In recent years, Mexico has positioned itself as one of the most dangerous countries for environmental defenders; brutality and the increase in cases throughout the Mexican territory has alerted citizens to the risk of anyone who decides to engage in any type of activism for the preservation of the environment and the territory.
Thus, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) noted in its Report on the Situation of Environmental Human Rights Defenders in Mexico 2021 that the period from January 1 to December 31 of that year was the most violent for the defense of natural heritage in Mexico since the year 2014.
The report by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) pointed out that during 2021 there were approximately 238 attacks of different kinds against environmental defenders in the country, which represented an increase of 164.44% compared to 2020.
According to the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), the most common aggression against environmental defenders was intimidation with 65 records (27.31% of the total), followed by harassment with 36 records (15.13%), threats with 31 records (13.03%), physical assaults with 24 records (10.08%) and homicides with 22 records (9.24%).
In 2021, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) documented at least 25 cases of environmental, land and territory defenders, victims of lethal aggression, making it the third consecutive year with an increase in the number of activists killed in the country.
The civil organization also noted that so far in the federal administration it has been recorded that at least 58 environmental defenders have been killed, with the state of Oaxaca being the entity with the highest number of lethal attacks against environmentalists in the country, since there were a total of 8 defenders killed during 2021, of which 2 are probable extrajudicial executions.
Meanwhile, the states of Guerrero, Sonora and Morelos are the entities with the highest number of lethal attacks after Oaxaca. Four murders were documented in Guerrero: Isaías Elacio Palma, Carlos Marqués Oyorzábal, Marco Antonio Arcos and Ramiro Ventura Apolonia. Sonora also recorded 4 murders: José de Jesús Robledo Cruz, María de Jesús Gómez Vega, Luis Urbano Domínguez Mendoza and Tomás Rojo Valencia, the last two belonging to the Yaqui nation; and in Morelos, three homicides were recorded: José de Jesús Sánchez Garcia, Rodrigo Morales Vázquez and Alejandro Garcia Zagal.
With regard to other types of aggression, the states that top the list are Oaxaca with 24, Yucatan and Sonora with 10 respectively, as well as Guerrero and Morelos with 8 aggression events each.
According to the annual report of the British organization Global Witness, Last Line of Defense, The industries causing the climate crisis and attacks against land and environmental defenders, Mexico is ranks in the second country with the most crimes against activists and on a global scale.
According to figures from institutions such as Amnesty International (AI), Global Witness and the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, a 2018 report counted 108 murders of activists in Mexico in a decade, of which 86 were indigenous.
Among the defenders who were killed in Mexico in 2020 are: Adán Vez Lira, Daniel Sotelo, Homero Gomez, Ismael Cruz, Jesús Miguel Jerónimo, Isaac Medrano, Juan Aquino Gonzalez, Miguel Vazquez, Miguel Migueleño, Pablo Guzman, Juan Zamarripa, Maria Agustin, Rodolfo Diaz, Maurilio Hernandez, Reynaldo Bautista, Paulina Gomez and Tomas Martinez.
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