Latin America Most Dangerous Place for Environmentalists, the UN Says Simeon Tegel - GlobalPost
go to original September 2, 2013

... A quarter century after the shooting of Brazilian rubber-tapper and Amazon conservationist Chico Mendes sparked international outrage, it’s still almost routine for environmentalists across Latin America to pay for their activism with their lives.

Although there are no definitive statistics, the United Nations has warned that no region in the world experiences as much violence against green campaigners as Latin America.

“Defenders working on land and environmental issues are also highly exposed to attacks ... and many are killed because of their work on the environmental impact of extractive industries and development projects, or the right to land of indigenous peoples and minorities,” the UN’s human rights special rapporteur wrote in one recent report. “The Americas seems to be the region where these defenders are most at risk.”

Recent slayings include the early August killing of Noe Vazquez, in Veracruz in western Mexico, who had been campaigning against the construction of a hydroelectric dam that green groups claim would affect the water supply to local communities.

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