa municipality, Chiquimula department, near the Cantera Los Manantiales mine. There has been a perceived increase in disease, social division, community violence, shortages of water, reduced agricultural production and further environmental degradation.”

Page 53 of that OIE report notes: “As explained by Birn et al. (2018) in their case study on Canadian mining-related ill-health in Latin America, it was found that while a few people were employed by the mine, the vast majority experienced increased poverty. The mine provided very few jobs few jobs, with only a few people from the nearest communities gained temporary employment, usually as guards.”

PBI-Guatemala has noted that the Indigenous [Maya Ch’orti’] Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque is also resisting Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. (a subsidiary of Vancouver, Canada-based Gold Group Management Inc.), a company has five exploration licenses for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.

The community of San Francisco, Quezaltepeque is situated about 20 kilometres south-west of Olopa, Chiquimula.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Maya Ch’orti’ Indigenous Council of Olopa Chiquimula since June 2021.

PBI-Guatemala seeks new field volunteers, deadline to apply is June 28

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Mayan Indigenous Council Ch’orti’ of Olopa Chiquimula in activities to socialize the findings of a research work carried out in conjunction with the Observatory of Extractive Industries (OIE).

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project is seeking new field volunteers.

Key dates in this process include:

June 28 – deadline to apply

November 17-23 – face-to-face training in Spain

Further information about the application process can be found on the PBI-Guatemala website here.

Social media image for volunteer call-out.

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has also extended its call-out for applications to June 9 (from the previous deadline of June 3). For more information on that application process, click here.

PBI-Canada: Canada exported military goods and technology to countries where 232 HRDs were killed in 2023/24

By
Brent Patterson
-

On May 31, Global Affairs Canada released its 2023 Exports of Military goods and technology report.

If one looks at the list on pages 22-24 of that report of the non-US countries that Canada exported these goods and technology to and then compares that with the list of countries where Front Line Defenders documented the killing of human rights defenders (HRDs), one would find that Canada exported these goods and technology to 10 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand and Ukraine) where 232 HRDs were killed in 2023/24.

Furthermore, the Global Affairs Canada report notes that $30,641,495.83 in military goods and technology was exported to Israel. Front Line Defenders notes that 9 HRDs were killed in Palestine highlighting: “The impact on HRDs [in Gaza], as on the population at large, has been devastating. Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

Additionally, if one were also to cross-reference the Global Affairs Canada list with the recent report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) on attacks against HRDs challenging corporate harm, one would find that Canada exported to 9 of those countries with the highest rates of attacks against HRDs (Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States).

Deeper research is needed to determine if any of “the military goods and technology” exported by Canada was used by the police, armed forces or security forces implicated in these attacks against human rights defenders.

In May 2018, journalist David Pugliese reported in the National Post: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation [the Ottawa-based Crown corporation that helps Canadian exporters get contracts with foreign governments] acknowledges it conducts no follow-up to ensure exported Canadian-built equipment isn’t being used to abuse human rights.”

When concerns were raised in June 2021 about the potential use of Canadian-made military equipment against the national strike protests in Colombia, Radio Canada International reported: “When asked about allegations regarding the use of Canadian military materiel in repressive acts against civilians in Colombia, [Global Affairs Canada spokesperson] Jason Jung told us that at the beginning of the unrest in that country, Canada’s Ministry of Global Affairs contacted the responsible Colombian authorities, who confirmed that Colombian law enforcement ‘is not using Canadian armored vehicles’ to intervene in that context.”

At that time, Jung also told Radio Canada International: “Canada is monitoring developments in Colombia and will take appropriate action if credible evidence of the inappropriate use of any controlled Canadian product or technology is identified, including to perpetrate or facilitate serious violations of international human rights law.”

In December 2023, Alex Cosh of The Maple reported: “Documents obtained by Amnesty International Canada through an access to information (ATIP) request and shared with The Maple show that Global Affairs Canada (GAC) authorized new exports of military goods to Peru valued at $960,000 for a three-year period starting on February 6 this year. At that time, Peruvian security forces were engaged in a particularly violent period of crackdowns against protesters, who were demonstrating against the government of President Dina Boluarte and calling for new elections. The crackdown prompted Amnesty International to call for Canada to suspend military exports to Peru.”

The just-released Global Affairs Canada report shows that Canada exported $1,844,576.86 in military goods and technology to Peru in 2023.

The majority ($1,837,676.86) of those exports are reportedly in the Export Control List (ECL) category 2-14 which refers to: “Specialised equipment for military training or for simulating military scenarios, simulators specially designed for training in the use of any firearm or weapon specified by 2-1 [Smooth-bore weapons with a calibre of less than 20 mm, other arms and automatic weapons with a calibre of 12.7 mm (calibre 0.50 inches) or less and accessories, and specially designed components therefor] or 2-2 [Smooth-bore weapons with a calibre of 20 mm or more, other weapons or armament with a calibre greater than 12.7 mm (calibre 0.50 inches), projectors and accessories, and specially designed components therefor], and specially designed components and accessories therefor.”

Given the seeming onus on organizations, defenders and communities to provide “credible evidence” of violations committed using Canadian-made military goods and technology, PBI-Canada remains attentive to these concerns, particularly in Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico given the PBI field projects that support human rights defenders.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Chinautla and Retalhuleu communities at anti-Monsanto Law food festival

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Yesterday [May 29] #PBIacompanies the Multisectoral of Chinautla and the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR) in a gastronomic festival for the second anniversary of the delivery of the initiative 6086 (law of Biodiversity and Ancestral Knowledge) and against the so-called Monsanto law, all celebrated at the door of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.

The first article of the initiative states: the objective of this law is to guarantee the respect, recognition, conversation and protection of indigenous and peasant ancestral knowledge and practices, as well as the biological diversity in their territories, their ecological balance and convenience with the people, peoples, indigenous and peasant communities.

This festival brought together ancestral authorities and organizations from most of the country, with the REDSAG [the National Network for the Defense of Food Sovereignty in Guatemala] with the objective of exhibiting different typical dishes of the national geography, made free of pesticides, chemicals and GMOs [genetically modified organisms].”

The Ministry of Agriculture in Guatemala (MAGA) approved field trials for genetically modified (GMO) crops in 2004. In 2006, MAGA approved commercial production for export purposes. The Monsanto Law was approved in June 2014 but repealed in September 2014 after ten days of widespread street protests. In September 2023, EFE reported: “Dozens of Guatemalan small farmers protested on Wednesday against the possible approval of a bill they call the ‘Monsanto Law’, an initiative that, according to them, threatens the ‘ancestral heritage of indigenous seeds, corn and other foods.’”

In October 2022, Shado Magazine reported:

“REDSAG’s most recent initiative to defend their biodiversity, as well their ancestral knowledge, is through proposing a new law at a national level called the ‘Initiative 6086, the Biodiversity and Ancestral Knowledge Law. 

As stated in REDSAG’s communique: The proposed law seeks to defend biodiversity and ancestral knowledge from the extractive model, looting, plundering by companies and corrupt politicians; it also states that the use of ancestral knowledge should be for the benefit of indigenous peoples and humanity.

David Paredes, a member of the National Network in Defence of Food Sovereignty in Guatemala (REDSAG), asserts that the approving of this law would not be the end of the struggle but it would definitely be a huge step in the right direction – and would set a precedent for the entire continent. On the 31st May 2022, it was officially handed in to the National Congress of Guatemala and continues to be in process.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Multisectoral of Chinautla since December 2018 and the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR) since April 2020.

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