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Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia, 1/11/2021
January 11, 2021
We wrote to officials in Colombia to urge investigations into the assassinations of eight social leaders across six departments during the last week of December, bringing the total to an astounding 310 assassinations of social leaders and other human rights defenders during 2020. The victims are: Felipe Guevara Henao- journalist (Dec 23 in Cali, Valle del Cauca Department); Fablio Armando Guanga Quistial- Awá indigenous activist (Dec 23 in Tumaco, Nariño Department); Pedro Alejandro Pérez Doria- town councilor (Dec 24 in San Pelayo, Córdoba Department); Roberto Eduardo Parra Ovalle - peasant farmer and environmental defender (Dec 25 in Mesetas, Meta Department); Juvenal Vitonás Achicué - indigenous community activist (Dec 26 in Toribío, Cauca); Luis Alberto Anay Ruiz – teacher (Dec 27 in Tumaco, Nariño Department); Omar Moreno- agricultural trade unionist (Dec 28, between Llorente and Pasto, Nariño Department); Norbey Antonio Rivera - agricultural trade unionist (Dec 30 in Popayán, Cauca Department). We are urging that authorities in Colombia guarantee thorough investigations to find the perpetrators of the atrocities listed above and provide all necessary security measures for social leaders to ensure full implementation of the provisions of the peace process.
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News Article
Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murder
January 7, 2021

Sandra Cuffe in Puerto Barrios

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News Article
Guatemala: Hudbay Minerals head of security pleads guilty to killing and assaults near Guatemala mine
January 7, 2021

On January 6, 2021, the former head of security for a subsidiary of the Toronto-based mining company Hudbay Minerals officially pled guilty in a Guatemalan court to killing a local Indigenous community leader and paralyzing another Indigenous man. This could have important ramifications for two lawsuits against Hudbay underway in Ontario that centre on the Sept. 27, 2009, killing and maiming of the Indigenous men. Mynor Padilla, the former security chief of CGN, a Guatemalan nickel-mining company that was owned by Canada-based Hudbay between 2008 and 2011, pled guilty to the crimes on Dec. 17, 2020, as part of an agreement struck between Padilla and his victims, among them Angelica Choc, the widow of slain community leader Adolfo Ich Chamán, and German Chub, who was paralyzed. On Wednesday, the court accepted and ratified the guilty pleas.

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News Article
Colombia: Human Rights Update - December 2020
January 5, 2021

The year 2020 was the most violent in Colombia since the peace agreement was signed in November 2016, with widespread attacks on social activists, trade unionists and former guerrillas in the peace process. The figures released by the INDEPAZ human rights NGO make for shocking reading. During the calendar year, 309 social activists and human rights defenders were killed (totalling 1,109 since the peace agreement was signed) and 64 FARC former guerrillas were killed (249 in total). There were also 90 massacres which claimed the lives of 375 people. Additionally, state security forces killed at least 78 people.

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News Article
Indigenous environmental defender killed in latest Honduras attack
December 29, 2020

Nina Lakhani

Another indigenous environmentalist has been killed in Honduras, cementing the country’s inglorious ranking as the deadliest place in the world to defend land and natural resources from exploitation.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Honduras, 12/29/2020
December 29, 2020
We are demanding an investigation into the assassination of Lenca indigenous leader Félix Vásquez at his home in La Paz Department on December 26. Four armed men in balaclavas entered his home and shot him in front of his adult children. Félix Vásquez was well-known nationally for his work in defense of indigenous land rights (since the 1980s) and for organizing opposition to environmentally destructive megaprojects such as mines, hydroelectric dams, wind farms and logging, as well as for helping dispossessed communities recover ancestral land titles. He was the Secretary General of the Union of Rural Workers (UTC) in La Paz. He was also a pre-candidate for Congress for the Libertad y Refundación (LIBRE) party.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia, 12/23/2020
December 23, 2020
We are deeply concerned for the safety of indigenous communities and their leaders in Cauca, following a massacre earlier this month and the killings of other indigenous community members and leaders. Massacre in Cauca Department: On December 6, hooded men carried out a massacre in the rural area of Santander de Quilichao. They entered a family home in the middle of the San Pedro and Gualandai villages, fired gunshots indiscriminately at six people, killing four. One of those killed was Carlos Escue, a musician who served as youth coordinator in the nearby Munchique Los Tigres reservation. Others killed this month in Cauca: Hernán Eduardo Pino Julicué, the 30-year-old son of the renowned indigenous eader Luz Eyda Julicué, was shot to death in Caloto municipality. Juan Carlos Petins, age 45, was shot in the chest several times by armed gunmen. He was an indigenous Nasa spokesperson of the Nega Cxhab Belalcázar reservation in Paéz municipality. Indigenous Leaders Threatened: Within hours of the massacre, the FARC dissident organization “Dagoberto Ramos Front” threatened to kill more than a dozen more indigenous leaders, including Senator Feliciano Valencia, for impeding their drug trafficking activities.
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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Colombia, 12/22/2020
December 22, 2020
We are deeply concerned for the safety of environmental defenders. We are aware of two assassinations (November 30) and ongoing death threats to another. Assassinations: Meta Department: Javier Francisco Parra Cubillos was a 47-year-old environmentalist who worked as coordinator of CORMACARENA (Corporation for the Sustainable Development of the Special Management Area of La Macarena). Chocó Department: Harlin David Rivas Ospina was a student of environmental engineering at the Technological University of Chocó and environmental activist in the National Youth Environment Network. Death threats: Santander Department: Nini Johana Cárdenas Rueda is an environmental defender in Carmen de Chucurí in Santander Department who is active in the Alianza Colombia Libre de Fracking and Movimiento Nacional Ambiental. Because of her work denouncing illegal extractive projects, she has been the victim of death threats, surveillance, and physical attacks for the past few years.
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News Article
Honduras Hurricane Emergency Fund
December 15, 2020

The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) started a hurricane relief fund. Those wanting to help get funds to grassroots organizations, rescue teams, and humanitarian support on the ground, can donate here: http://Bit.ly/emergencyresponsehn. Read the short article to learn about the podcast series Honduras Now, hosted by HSN co-coordinator Karen Spring.

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RRN Letter
RRN Letter: Mexico 11/22/2020
November 22, 2020
We wrote to officials in the state government of Chiapas and the federal government of Mexico about the state-sponsored repression against indigenous Maya Tseltal campesinos who were beaten (some arrested) when they peacefully demonstrated against the construction of a National Guard station on their ejido (communal land) last month. Our letter focuses on two of the men who were beaten and unjustly detained on fabricated charges of inciting a riot. After 17 days in preventive detention, José Luis Gutiérrez and César Hernández are now released from jail but have strict conditions placed on them by the court system. We are urging authorities to immediately absolve José Luis Gutiérrez and César Hernández of the fabricated charge of rioting.
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