The following report was written by La Ruta del Clima, a leading Latin American NGO on climate change, focused on political advocacy to promote citizen participation, with international recognition and standing.
On January 14, 2026, we began the year with an event that was deeply relevant to the political, social, and environmental context facing the region. This space aimed to make visible the interconnection between the climate crisis and the increase in vulnerability caused by processes of militarization in the Caribbean, promoting collective reflection and strengthening the active participation of civil society.
The meeting made it possible to delve deeper into the structural links between militarization, environmental justice, and the legacies of colonialism, recognizing that these historical dynamics not only persist but intensify climate impacts and reproduce socio-environmental inequalities that affect communities and territories in differentiated ways.
The interventions addressed the issue across multiple scales: from a regional and geopolitical reading to communal struggles in the face of military and paramilitary presence in the territories, making visible current realities marked by dispossession, structural violence, and the systematic restriction of rights.
Militarization, fossil fuels, and territorial dispossession
Adrián Martínez opened the space by recalling the intrinsic relationship between militarization and fossil fuels, and how the need to expand the economy is often pursued hand in hand with the displacement of natural goods. He pointed out how this is currently reflected in the actions taken by President Trump in the search for natural resources and in his disengagement from any efforts aimed at reducing the impacts of the climate crisis.
Incomplete peace and open wounds in Central America
Carlos Aguilar contributed a regional and political perspective on processes of militarization and their relationship to the climate crisis, emphasizing that peace goes beyond the absence of armed conflict. He noted how the processes of “pacification” in Central America did not resolve the economic, social, and environmental causes that gave rise to armed conflicts, and how these problems persisted under formal democratic regimes. In this context, communities and nature have borne the cost of these failed processes, facing exclusion, environmental degradation, and structural violence.
Puerto Rico: militarization, colonialism, and the climate crisis
Edil Sepúlveda delved into the historical and current case of Puerto Rico, illustrating with concrete examples such as Isla Vieques, where militarization has left deep marks on the territory, public health, and the self-determination of communities. He also addressed the evolution of new military and neocolonial doctrines, noting how they respond to interests in the extraction of natural goods and how, alarmingly, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with militarization are neither measured nor accounted for within current climate frameworks.
Militarization is not distant: communal impacts in the region
Mariana Porras, a member of the organization COECOCEIBA and president of FECOM, shared how this issue is sometimes perceived from Costa Rica as distant or unrelated. However, she showed that the criminalization and judicialization of defenders, together with the advance of corruption, organized crime, and paramilitarization, directly impact communal realities in Central America, the Caribbean, and the region. She also underscored the close relationship between militarization and extractivism as dynamics that mutually reinforce one another.
Extractivism, megaprojects, and the fragmentation of the social fabric
For her part, Raquel Sagot, founder and executive director of Fundación Orgánica, analyzed the impacts of these processes on communal and collective life, situating them within the context of regional hyper-neoliberalism and the imposition of megaprojects. She emphasized how extractivism and militarization respond to the same logic of dispossession, fragmenting the social fabric and limiting possibilities for community organization and action.
Climate justice, demilitarization, and collective action
This space also made it possible to connect these reflections with the 10% Campaign, an initiative that proposes reducing countries’ military spending by at least 10% and redirecting those resources toward real responses to the climate crisis, adaptation, the repair of damages and losses, and the strengthening of human rights. In a world where military budgets reach record figures while funds for health, education, and climate action are cut, reducing military spending is not a utopia: it is an urgent and necessary political decision.
The meeting reaffirmed the urgency of addressing the climate crisis from a perspective of justice, demilitarization, and human rights, placing the voices of territories at the center and recognizing that there can be no just climate action without questioning the power structures that produce violence, exclusion, and vulnerability. Committing to peace, life, and the care of territories also implies daring to challenge how and for what purpose public resources are used.
The original version can be found on the organization’s website in Spanish here: