Afro-Descendant & Indigenous: News & Updates

arson attack at the home of indigenous and environmental rights defenders Ana Miriam Romero and Rosalio Vasquez Pineda, members of the Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz (MILPAH) who are resisting construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Chinacla River in La Paz

assassination of journalist Marcos Hernández Bautista, who reported on influence of local political strongmen in Oaxaca State.

killing of Garífuna residents Joel Palacios Lino, age 24, and Elvis Armando Garcia, age 19, by Honduran Navy on Atlantic coast in Colón Dept.

unjust imprisonment of indigenous rights leader Nestora Salgado García, former head of Regional Coordinating Body of Community Authorities: Community Police (CRAC-PC) in Guerrero

assassination of Javier Vásquez Benítez, son of an indigenous leader whose community is organizing resistance to the Los Encinos Dam in La Paz Department.

attempted assassinations of land rights defenders on the Atlantic coast: Vidal Leiva (President of the Committee for the Defense of Land of the [Afro-descendant] Garífuna communities Crystals and Black River), Irma Lemus and Rigoberto Duran (Permanent Observatory of Human Rights of Aguán (OPDHA).

death threats to Danelly Estupiñán (Process of Black Communities, PCN), and Rocío del Pilar Segura (community leader), organizing resistance to port expansion at Buenaventura sea port in Valle de Cauca Department.

shootings, murder and threats to indigenous human rights and campesino land rights defenders, members of the National Front for Socialism (FNLS) in Chiapas State and Mexico City and Campesino Organization Emiliano Zapata for the National Front for Socialism (OCEZ-FNLS). Shot: Matías Flores, Jesús Hernández Reyes, Rubicél Hernández García, Emilio Morales Díaz. Killed: Hector Sántiz López. This follows years of death threats by paramilitaries Los Petules, which has been blockading the OCEZ-NFLS communal land Ejido El Carrizal, in Chiapas.

assassination of 70-year-old Sebastian Córdova Sajic, a human rights defender and spiritual leader and one of few survivors of genocide against the Ixil Maya indigenous people in El Quiché Department