Environmental groups will gather Wednesday outside Costa Rica’s Consulate in Los Angeles, California, to demand justice in the murder case of Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26-year-old turtle conservationist who was found dead on Caribbean’s Moín Beach on May 31.
Conservation groups around the world are calling for the arrest and conviction of Mora’s assailants, and in California, demonstrators will deliver a petition with 137,000 signatures of people from 150 countries calling for justice.
Similar actions are taking place in Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, El Salvador, Ecuador, India and Australia, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Todd Steiner, executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Peter Galvin, director of programs for the Center for Biological Diversity, will meet with Costa Rican officials in Los Angeles at 12:30 p.m. to deliver the petition.
In Costa Rica, environmentalists from various groups also will gather at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Environment Ministry (MINAE) in downtown San José, and then will march to the Judicial Investigation Police facilities.
Demonstrators also will circulate a petition that currently has more than 150,000 signatures asking for transparency in the formation of protected areas and the protection of those who care for them. A similar protest took place June 3, when hundreds of people also held a peace vigil in front of MINAE.
Costa Rica’s chief prosecutor, Jorge Chavarría, earlier this month said that the investigation “is advancing significantly,” and a spokeswoman for Chavarría’s office confirmed that investigators have identified two suspects in the case, but she would not offer specifics at the time.
Wednesday marks two months since Mora’s death and no arrests have been made related to the case.
