Many indigenous and traditional farming (or campesino) communities are struggling to protect the land on which their livelihoods depend. Often living in conditions of extreme poverty, they rely on their land for food, shelter, and cultural identity. In some cases, pollution from mining threatens to seep into the land and water. In others, communities have been forced from their land for development projects or monoculture plantations, condemning them to internal displacement and landlessness. Others campaign for sustainable land use, seeking to halt patterns of destruction for the benefit of future generations.
Defenders of land rights, culture, and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Some have approached PBI for protection after they have been attacked or their colleagues assassinated. Many others have been subjected to criminal prosecutions based on spurious charges.
On June 11, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies UVOC and the Campesino/Peasant Council, formed by CCDA, CUC, New Day and UVOC, at their press conference in which they denounced the complicity of the authorities of Alta Verapaz with the farmers to evict Indigenous and peasant communities.”
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted: “[On June 3] we met with Melany Chavarria, general secretary of the CNTC [National Union of Rural Workers] in La Paz. From the CNTC they shared their concerns with us about the little progress regarding land titling and obtaining legal status for peasant bases.”
On June 11, PBI-Mexico posted: “Today we were accompanying the communities that are asking for the definitive closure of the Cholula landfill due to the environmental impacts in their concentration in front of the PROFEPA headquarters in Mexico City.”
Photo: The award ceremony took place on June 4 in Berlin.
Christopher Castillo, General Coordinator of ARCAH, is leading the movement in Honduras against so-called Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs). These zones, which operate as independent territories, not subject to Honduran law, threaten to envelop vast swathes of Honduras; up to 35 percent of the country could be made into such zones.
For several years, a small coalition of groups - including Peace Brigades International - had been planning to host Jani Silva, perhaps the most threatened woman in Colombia’s Amazon rainforest.
Jani has been an outspoken environmental defender for years, challenging the expansion of oil operations and other threats to the Amazon Pearl, a biodiverse rainforest region along the Colombia-Ecuador border. She has received innumerable death threats of different varieties, and seen several of her fellow defenders killed for their activism as recently as late 2023.
PBI-Honduras has posted: “The Corruption Sentencing Court has just convicted 3 of the 6 former public officials accused in the ‘Fraud on Gualcarque’ case. We are observing the @COPINHHONDURAS [Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations in Honduras] sit-in, which requested a conviction for the 6 accused people.”
Video: PBI-Colombia at the Peace Community on March 27, just days after the murder of two community members.
PBI-Colombia has posted on social media: “Urgent. After the murder of two members of @cdpsanjose [the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó], new attacks occur on the territory of the Community. Guarantees, research results and progress in the commitments made by the State are urgently needed.”
PBI-Guatemala has posted:
“On March 16 #PBI accompanies the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu in the commemoration of #WorldWaterDay in the communities of Champerico.