Report Shows 20 Environmental Activists Were Killed in Mexico in 2023 Mexico News Daily
go to original April 22, 2024

Protesters in Mexico City display banners demanding justice for murdered environmental activist Samir Flores and other causes related to environmental defense. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro.com)

Environmental activists in Mexico continue to face violence despite a slight decrease in attacks in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a report released this week by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).

The report found 20 lethal attacks against environmental activists in 2023, which represents the fifth-highest number documented by CEMDA in the past decade. In 2022, the figure was 24.

Michoacán topped the list with seven victims, including Eustacio Alcalá Díaz, a 68-year-old Indigenous activist who was murdered last April. He was a community leader in Huitzontla, a village in the Michoacán highlands, who had been fighting against mining projects that were disfiguring the land and depleting natural resources.

For years, the Indigenous communities of Michoacán have fought against mining and illegal logging of the mountain region’s pine and fir forests. Loggers often cut down trees to plant avocados.

Guerrero was second on the list with six murders, followed by México state and Oaxaca with two each. Hidalgo, Sonora and Jalisco each had one.

Overall, CEMDA documented 123 acts of aggression that targeted activists, communities and Indigenous peoples in 2023. These attacks, which included threats, intimidation, physical assaults and kidnappings, were most prevalent in Jalisco (20), Oaxaca (19) and Mexico City (12).

“While the total number of attacks recorded in 2023 decreased compared to [197 in] 2022, these are still high and unacceptable figures,” the report stated.

The report criticized the Mexican government’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the Escazú Agreement, an international treaty requiring signatory countries to protect environmental activists. The Mexican Senate ratified the pact in 2020.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

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