Report shows 20 environmental activists were killed in Mexico in 2023

MND Staff
April 19, 2024



Protesters in Mexico City display banners demanding justice for murdered environmental activist Samir Flores and other causes related to environmental defense, in 2019. (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.

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Eustacio Alcalá Díaz
Eustacio Alcalá Díaz was one of 20 environmental activists murdered in 2023. (@redsolidariaDH/Twitter)

More:
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/environmental-activists-killed-mexico-2023/

Eustacio Alcalá Díaz
Rest in Peace