Empower environmental defenders in Mexico

The first months of 2021 saw news of environment defenders murdered in Mexico, raising alarms on a growing tendency of violence exercised against individuals and communities.

Last March 2022, CEMDA presented its ninth Report on the Situation of Defenders of Environment, Land, and Territory, Individuals and Communities, in Mexico, in the face of violence perpetrated against them by reason of their work.

In 2021 there was a 160% increase in the number of aggressions of different kind over the year 2020. Lethal aggressions also increased from 18 defenders reported murdered in 2020 to 25 in 2021.  The most common aggressions were intimidation, harassment, threats, and lethal aggressions, in that order.

The sectors associated with the highest numbers of events of aggression were mining, water, and electricity, whereas the majority of lethal attacks are related to the electricity sector. Regarding responsibility for aggressions, in approximately 4 of every 10 aggressions, the government is named as responsible, whether at the municipal, state, or federal level, and acting jointly with other actors such as private companies or organized crime.

The alarming situation described in this report has a multifactorial origin. Factors include a model of development which gives extractive activities precedence over the ways of life of individuals, peoples, and communities, but also issues related to the exercise of structural violence, environmental racism, and historic discrimination toward indigenous communities.

Thank you for helping us to keep monitoring and reporting the violence against environmental defenders. It is urgent that the Mexican authorities immediately cease stigmatization towards them and provide security conditions so that they can continue protecting the environment on which we all depend to live.

Links:

• 2021 Report on Aggressions against Environmental Defenders
• Environmental and social impacts of the Mayan Train