AMERICA - 88 environmentalists killed in Latin America in 2014

Thursday, 7 May 2015

Tegucigalpa (Agenzia Fides) - According to the Report of the international Global Witness organization, 88 environmentalists were killed in Latin America in 2014.
As demonstrated by the report published under the title: "Cuantos mas?", the number of crimes against environmentalists is equal to three-quarters of the killings of environmental leaders worldwide,
According to the document, sent to Agenzia Fides, "at least two people are killed every week for taking a stand against environmental destruction". "Some are killed by police during the protests, others are murdered by hired assassins. While companies seek new land to exploit, there are always more people that ultimately have to pay in some way for their opposition", says the text.
The report also indicates that 40 percent of the victims belong to the indigenous population.
Environmental supporters killed were engaged in particular in the areas of mining activities regarding water, forests and agro-industrial enterprises; always in a context of "disputes for the territory", according to the report of Global Witness.
According to this document, 116 deaths occurred last year worldwide: almost twice the number of journalists killed during the same period, with an increase of 20% compared to 2013. The killings documented reached an average of more than two a week.
Brazil leads the list with 29 activists killed, followed by Colombia with 25, 12 in Honduras, 9 in Peru, 5 in Guatemala, 3 in Paraguay, 3 in Mexico, 1 in Ecuador and Costa Rica.
However, the report points out that one cannot have an exact figure of the activists killed because many of these crimes "occur in remote villages or in the jungle, where communities have no access to means of comunication. Therefore, we suspect the number of murders is much higher". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 07/05/2015)


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