Threatened Latin American defenders request support in UK and Switzerland
Following a series of extrajudicial evictions in Guatemala and ahead of hotly contested presidential elections in Colombia, PBI supported Imelda Teyul and Sebastian Escobar Uribe in meeting decision-makers in Geneva and London
Last month, Peace Brigades International’s UK and Swiss offices welcomed at-risk human rights defenders from Latin America seeking global support for their causes. Switzerland received Imelda Teyul, an indigenous lands rights defender from Guatemala, while Sebastian Escobar Uribe, a lawyer and human rights defender from Colombia, visited London. The trips came at a crucial time, following a series of extrajudicial evictions in Guatemala and ahead of hotly contested presidential elections in Colombia.
Imelda travelled from Alta Verapaz, in the heart of Guatemala, where she co-coordinates the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), an indigenous, campesino organisation which supports communities fighting to retain access and ownership to lands where they have lived for generations.
Just a week before Imedla flew to Switzerland, the community of Las Pilas in Alta Verapaz was evicted at gunpoint, leaving entire families - including women and children - forced to flee and take refuge in forests nearby. Imelda was reluctant to leave the side of these communities, yet shrinking civil society space in Guatemala has left little room for her and the communities’ voices to be heard at home. Travelling to Switzerland, therefore, was an opportunity for her to seek fresh support for their struggle.
Imelda met with national and international human rights organisations, as well as diplomats and UN officials. Among them was the Special Rapporteur for the Right to Adequate Housing, with whom Imelda discussed the evictions, and agreed actions to support the affected communities. Several events also provided her with a platform to spread awareness of the human rights challenges in Guatemala, including at a public film screening and a presentation at a local secondary school.
Meanwhile in London, Sebastian Escobar Uribe, of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyer’s Collective (CAJAR), was busy advocating together with PBI UK for legislators, lawyers, NGOs and the foreign ministry (FCDO) to support defenders at risk in what is one of the world’s most dangerous countries to defend human rights. The UK is penholder for the Colombian peace process in the UN Security Council, and Sebastian was able to outline the obstacles facing that process, and ask the international community to push for strong commitments from whoever wins the country’s ongoing presidential elections.
The relentless nature of the threats facing Sebastian’s collective, and the grassroots groups they support, was emphasised by two incidents which occurred in Colombia while he was in London.
First, indigenous leader Luz Ángela Uriana was attacked by armed men firing shots against her home in La Guajira, where she was resting with her husband and children. Luz Ángela is one of those demanding the Constitutional Court act regarding an alleged breach by the Cerrejón coal mining company (part of Glencore) of a ruling that protects their community. Nobody was gravely harmed, but the incident shows the risks faced by those who seek to use the judicial mechanisms to defend their rights in Colombia.
Days later, Sebastian’s colleague at CAJAR, Yessika Hoyos Morales, received death threats via text message, attempting to discourage her from representing victims of the Mondoñedo massacre committed by Colombian police in 1996. Her house was also broken into.
PBI’s field teams in Guatemala and Colombia will continue to provide protective accompaniment to CAJAR and CCDA, while our offices in the UK and Switzerland will continue where Sebestian and Imelda left off - pushing for follow-up and international action to support those on the human rights front line.
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