IRTF News

Confrontations between Indigenous Guard land defenders and FARC rebel dissidents are escalating. According to a 2021 report by INDEPAZ, at least 611 environmental defenders have been killed since the signing of the peace agreement in Colombia in 2016. Of these, 332 were Indigenous, the report said, and 204 of the killings took place in Cauca, Colombia. This year so far, 12 Indigenous people  have been killed in Cauca, according to Juan Camayo Diaz, coordinator of Tejido de Defensa de la Vida, an Indigenous human rights organisation in the province. The situation in the region is “one of the most concerning in Colombia”, said Juan Pappier, a senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Today many of the municipalities in the region face even higher levels of homicides than immediately before the peace process. That’s a tragedy that requires an urgent re-think of the government’s security and protection strategies,” Pappier told Al Jazeera.

It's Valentine’s Day and thoughts of love, friendship and gratitude permeate the air. Despite persisting pandemic stress, we at Equal Exchange are feeling a depth of gratitude and affection for the myriad relationships that we have cultivated since our early beginnings in the 1980s. We simply can’t say it enough: creating, maintaining, and deepening relationships are the pillars that our organization and our business model are built upon. Weaving together interactions between small farmer cooperatives, trading partners, like-minded businesses, non-profits, religious organizations, and citizen-consumers is both the means and the ends of why we exist. On this chocolate-focused holiday, it seems fitting to ask Dary Goodrich, Chocolate Products Manager, and Laura Bechard, Chocolate Supply Chain Coordinator, for a recent example that highlights Equal Exchange’s unique model of alternative trade.   

During a two-day visit to Bogotá, and first as U.S Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland outlined concerns by the government of President Joe Biden that Colombia faces “risks by external actors and authoritarians,” as well as “cybersecurity threats to propagate lies and stories that are not of Colombian origin.” Nuland’s visit also included a U.S.-Colombia Strategic Security Dialogue to discuss regional security, democratic institutions, and economic ties. “We have shared intelligence information, national security information, where any foreign influence, or attempted influence, can be identified in our electoral process,” stated President Duque. Without mentioning specific countries by name or those “who do not wish our democracies well,” recent allegations by the Colombian government that Russia is engaging in a military build-up with Venezuela’s Armed Forces, and charges by the country’s Defense Minister Diego Molano, of “foreign intervention” along the Colombia-Venezuela border, once again, signals a new low in deteriorating Russia – Colombia relations.

What a turnaround. On February 9, six Guapinol water defenders were found guilty, A decision widely denounced and which left them with the, supposedly, only hope in the new amnesty bill. Yesterday morning, they lawyers presented an appeal based on the bill. But then all of this became redundant as the Supreme Court finally resolved the appeals in favor of them. "According to the resolution, by unanimous vote, the Constitutional Chamber ruled in favor of two appeals filed by the defense of the 8 defenders criminalized by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares, for the crimes of deprivation of liberty, aggravated damages and simple damages." This ruling annuls the trial and Wednesday's verdict. OACNUDH welcomed the ruling and called for their immediate release. People in Tocoa took to the streets to celebrate.

The Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Agua Caliente is nestled in the mountains surrounding Guatemala’s Lake Izabal, in the sacred Valle del Polochic. Located in the municipality of El Estor, Izabal, Agua Caliente is also known for its abundant deposits of nickel. These riches have for decades made El Estor a target of looting by multinational corporations seeking to exploit and profit from the land and resources. This case against a particular Fénix nickel marks the first time the Guatemalan state has faced judgement in an international court for violating the ancestral land rights of Indigenous communities. The court’s ruling could force the Guatemalan government to finally recognize the Q’eqchi’ people’s collective rights to their ancestral lands and their right to protect their natural resources from exploitative megaprojects—including the destructive open-pit Fénix nickel mine that stands on the banks of Lake Izabal.

El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who after suffering an obstetric emergency was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a country where abortion under any circumstances is banned. The woman, who activists helping her identified only as Elsy, had served more than a decade of a 30-year sentence. She was the fifth woman released before completion of her sentence since late December of last year. In the past 20 years, El Salvador has prosecuted 181 women who suffered obstetric emergencies. A local rights organization has succeeded in freeing 61 of them since 2009.

U.S. civil society organizations from different sectors released a statement during the high-level dialogue between the U.S. and Colombian governments to demand a serious police reform in Colombia and to stop supporting the Colombian police until that is achieved.

In Colombia, the signing of peace with the defunct FARC guerrilla five years ago caused a profound transition to which the military has not been able to adapt with the required speed, and the National Police has not been able to respond to the challenge in 2021, which represented the wave of protests against the government of President Iván Duque, an unprecedented social outbreak. The country is heading to close the year with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants since 2014, according to data from the Defense Ministry itself. And in the midst of that crisis that multiple indicators show, a succession of scandals has cracked the image of the uniformed.