Chiapas: Environmentalist Nora Lopez Murdered in Palenque

Nora

On August 21st, Nora Patricia Lopez Leon’s body was found in a room at the TYC Camping hostel in Palenque. Environmentalist and responsible for the red macaw project AT Aluxes ecopark, owned by former Chiapas Governor Patrocinio Gonzalez Garrido (father of the first Secretary of the Environment of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government, Josefa Gonzalez), had at least four knife wounds.

Last June, environmentalist Jose Luis Alvarez Flores, from the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco, in charge of the Environmental Management Unit (EMU) of Mono Saraguato, was killed in that area, his killers having left a message with threats to his family. In January, the human rights defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca was also murdered, who was part of the Citizen Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and worked in defense of the right to water. There have also been intimidations, threats and kidnappings against environmentalists in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chilon and San Cristobal de Las Casas

“It is of utmost concern, the vulnerability and the high risk faced by those who defend natural resources, the environment and territory,” said the Collective Education for Peace and Human Rights A.C. (CEPAZ in its Spanish acronym) before asking to stop the criminalization of this sector.

Given this new murder, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMANAT in its Spanish acronym) said that the environmental sector mourns this event.

For its part, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE in its Spanish acronym) reported that the Office of Homicide and Femicide took on the case, to continue the investigation of femicide against those who are responsible.

For more information in Spanish:

Asesinan en Palenque, Chiapas, a la ambientalista Nora López (La Jornada, 22 de agosto de 2019)

Fiscalía de Chiapas Investiga feminicidio de bióloga en un hostal de Palenque (Proceso, 22 de agosto de 2019)

Asesinan a la ambientalista Nora Patricia López en Palenque, Chiapas (Animal Político, 22 de agosto de 2019)

Organizaciones ambientalistas condenan el asesinato de Nora Patricia López (CNN México, 22 de agosto de 2019)

Ser ambientalista, un riesgo latente (Cuarto Poder, 23 de agosto de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas/Tabasco: Ecologist Jose Luis Alvarez Flores Murdered (June 17, 2019)

Chiapas: denunciation of criminalization against environmental activists in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (January 4, 2019)

National: 21 Environmental Defenders Murdered in 2018 (CEMDA) (April 1, 2019)

Chiapas: Two Members of Movement for Welfare, Peace and Common Good of Amatan and Independent Revolutionary Campesino Movement Murdered (January 28, 2019)

Chiapas: Human Rights Defender Sinar Corzo Esquinca Murdered (January 14, 2019)