About 200 human rights defenders were murdered in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras between 2012 and 2023, according to a report released this Monday by a network of activists. Leaders of the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders presented in Tegucigalpa the report “Data that hurts us, networks that save us. 10+ years of aggressions” between 2012-2023, which attributes these crimes to a “colonial heritage” of “structural oppressions.”
“In more than a decade, 200 defenders (…) have been murdered, but there were 228 more attempted murders,” said Mexican activist Lidya Alpízar during the presentation of the 119-page report. Compiled with data from each of the five countries since 2012, when the network was formed, the report records 35,077 aggressions against 8,926 defenders and 953 organizations.
The report cites the case of renowned Honduran indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres, murdered in March 2016. According to the network, her crime led to “a substantial increase in aggressions against Garifuna, Lenca, and peasant women defenders who oppose megaprojects and defend their territory.”
45% of the aggressions were perpetrated by “actors linked to the State,” such as police, military, and municipal or regional authorities. Another 5.3% were perpetrated by people linked to extractivist or mining companies and consisted of “harassment, smear campaigns, threats, and psychological and verbal violence” and in some cases “criminalization.”
Cruz explained that the network’s “articulation” has allowed for the protection of about 8,000 women who have received threats in the five countries during that period. Protection in many cases has been through “forced displacement” or “political asylum,” she added.
