Greetings to CoDev from our Latin American partners

As 2020 grinds towards its end, we have received many greetings from partners in Latin America to CoDevelopment Canada and our members and Canadian partners. In addition to warm wishes, our partners have shared striking photos and video clips that demonstrate the work they have achieved even under the challenging circumstances of the global pandemic. Achievements made possible, in part, due to the solidarity of our partners and members.

To share these with the wider CoDev family, we have assembled here in a collage of 2020 Greetings from Latin American partners.

Americas Policy Group Concerned About OAS Meddling in Human Rights Commission Appointment

Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretary Luis Almagro has increasingly sought to control what are traditionally arms-length institutions of the organization. Most recently, Almagro has meddled in the appointment of the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an independent body of the OAS charged with investigating complaints of human rights violations committed by member states. The OAS Secretary General recently refused to ratify the Commission's recommendation to appoint Executive Secretary Dr. Paulo Abrão to a new term.

The Americas Policy Group (APG), a Canadian coalition of 27 organizations promoting human rights and equitable development in the Americas, is concerned that Almargo's interference in the appointment of the Commission's director undermines the ability of the IACHR to independently investigate human rights violations in the Americas. CoDevelopment Canada worked with other APG members to draft a letter of concern sent by the coalition to Canadian Foreign Minister François-Phillippe Champagne.

Please follow these links to read the APG's letter to Minister Champagne: IHRC Letter English

CoDev Exec Director Testifies to Citizenship and Immigration Committee

Last December, CoDev Executive Director Steve Stewart, in his capacity of Co-Chair of the Americas Policy Group (a national coalition of organizations working for human rights and development in the Americas) testified to  the Canadian Parliament's immigration committee on the causes of forced migration from Central America. We recently discovered  an online transcript of his presentation and, since the conditions leading to forced migration from the region have only worsened since last December, we share it here.

Mr. Steve Stewart (Co-Chair, Americas Policy Group, Canadian Council for International Co-operation) at the Citizenship and Immigration Committee

December 4th, 2018 / 3:45 p.m.

Thank you. I'll first tell you very briefly about our organization. I'm here as the co-chair of the Americas policy group. It's a national coalition of 32 Canadian organizations that work on human rights and development in the Americas.

While some of our member organizations, such as Amnesty International, work directly on migration, most of our work is done directly in the countries of Latin America. The majority of our members focus on three regions: Mexico, Central America and Colombia.

Given that we have a fairly limited time for the presentation, I'm only going to touch very briefly on Colombia and Mexico and focus primarily on the Central American countries, particularly Guatemala and Honduras, because I believe that's the area where Canadian policy can play a role.

The focus in this presentation is primarily on the conditions that lead to migration. I think the speaker who preceded me did an excellent job of covering that, so I may jump over some of my points.

Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people in the world after Syria, with 6.5 million people who are displaced. Despite the demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia last year and an end to that part of the war, violence and displacement continue. In 2017, violence in the country generated another 139,000 displacements, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Although sometimes we have the impression that there is peace in Colombia, violence is still generating large numbers of internally displaced people.

There are a number of factors behind these displacements. They're common through all of the countries I'm referring to here. They are the impacts of free trade, extractivism, the drug trade, corruption and organized crime. It's exacerbated, as the previous speaker mentioned, by climate change. In Mexico—and I think you've probably heard these statistics before—large numbers of displacement and violence coincided with the launching of the drug war in 2006, with a total of some 250,000 people believed to have been killed between the launching of the war and last year, while another 37,000 people have been forcibly disappeared.

In Colombia and Mexico, it's not uncommon for local government and security forces to act in collusion with organized crime, but it's in the Central American countries, in particular Guatemala and Honduras, where these networks have also deeply penetrated the national state. Organized crime operates on a number of levels in Honduras and Guatemala, ranging up from the street gangs that you've heard about in earlier testimonies, such as the Mara 18 and the Salvatruchas, who control both urban neighbourhoods and also a number of rural areas in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, often serving as the foot soldiers for more sophisticated criminal networks involved with drug trafficking, but also involved with graft in a large scale at the state level, and sometimes providing security to transnational corporations operating in these countries.

I'm not going to go in depth on statistics, but some rather stark examples have come up recently with the arrest last week of the brother of the Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on cocaine smuggling charges, and then just last year Fabio Lobo, the son of the former president, Porfirio Lobo, was sentenced to 24 years after being convicted in U.S. courts on similar charges. In both of these cases, testimony indicates that the Honduran presidents were aware of these activities and, at the very least, did nothing.

However, the Honduran government's involvement in organized crime goes beyond links to drug smuggling. De facto President Juan Orlando Hernández, in his previous term, was forced to admit that his party looted the national public health and social security system to fund his 2013 electoral campaign.

We find similar cases in neighbouring Guatemala. In 2015, the president, vice-president and most of his cabinet were forced to resign and were indicted on corruption charges after investigations by the United Nations' international commission against impunity, CICIG, revealed a vast organized crime network within the Guatemalan state.

The president that succeeded him, current president Jimmy Morales, is now also under investigation. In recent times, though, his administration has taken steps to block the effective work of the UN body by preventing its director from entering the country.

The penetration of organized crime into government and state institutions takes place in the context of economic and ecological shifts in the region that are generating significant internal displacement. There are many different factors linked to that, which I mentioned previously.

In the Colombian case, the influx of low-priced basic grains that followed the signing of free trade agreements with North America and Europe in the past 25 years has reduced local food production and made it much more difficult for rural families to earn a living growing basic foods. This is combined with new unpredictability related to climate change, and pressure on farming communities from the expanding agro-industrial frontier—primarily sugar cane and African palm, which is, ironically, often used for the creation of biofuels.

These serve to drive the farmers from the land, either to marginalized communities in surrounding urban areas, or to take the long and dangerous migrant trek.

I know I'm running out of time already—Click here for the full transcript and questions.

Urgent Action: Constitutional Crisis in Guatemala

Since August 2017 when Guatemala President Jimmy Morales attempted to declare Ivan Velasquez, the head of the UN-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) persona non grata, the Guatemalan government and economic elite have made multiple attempts to stop investigations of fraud, money laundering, and illicit campaign financing.In August 2018, the President announced that CICIG's mandate would not be renewed and Commissioner Ivan Velasquez was not permitted to enter the country. The Constitutional Court ordered immigration authorities to allow entry to Velasquez, but Morales, speaking through two ministers, said he would defy the court order. The Guatemalan government has violated legal resolutions issued by the Constitutional Court regarding CICIG’s mandate, and on January 7, 2019 illegally detained and denied entry to one of its investigators, Yilen Osorio Zuluaga and gave CICIG 24 hours to leave the country.According to Guatemalan Human Rights organizations these actions against CICIG could lead to a “Technical Coup” putting at risk the country's constitutional order, weakening specialized government investigation units, reducing the struggle against impunity on combating street gangs and empowering the old Illegal Groups and Clandestine Security Organizations.Please send our urgent action to show international solidarity with CICIG’s work in Guatemala.[formidable id="75" title="1"]

Join CoDev in calling for an independent human rights Ombudsperson for Canada’s international extractive sector

Take action today to call on the Canadian government to ensure communities affected by Canadian oil, mineral and gas corporations have access to justice. Write your MP and the Minister of International Trade to let them know you want Canada to be a leader in protecting human and environmental rights by creating an independent human rights Ombudsperson.For too long Canada’s extractive industry has not been held accountable for its actions overseas. Human rights violations by Canadian mining corporations are widespread and well-documented. Canada needs an independent human rights Ombudsperson with full investigatory powers and the ability to make recommendations for remedies.Almost 10 years ago, industry and civil society leaders recommended creating an independent human rights Ombudsperson to address serious violations of human rights or environmental damage. The Canadian Network for Corporate Responsibility recently proposed draft legislation to create just such an office. During the 2015 election, most parties, including the Liberal party, committed to creating an independent ombudsperson’s office. Such an office is long overdue.As it stands, the offices in Canada responsible for overseeing corporate social responsibility (the Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor and the National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines) lack independence, investigatory powers, and are not mandated to make recommendations for remedies. Communities whose human rights have been violated by Canadian corporations operating in their territory deserve more. It’s time the Government of Canada to take action and make Canada Open for Justice.

Message from CoDev's newest partner "Totlahtol Yoltok" in Veracruz, Mexico

In January 2017, a collective of Mexican indigenous educators in Veracruz began a new project supported by CoDev and the BC Teachers Federation, Aimed at strengthening indigenous education in the  Nahuatl speaking communities of the Altas Montañas region. We share with you a message from Lucia Morales,  coordinator of the Totlahtol Yoltok ("Our Living Word") project:

New Video - Non Sexist & Inclusive Pedagogy

View our brand new video describing NSIP on You Tube!

Non-Sexist and Inclusive Pedagogy is aproposal which began with unionized teachers in Costa Rica, for developing liberating, democratic and inclusive educative practices. The pedagogical proposal is in constant transformation as teachers, students and communities participate in the analysis of their reality and create ways to transform it. Several teachers' unions in the Central American region have created teaching aids for elementary or secondary levels, and which today have been endorsed by Ministries of Education as official textbooks in the classroom. NSIP workshops have taken place in: Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Canada.The regional coordination for Non-Sexist and Inclusive Pedagogy Program is led by Maria Trejos Montero and Esperanza Tasies Castro.For more information visit the NSIP (PNSI) website.

Coffee and Global Warming - the Georgia Straight

Don't miss "As climate change worsens, coffee addicts may be in for a jolt", published in the Georgia Strait, and written by our own Kirsten Daub, Cafe Etico Coordinator.It's another brilliantly sunny day in Northern Nicaragua. I've just clambered down a mountainside, and stepping into the shade of Manuel Garcia's coffee farm is instant relief from the heat. As we walk through the coffee trees ...Read the full article here.