Rapid Response Network

Since 2009, the  Los Negros de Cañaverales Ancestral Community Council (Consejo Comunitario Ancestral Los Negros de Cañaverales, CCANC), has been organizing opposition to an open-pit coal mine in their community in La Guajira Department.

Best Coal Company (BCC, a subsidiary of the Turkish multinational Yildrim Group) wants to operate a coal mine in Cañaverales, La Guajira, between the towns of Fonseca and San Juan del Cesar. The coal extraction would be located just 1.2 km from the El Manatial Nature Preserve, home to the Cañaverales Water Spring.  Mining would negatively impact drinking water and food security (irrigation for food crops).

On behalf of CCANC in 2018, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CAJAR) filed a protection action (acción de tutela) for violation of the right to prior consultation, and in 2019, the Administrative Court of La Guajira ruled in its favor and ordered that a prior consultation process be conducted.

We urge that the Ministry of the Interior support the will of the Los Negros de Cañaverales Ancestral Community Council in preventing any mining operations of the Best Coal Company in their territory.

Despite her impressive public service career as a prosecutor in the Public Ministry (MP), Miriam Reguero Sosa  has been accused of money laundering, neglect of duties, and abuse of authority. Furthermore, she has suffered attacks, arrest, harassment, intimidation, and threats.In an armed attack against her in 2022, her security guard was killed. Then in March of this year, she was injured in another attack that killed her 65-year-old mother, Miriam Sosa, and security guard, Carlos Humberto González.

Just two weeks after burying her mother, police raided her home on April 11 and arrested her. At arraignment the following day, the court rejected all the charges presented by the Public Ministry for lack of evidence, except for the abuse of authority charge. She was released and granted house arrest without paying bond.

We are urging that authorities in Guatemala: (1) continue the investigation into the intellectual and material actors in the double assassination of Miriam Sosa and Carlos Humberto González, publish the results, and bring those responsible to justice; (2) review the protection scheme for Miriam Reguero Sosa, in accordance with her wishes, to guarantee her safety; and (3) allow Miriam Reguero Sosa to conduct her professional activities of protecting human rights and uncovering corruption without fear of restrictions or reprisals.

On March 22 of this year, the Indigenous Council of Olopa (Chiquimula Department) announced that it had petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the violation of their rights as Indigenous peoples by the State of Guatemala. Since the government granted a 25-year exploitation license to the mining company Cantera Los Manatiales in 2012, Maya Ch'orti' community members have been victimized by threats to their ancestral lands and cultural rights, criminalization, violence, and assassination.

In March 2023, a court dimissed a bogus case against Juan Carlos Pérez Canán, Leonor Crisóstomo Méndez, Guillermo Ramírez Pérez, and Fredy Geovany Ramírez Ramírez. But the Public Ministry appealed, and on April 12, 2024, another judge ruled that the four should stand trial. Six others of their community members are facing similar false charges.

The company began operations in 2016, despite the fact that the license was granted without free, prior and informed consultation with the communities, as required by ILO Convention 169. Residents’ health and environmental concerns include the contamination of the Río Jupilingo and the Río Zacapa, cutting down of forests, and the appearance of skin diseases.  In March 2019, the Ministry of the Environment ordered the company to stop its operations. Later that year, after the Maya Ch'orti' communities had maintained a peaceful encampment for several months, the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) suspended the mining license. Moreover, the Court of Amparos granted the Indigenous Council provisional protection measures because of the risks faced.

The ruling on April 12 by the First Criminal Court of Chiquimula is clearly a case of persecution against the Maya Ch'orti' authorities for their mining resistance activities.  We are urging that the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources publicly state as much and urge that all false criminal charges be dropped.

resistance to gold mining: Cerro Blanco, owned by Canadian company Bluestone Resources

Open-pit mining is one of the most environmentally contaminating industries in the world, causing great harms to biodiversity, water, air, and human health. In the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala-Honduras-El Salvador) 23 international water basins connect 40% of the territory; currently there are 50 areas of mining interests in these shared basins.

The Cerro Blanco gold mine in southeastern Guatemala is particularly concerning because of its potential impact on Lake Güija, which drains into the Río Lempa, traversing the border with El Salvador. Millions of people depend on the Río Lempa and its tributaries for their drinking water.

Bluestone Resources and previous companies that owned the mine have been trying for more than two decades to obtain the necessary permitting to start excavating. In the final days of his administration, former president Alejandro Giammiattei authorized a change of operations from an underground mine to an open pit mine.  On January 18, the company announced that “we are pleased” and would initiate extraction operations.

 Part of the delay has been popular resistance. In the town of Asunción Mita, located just 5 km from the mine, residents voted overwhelmingly against the mine (7,4000 to 900) in September 2022. Based on Municipal Code, the result of the referendum is legally binding.  

 We are urging that the new administration of President Arévalo review all the previous environmental impact studies and permitting processes that have allowed the project to move forward over the past 20 years. We hope and expect that ultimately the government will listen to the will of the people and shut down the mine. But investors from the U.S. and Canada are hoping otherwise.

It is imperative that the government of Colombia provide effective protection measures to land rights and human rights defenders who are in situations of risk—and respond immediately when they report specific threats.

Narciso Beleño Belaides, age 62, was a well-respected peasant leader and dear friend of Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT-Colombia), a close partner of IRTF.  For more than three decades, Narciso worked to defend campesino families and their farm lands in southern Bolívar against the presence of paramilitary groups that isolated and forcibly displaced communities in the region. He was recognized for his constant fight for the rights of peasant communities and the preservation of the San Lucas mountain range, which is currently being disputed by armed groups such as the Gulf Clan (paramilitaries) and the ELN (rebel group).

Narciso was a member of the National Agrarian Coordinating Body (CNA) and was the current president of the Agromining Federation of Southern Bolívar (FEDEAGROMISBOL).  For several decades, FEDEAGROMISBOL has suffered attacks by paramilitary groups through threats, disappearances and murders, as well as by state agents in the past.

On the evening of April 21, Narciso was entering his home in the El Recreo neighborhood, an urban area of ​​the municipality of Santa Rosa del Sur, Bolívar Department.  Armed men were waiting for him. They shot him four times.

Just hours before he was shot to death,  Narciso had denounced the Gulf Clan paramilitaries for a new incursion into the area that began April 18.

State-sponsored violence, in collusion with the interests of private corporations, continues to take its toll on campesino communities.

On February 29, 1,500 agents of the Honduran National Police carried out violent evictions against three campesino cooperative bases of the Landless Peasant Movement of Yoro Department (MCSTY): El Bálsamo, Agua Blanca Sur, and La Sarrosa. Police used heavy machinery to destroy corn plantations, fired gunshots, used physical violence against farmers and their families, and made arrests.  Almost 20,000 quintales of food, including basic grains and vegetables, and an estimated 300 blocks of crops were destroyed, directly affecting about 1,500 people. These farmers, who had been in the process of recovering their lands for the previous ten months, now find themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability. 

Furthermore, these evictions reportedly favor the interests of the sugar company Azucarera del Norte SA (Azunosa), which has acquired land titles through intimidation, fraud, and violence since the early 1990s. To date, Azunosa has presented 15 criminal accusations against several members of MCSTY and another 40 against members of the regional chapter of the National Central of Farm Workers (CNTC-Progreso).

We are urging that the Supreme Court of Justice, the National Congress, and the Agrarian Security Commission review agrarian reform laws and give the green light for the National Agrarian Institute to proceed in transferring land titles to campesino associations. In addition, we are urging that the National Human Rights Commissioner and the Human Rights Secretariat assume a more proactive role in protecting the rights of campesino communities, beyond simply registering these violent eviction operations.

Attacks continue on leaders of campesino cooperatives in the Aguán Valley, Colón Department, in northern Honduras. Marvin Dubón, age 23, was a dedicated community spokesperson and partner of the Tranvio Farmers Agricultural Cooperative.  

At 7pm on March 17, while riding home on a motorcycle with his life partner Elizabeth Gómez,  Marvin Dubón, was followed by heavily armed assailants from the communities of Salamá to  Quebrada de Arena, Tocoa municipality, Colón Department. At Quebrada de Arena they shot and killed him.  

Campesino organizations suspect collusion among criminal groups, private corporations, and municipal security forces. Witnesses to the assassination noted the presence of Juan Carlos Lizama, leader of a criminal group who is closely associated with the head of security for the Dinant Corporation. The company had previously pushed for the eviction of campesino families from some agricultural cooperatives (Chile, Camarones, and Tranvio). The Coordinating Body of Popular Organizations of Aguán (COPA)  reports that Juan Carlos Lizama has for several years participated in a series of acts of violence against peasant communities; it also states that there have been no serious investigative actions against him by the Public Ministry (MP) or the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI). This raises serious concerns about collusion among the assassins, the Dinant Corporation and local security forces in Tocoa.

We are concerned that the State of Exception is weakening democratic institutions and that the criminal justice system is being used to prosecute innocent people. We are particularly disturbed about the number of human rights defenders who have been detained—some released, many not.  Media reporters have also been unjustly detained, along with environmental defenders, trade unionists, and others. According to human rights organizations in El Salvador, around 34 human rights defenders remain imprisoned.

The whereabouts of some of the detained are unknown. Sabino Antonio Ramos, age 71, began working for the city administration of Panchimalco, San Salvador Department, in 2014. As he was entering work on April 28, 2022, police detained him, although he had no criminal record. His family is unaware where he is currently detained, or whether he is still alive.

Some have died while in detention. Franklin Gabriel Izaguirre was employed at the City Hall of Soyapango, San Salvador Department, and was a member of SITMUSOY (Municipal Workers Trade Union). Detained in June 2022, he passed away while still in detention on September 29, 2023. Detained in April 2022, José Leonidas Bonilla, a union member working at the Mayor's Office of Mejicanos (a municipal zone of San Salvador), died on September 3, 2022 after suffering health complications due to lack of timely medical treatment for his high blood pressure.

We urge that the government work to end the arbitrariness of the system and expedite judicial processes for those detained. To effectively address the problem of insecurity, there must be criminal processes and sanctions that guarantee due process under the law.

The Nasa Indigenous people of northern Cauca Department have been victim to armed violence for many years. One of the primary armed actors is the Central General Staff (EMC), founded by dissident members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels who reject the 2016 peace accords.

Among the revered community leaders of La Bodega reservation is Carmen Yule Paví, age 62, whom residents affectionately called “La Mayora” (the mayor). A weaver with a profound respect for the spiritual essence of nature, she would ask plants for permission to use their leaves in fabrics. As co-founder of the Tejedoras AMA group and professor at the Intercultural Indigenous Autonomous University, she encouraged women to see the practice of weaving as a way to be more independent. Opening paths for other women, she invited them to her house to discuss violent situations they were experiencing.  

The resilient leader and Nasa Yuwe speaker had been a victim of conflict on several occasions, but it was the murder of two of her elven children (2020 and 2021) that led her to fight for the community. She was a staunch vocal opponent of the EMC; their forced recruitment of Nasa children infuriated her. She said that she preferred to die before they took more young people.

On March 16, while community residents attempted to rescue one of their neighbors who had been kidnapped (a young man), armed men fired on the community, and Carmen Yule Paví was shot in the head. She died a day later.

assassinated: two members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó

The farming families of the self-declared Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in the Urabá region of Antioquia Department have suffered many tragedies over the past 27 years: hundreds of murders, sexual violence, massive displacements, destruction of homes, usurpation of land, and burning of crops.

In Las Delicias, one of the farming communities that make up the Peace Community, residents have been opposing the construction of an illegal road because it is a protected zone at risk for deforestation. Road construction is likely to benefit transnational corporations; there is a container port being built nearby and a coal deposit under the community’s property that the state permitted for extraction many years ago.

On March 19, just days after Nallely Sepúlveda voiced her opposition at the mayor’s office, armed actors entered her home and shot her in the head; they also killed her young brother-in-law, Edison David, age 14. The bodies were discovered by Nallely’s three young children.