A hitman could come and kill me': the fight for indigenous land rights in Mexico
Jonathan Watts
Sat 21 Jul 2018 01.14 EDT
Not all land defenders fight in remote forests and coastlands. Some take the battle to the centres of power: to courtrooms, parliament buildings and corporate headquarters. The veneer of urban civility may be glossier here, but the struggle is no less dangerous. In some cases, it can be worse.
Isela Gonzalez has been threatened more times than she can remember by university-educated men in suits, whose business interests – in logging, mining, agriculture and narcotics – are challenged by her work as director of Alianza Sierra Madre to protect indigenous land rights in Mexico’s western Sierra Madre.
The warnings have been muttered on steps outside legal hearings, whispered on the phone, or via conversations she has been deliberately allowed to overhear. They are not idle.
The nurse-turned-activist has seen dozens of her fellow campaigners murdered in recent years. Armed guards have been deployed by the state to provide her with 24-hour protection, panic-buttons have been installed in her office, locks have been upgraded in her home, and she and her staff have received crisis training.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/21/nowhere-is-safe-for-mexicos-land-defenders-as-violence-grows
