Environmental activists murdered in 2017

The NGO Global Witness reported that 207 environmental activists had been murdered in 22 countries in 2017, the bloodiest year recorded by this organization, with a high rate of deaths related to the agricultural sector.

Victims include Aboriginal leaders, community leaders, and environmental advocates who are killed or subjected to death threats, arrests, cyberattacks, badual badaults, and trials.

The final number of murders is "probably much higher", given the "serious limitations" they face "to evaluate the available data," according to the NGO, founded in 1993.

The Global Witness's report, presented in London, revealed that last year there had been a significant increase in killings related to "destructive agriculture" that "monopolizes" land for crops such as the "farmland". palm oil for the sale of "consumer products" and everyday use.

The document entitled "At what price?" Reveals that the most dangerous country for activists in 2017 was Brazil, where there were 57 homicides, followed by the Philippines with 48, while in Mexico and Peru, the number of murders has increased significantly. murders, ranging from three to 15 and two to eight, respectively.

Global Witness notably denounced cases such as the killing of Hernán Bedoya in Colombia, which was shot down 14 times by a paramilitary group for demonstrating against oil palm and banana plantations "on land stolen from his community ".

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