An environmental activist is murdered every two days

An environmental activist is murdered every two days, according to the annual report of the organization Global Witness. A total of 177 activists lost their lives in 2022, 38% of the victims were indigenous and 88% of the lethal attacks were committed in Latin America, mainly in the Amazon.

Colombia once again leads the world ranking with 60 murders, followed by Brazil (36), Mexico (34), Honduras (14) and the Philippines (11). The death of the Brazilian activist Bruno Araujo Pereira and the British journalist Dom Philips, in June 2022, was the news that went around the world, although similar events are relatively common in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

It is estimated that in the last decade 1,910 environmental activists have died, at the hands of organized crime, poachers or in events related to land grabbing and forestry and mining operations.

“For too long, those responsible for these attacks on environmental defenders have gotten away with these murders,” denounces Shrutti Suresh, co-campaign director at Global Witness.. “Despite being threatened by irresponsible actions by corporations and governments, this global movement of people defending their homes and communities remains strong and cannot be silenced.”

Dead in Latin America

In Latin America, a total of 1,335 activists have died in the last decade. The problem is especially worrying in Colombia, which by far leads the world ranking with 382 deaths since 2012.. According to an analysis by the Somos Defensores Program, only 5.2% of cases have reached court. In Mexico, 90% of cases against activists and journalists are listed as “unsolved.”

In Brazil, the international reaction to the shooting death of indigenous activist Bruno Araujo Pereira and British journalist Dom Philips, when they were investigating the impact of poaching in the Javari Valley, forced action by the authorities and the arrest of two suspects: Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, known as 'Dos Santos', and Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, alias 'Pelado'.

The majority of victims on the front line of fire are indigenous activists, as reported by Laura Furones, who participated in the Gobal Witness report: “Indigenous peoples are the main guardians of the forests and play a fundamental role in mitigation of climate change. And yet native communities are under siege in places like Brazil, Peru or Venezuela, precisely for that reason.”

The report includes increasingly frequent cases of environmental “exiles”, such as the Colombian pediatrician Yesid Blanco, who had to leave his country and settle in the United States after denouncing the terrible impact of toxic discharges in the community of Patio Bonito, where Infant mortality skyrocketed and children were born with anencephaly (without part of the brain or skull). Blanco had to leave his position as director of intensive care at the Barracabermeja hospital after receiving death threats for making the cases public.