(Oaxaca City, March 1, 2023, america21/poonal).- In the central Mexican state of Michoacán, four indigenous activists have already been shot dead this year, and two others have disappeared without a trace. The Indigenous Council of Michoacán speaks of a climate of insecurity and impunity. An environmentalist was also found dead in Hidalgo state. While the authorities assume an accident, his circle of friends fears a murder.
In Michoacán, Alfredo Cisneros Madrigal, a forest protector from the indigenous community of Sicuicho, is on the night of February 21st shot been. This was announced by the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán CSIM (Consejo Supremo Indígena de Michoacán). Cisneros, who campaigned for his community’s autonomy, was president of the Sicuicho Village Council and “a tireless defender of forests, territory and collective rights,” the organization said in a statement.
In it, the council goes on to say that the indigenous Purépecha community of Sicuicho has recently been harassed by representatives of the avocado industry who intend to change the land use of the pine forests for “excessive cultivation” of avocados. He demands that the state and federal authorities investigate the crime and “punish the masterminds and direct perpetrators” as well as security guarantees for the community members. CSIM denounces that more than 60 social activists, forest and environmentalists, and community leaders have been murdered or disappeared in Michoacán over the past few decades “for defending life and natural resources and fighting against social injustices “. Not a single case has been cleared up, although corresponding reports have been made. “In Michoacán, there is insecurity and impunity.”
Wave of violence against indigenous people in Michoacán
The Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán had mobilized numerous activists from over 60 Purépecha, Nahua, Otomi and Mazahua communities the day before the latest killing. They blocked the state’s main roads to demand justice for dozens of human rights activists and environmentalists who have been murdered or forcibly disappeared.
Indigenous communities in Michoacán state, governed by the moderate left Morena party since 2021, are facing a wave of violence. On December 10, 2022, Human Rights Day, forest protector Pedro Pascual was murdered in the Purepecha community of Ocumicho. Also this year armed gangs attacked Aquila several times, three members of the self-defense structure “Guardia Comunal” from the Nahua community Santa María Ostula were shot dead on January 12, 2023. The two human rights defenders who disappeared three days later have also received direct threats from the mining company and armed groups in the past.
Community activist and human rights lawyer missing for 40 days
Just three days later, on January 15th, disappeared Antonio Díaz Valencia, candidate for the board of directors of the municipal lands of Aquila, and human rights lawyer Ricardo Lagunes Gasca. The two had moments earlier attended a meeting in Aquila where mining company Ternium was criticized for failing to honor agreements with communities. The transnational Latin American steel company based in Luxembourg operates the “Las Encinas” mine in Aquila. As the German Human Rights Coordination Mexico announced, the local population has long accused the company of not paying the agreed license fees and of polluting the environment. Organized crime groups are also active in the mining sector.
Also 40 days after the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes y Antonio Díaz there is no trace of them. Relatives criticize that the authorities are not trying enough to find the two alive.
Death of another environmental activist in Hidalgo
Young environmental activist and journalist Abisaí Pérez Romero was found dead next to his bicycle on a gravel road outside the city of Tula on February 13. His family reported him missing the day before. Pérez Romero documented various resistance processes of the indigenous communities in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo.
While Abisaí Pérez’s circle of friends and social organizations suspect a violent crime stemming from his activism, local investigative authorities said the student’s body showed injuries to his chin from a fall, prompting them to declare his death an accident.
Abisaí studied at the left Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM), where he among other things documentaries realized. He has been in touch with the environmental awareness network Queremos Vivir (We Want to Live), which denounces the harm caused to the people of the Mezquital Valley in Hidalgo by the construction of a giant sewage tunnel from Mexico City. The Mezquital Valley is known as one of Mexico’s “environmental hells” due to its sewage and waste problems.
Investigative reporter and environmentalist
Pérez Romero has also been linked to the Atitalaquia Environmental Defense Committee, which is denouncing the creation of a landfill site in the municipality of Dendhó and demanding justice for the assassination of Jesús Bañuelos Acevedo. This activist was killed by an armed commando in the protest camp against the landfill on June 20, 2022 murderedthe act remained unpunished to this day.
The 29-year-old Pérez Romero documented Hidalgo’s environmental problems and the repression of human rights activists in various journalistic works, including as a reporter on the show Son Politikon FM on Radio Violeta and with research on the investigative platform Environmental Justice Atlas.
Numerous journalists’ associations and environmental organizations are calling on the Mexican authorities to investigate the violent death of Abisaí Pérez Romero.
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