February 15, 2018

January 26, 2018

See the report from PBI Colómbia here: Land, culture and conflict

January 25, 2018

An indigenous community from the region of La Montaña (state of Guerrero) have been waging a legal battle since 2011 to prevent their lands from being conceded to mining companies. The indigenous Me’phaa community lives in San Miguel del Progreso, or Júba Wajiín in their indigenous language. In the last seven years, they have obtained two legal protection mechanisms that have rendered a mining project practically null and void.

Martín Gómez is a small, slim man. He walks with confidence and you can see that he has planted corn and grain all his life. He lives in the middle of green mountains in Santa Elena, southern Honduras. Martín is part of the MILPAH indigenous movement, created in 2010 to defend land and the Lenca indigenous community, a predominant indigenous people in Honduras. A year after the organization was founded, the Honduran government approved a concession for the construction of the Los Encinos S.A. hydroelectric dam in Santa Elena on the Chinacla river.

January 22, 2018

January 22, 2018

Peace Accord implementation has been slow and lacking in many areas, especially as the country has turned its attention to presidential elections, which will be held in Colombia on May 27^th. Some progress, however, has been made. Luz Marina Monzon has been appointed head of the Search Unit for Disappeared Persons (Unidad de Busqueada para las Personas Desaparecidas), which must be set up as mandated by the Peace Accords.

Aurelia Arzú is a human rights defender from the Garifuna community in Honduras and vice coordinator of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH). OFRANEH work to safeguard the economic, social, and cultural rights of the unique Garifuna ethnic community.

January 18, 2018

January 12, 2018

On January 7, 2018, in the village of La Concepción in Guerrero in southern Mexico, extrajudicial executions, acts of torture, and arbitrary detentions were carried out against members of a community group (CECOP, Communities Opposing the Dam La Parota) and against community police (Regional Coordination of Community Authorities – Community Police, or CRAC-PC, a community self-defense initiative). The community groups are targeted for their opposition to a dam on the Papagayo River.

December 18, 2017

Washington, DC / New York / Stuttgart / Geneva