Groups of missing persons and human rights activists are demanding the return of community defenders Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Diaz, who disappeared on January 15, 2023. Protest for the disappeared in Glorieta, Mexico City, January 22, 2023, Mexico City. (Luis Baron/Ipix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Diaz worked together to protect their community.
Mexico's San Miguel de Aquila mine is being protected from years of abuse by mining giant Ternium.
Both defenders went missing in January last year. Neither have ever been found. Three months after they disappeared, anti-mining activist Eustacio Alcalá also went missing, only to be found dead two days later.
Their case is highlighted in a new report by environmental and human rights watchdog Global Witness on the killings of land and environmental defenders in 2023, which noted there is no hard evidence that Ternium or its employees ordered or carried out the disappearances of land defenders.
Iron ore mining in the region has contributed to a “microcosm of conflicting interests”, including the territorial expansion of organised crime gangs and exacerbating violence, the report said.
“I wish the world could see the destruction that the Aquila mine is causing to the environment and to us,” Lagunes' daughter Brenda said in the report. “I wish the world could see that the water in the river has disappeared, just like it did for my father and Ricardo.”
Global Witness documented the killings of 196 defenders exercising their right to protect their lands and environment from harm last year, and warned that the actual number is likely much higher.
“There are countless stories of brave defenders that we want to tell but cannot,” the NGO said.
All over the world, people who protest against the encroachment of their homes and land face violence and intimidation, but the full extent of these attacks remains hidden and many killings go unreported.
“Fear of retribution prevents families from seeking justice, communities are silenced, and journalists are targeted,” the report states. “Stories are buried, hidden or erased. In many cases, there is little information about the cases. Many defenders go unnamed, their sacrifices unacknowledged, and their stories of defiance will remain untold.”
In a “surprisingly small percentage” of cases, perpetrators are never held accountable, and families may never find justice, closure, or feel safe speaking out. The truth is hidden by a system of complicity: civic space is undermined, corruption is rampant, and the legal system is dysfunctional. “Eradication is also a form of aggression.”
The murder of 196 defenders in 2023 would suggest that the total number of people murdered around the world since Global Witness began reporting data in 2012 will exceed 2,000. The NGO now estimates that the total number of murders stands at 2,106.
Since the Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted on December 12, 2015, more than 1,500 advocates have been murdered.
“Killing remains a common strategy to silence advocates, and there is no doubt
Most brutally, as the report shows, deadly attacks often occur in tandem with more widespread attacks.
Retaliation against defenders who are targeted by governments, corporations, or other entities
Attacking non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalisation.
It's happening in every part of the world, in almost every sector.”
Latin America again recorded the highest number of homicides worldwide this year, with a total of 166 homicides, of which 54 were in Mexico and Central America and 112 in South America.
Overall, Colombia turned out to be the world's deadliest country for the second year in a row, with a record 79 deaths last year, compared with 60 in 2022 and 33 in 2021. This is the highest number of defenders killed in a single country in a single year that Global Witness has recorded.
Colombia has the world's highest number of murders of environmental activists, with 461 reported killings between 2012 and 2023. Brazil recorded 25 murders, Mexico 18 and another 18 in Honduras.
In Africa, two conservationists were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one in Rwanda, and one in Ghana in 2023. Between 2012 and 2023, 116 conservationists were killed on the African continent, most of them park rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (74).
“We also documented cases in countries such as Kenya (6), South Africa (6), Chad (5), Uganda (5), Liberia (3) and Burkina Faso (2),” the report said. “These horrifying figures are probably significantly underestimated as access to information remains a challenge across the continent.”
In Europe and North America, Defenders are also “facing increasingly difficult conditions.”
“They are exercising their right to protest.” Four protesters were killed in Panama last year and two in Indonesia.
In the United States, police shot and killed an environmental activist who was demonstrating against the destruction of forests to make way for a police training facility.
Globally, indigenous peoples and people of African descent remain disproportionately affected
Targets accounted for 49% of all homicides.
While it remains difficult to establish a direct link between the killings of defenders and specific corporate interests, Global Witness identified mining as the “biggest industrial driver so far” from the 25 defenders killed after opposing mining operations in 2023. Other industries include fishing (5), logging (5), agribusiness (4), roads and infrastructure (4), and hydroelectric power (2).
Of the 25 mining-related murders worldwide last year, 23 took place in Latin America. But more than 40% of mining-related murders between 2012 and 2023 occurred in Asia, which has large natural reserves of critical minerals essential for clean energy technologies.
“This report shows that in every part of the world, people who speak out and call attention to the harms caused by extractive industries, including deforestation, pollution and land grabbing, face violence, discrimination and intimidation,” Nonhle Mbutuma, 2024 Goldman Prize winner and founder of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, wrote in the foreword. “We are defenders of land and the environment, and when we speak out, we are often attacked.”
Being an environmental activist doesn't come without personal sacrifice, she says: “Decades of working to protect the planet have taken a huge physical and mental toll on me. There are hidden costs to our work. Over the years, I have faced death threats, brutality, criminalization and harassment.”
“It's extremely painful to know that my life is at risk every day, and I know I'm not alone. Advocates and their communities are subject to an ever-changing array of retaliation, much of which takes place out of sight or, worse, ignored,” she said.