Most of the media spotlight on Mexico’s mounting toll of narco-murders is focused on high-profile massacres such as that of the 43 ‘disappeared’ student teachers in Guerrero State, or on unfortunate tourists who get caught in the crossfire. A recent example of the latter occurred in January, when five bystanders were gunned down in a bar at a large international electronic music festival in the usually peaceful Playa del Carmen on the Yucatan Peninsula. What often flies below the radar, however, is the systematic murder of activists – particularly environmentalists – that usually takes place in isolated circumstances. Those who arrange and pay for the deed invariably escape justice.
The killing, also in January, of Goldman Prize-winner Isidro Baldenegro López, a Mexican indigenous activist who fought to protect ancient forests from illegal logging in his native Sierra Madre region of Chihuahua State, is a case in point. Baldenegro, 51, was gunned down on a visit to his uncle in a remote area of southern Chihuahua. He had previously fled his community following death threats connected to his stubborn environmental campaigning activities. Back in the 1980s, his father was assassinated for his opposition to the same logging threat. Four other activists have been murdered in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo in the past year.
