The past few years have seen a worrying rise in the number of threats, attacks, and killings of activists fighting to defend the right to protect the environment and the Earth’s resources. Latin America is one of the worst hot spots: over 60% of attacks against activists in 2017 were recorded for five countries: Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Defending forests, mountains, woodlands, and rivers has never been so dangerous. The victims are native populations that demand access to their ancestral lands or to be consulted about the use of the land and its resources; they are farm communities that risk expropriation, impoverishment, and pollution from the infrastructure projects or exploitation of natural resources by hydroelectric or mining companies; the communities are fighting to remain on lands held by large landowners or agribusinesses. In their battle, they come up against the economic interests of multinationals and governments, infiltrated by criminal organizations for control of the area. Exploitation of natural resources, corruption, conflicts, and destruction of the environment are all linked by violence and violation of human rights.
The short documentary Protección comunitaria. Experiencias desde la defensa del territorio presents a focus on Mexico, where many rural communities remain either ignored or often criminalized, under threat of their lives and their integrity.
Amnesty International supports these activists through actions and appeals, urging governments to protect them, adopt the measures needed to ensure their protection and to stop further attacks on them, because defending the environment and one’s land should not be a death sentence.
Protección comunitaria. Experiencias desde la defensa del territorio
Comunity Protection. Experiences of the defense of the land
Realized by Aluna Acompañamiento Psicosocial A.C. e Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz A.C. (SERAPAZ), Mexico 2019, 19’12”
Accounts of resistance by people in Mexico who, despite the repression, devote their lives to defending the land against the installation of large-scale projects that bring death and destruction. The associations Aluna Acompañamiento Psicosocial and SERAPAZ deal with the effects of political and economic violence toward victims whose human rights have been violated, providing, respectively, psychological and social support and services and initiatives for peace, justice, and dignity
Speakers
Amnesty International
Peace Brigades International
