New study reaffirms Indigenous lands key to mitigating climate change in Brazil

[Judi Lynn]

9. The activist in the link at the end of your list was assassinated

by Carlos Navarro
Category/Department: Mexico
Published: 2017-01-25

Isidro Baldenegro López, an indigenous environmental rights activist recognized for his efforts to
protect old-growth forests in western Mexico, was murdered in his uncle’s house in the community
of Coloradas de la Virgen in Chihuahua state. Baldenegro, a recipient of the prestigious Goldman
Environmental Prize in 2005 (SourceMex, April 20, 2005), led a successful campaign to temporarily
halt logging in and around the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, located in southwestern
Chihuahua near the border with Sinaloa state.
Authorities said Baldenegro, 51, received six bullet shots in his chest and legs on Jan. 15. The
indigenous leader is the second winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize killed in the past
year. Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres, a leader of the Lenca indigenous community,
was gunned down in March 2015. Cáceres was an outspoken opponent of the construction of a big
reservoir on the Gualcarque River in western Honduras (NotiCen, April 7, 2016).
Erika Guevara-Rosas, the Americas director at Amnesty International, described the murders of
Baldenegro and Cáceres “a tragic illustration of the many dangers faced by those who dedicate their
lives to defend human rights in Latin America, one of the most dangerous regions in the world for
activists.”
Baldenegro, a member of the Tarahumara (also known as Rarámuris) community, made several
powerful enemies because of his environmental activities, alienating logging interests, drug
traffickers, and corrupt public officials. In 2003, authorities arrested him and his fellow anti-logging
activist Hermenegildo Rivas on trumped-up charges of drug and weapons violations. A year
later, a federal judge ordered Chihuahua state authorities to release the two men after a federal
investigation concluded that the charges were fabricated (SourceMex, June 30, 2004). During his
time in prison, Amnesty International declared Baldenegro a prisoner of conscience.
Baldenegro is the second member of his family killed for anti-logging activism. His father, Julio
Baldenegro, who was working to preserve the ancestral forests in the Sierra Tarahumara, was
murdered in 1986.
“The motive was never revealed, but press reports and accounts from Isidro Baldenegro indicated
that the murder was promoted by groups involved in illegal trafficking of wood,” BBC Mundo
reported. “Isidro was only 20 when his father was killed, and he assumed the fight against illegal
logging almost immediately.”

From your link:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7317&context=sourcemex

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A friend of Isidro Baldenegro Lopez visits his grave site in January. Baldenegro was the fifth environmental defender killed in the last year in the community of Coloradas de la Virgen, Chihuahua, in the Golden Triangle. (Luis Cortes/El Universal via AP)

He defended the sacred lands of Mexico’s Tarahumara people. Then a gunman cut him down

BY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
MARCH 17, 2017 3 AM PT

Reporting from GUACHOCHI, Mexico — Isidro Baldenegro Lopez, a son of the jagged and often lawless terrain of the western Sierra Madre, had no illusions about the threats he faced from sundry foes — drug traffickers, illegal lumber harvesters and other criminal elements who have infiltrated the remote highlands that are home to Mexico’s Tarahumara people.
But relatives and friends say the indigenous leader, who won global acclaim for his defense of the region’s ancient forests, could not be deterred from returning to Coloradas de la Virgen, his remote home village, a place cut off by mighty canyons and thuggish violence.

. . .

At least 200 environmental activists worldwide were killed in 2016, the highest such death toll on record, according to Global Witness, a British-based watchdog group. At least 33 ecological activists were killed in Mexico between 2010 and 2015, Global Witness said.

This month Chihuahua state prosecutors said they had arrested Baldenegro’s killer, whom. . .they identified only as Romeo R.M., age 21. Authorities say he confessed to shooting the 50-year-old Baldenegro with a .38 Super pistol, hitting him in the chest, abdomen and right leg, because of long-time “personal” animosities. But activists and relatives suspect a crime boss deployed Romeo as a sicario, or hired gunman, to eliminate once and for all the meddlesome anti-logging campaigner, one of Mexico’s best-known environmental advocates.

. . .



Isidro Baldenegro Lopez accepting the 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the Green Nobel. (Goldman Environmental Prize / EPA )

Crime bosses launder drug proceeds through timber and ranching operations in an region where 99% of the old-growth forest has already been logged, according to environmental groups.
“There has been a complete breakdown of the social fabric in some parts of the Sierra,” said Gonzalez Diaz of the Sierra Madre Alliance. “Criminal organizations intimidate the people and try to strip them of their land, provoking forced displacement.”

The swath of southern Chihuahua state where the two recent murders occurred is situated within Mexico’s “Golden Triangle,” a major cultivation zone for marijuana and the opium poppy used to produce heroin for the booming U.S. market. The region’s rugged terrain, lack of law enforcement oversight and proximity to the U.S. border have made it a prime production and smuggling hub.

The triangle region, including parts of neighboring Sinaloa and Durango states, is generally regarded as turf of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, once headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the legendary capo recently extradited to the United States.

. . .

His father, Julio Baldenegro, was murdered in 1986 because of his opposition to a local strongman’s logging activities, according to family members, who say the young Isidro saw his father die. That motivated him to dedicate his life to the cause of developing non-violent resistance against exploitation of Tarahumara lands, say relatives and associates.

In the early 2000s, he organized sit-ins and marches and a human blockade to halt logging operations, gaining fame across the region and, eventually, internationally. He was arrested in 2003 and spent 15 months in prison on what would later prove to be false charges of arms and drug possession, noted his official biography from the San Francisco-based Goldman Foundation.

“They won’t shut me up,” the jailed activist told Andrew Miller, a young scholar who visited Baldenegro while he was in custody. “They can’t silence the truth,” insisted Baldenegro, recalled Miller, now an assistant professor at First Nations University of Canada.

In recent years, associates say, Baldenegro, a father of two young children, resided mostly in various highland towns, including Guachochi, which were more secure than his secluded village. But he frequently went back to Coloradas de la Virgen to sell home-made machetes, buy and sell livestock, and meet with relatives and friends, while continuing his efforts to protect native lands.

“Isidro knew his life was in danger,” said Gabriel Valencia Juarez, a journalist here and friend of the late activist. “But he didn’t want to leave, his life and work were in the Sierra. In the end, it cost him.”

More:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240215020139/https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-tarahumara-20170317-story.html

Thank you for sharing this material, also.