Latin American environmentalists most susceptible to homicide, report finds By Reuters

By Diego Oré

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Extra environmentalists had been killed in Latin America than every other area on the planet final 12 months, in keeping with a report by advocacy group World Witness, underscoring the rising menace to activists within the resource-rich area.

Of the 200 environmentalists killed globally in 2021, three-quarters of them had been from Latin America, the report stated. The full is lower than the 227 killed in 2020, however represents a rise for international locations like Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua and Peru, which collectively account for simply over half of whole deaths.

Mexico had 54 circumstances of environmental defenders killed final 12 months, the very best price of any nation, and a soar from the 30 deaths reported in 2020. Colombia had the second-highest price at 33 killing, adopted by Brazil with 26 circumstances, in keeping with World Witness, a global group.

Greater than 40% of deadly assaults had been towards indigenous folks even though they solely signify 5% of the world’s inhabitants, in keeping with the report.

“These deadly assaults proceed to happen within the context of a wider vary of threats towards defenders who’re being focused by authorities, enterprise and different non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalisation,” World Witness stated in its report.

In Mexico, preliminary investigations have led federal officers to imagine that native authorities are implicated in some 40% of environmental activist killings, though solely two of 45 circumstances have resulted in a suspect being charged.

World Witness discovered that conflicts over land had been a key driver in lots of assaults, together with useful resource exploitation, logging, mining and large-scale agriculture.

“This determine is more likely to be increased as the explanations behind assaults on land and environmental defenders are sometimes not correctly investigated nor reported,” the report stated.

Mining and extraction actions was the sector linked to the very best variety of killings at 27 circumstances. Mexico had 14 of these assaults, adopted by the Philippines with six and Venezuela with 4.