We must honour lost land defenders by fighting the system which killed them

As the Guardian and Global Witness revealed that almost four environmental defenders were murdered every week in 2017, War on Want learned of two more killings through our Latin American partner organisations.

On 24 January, Márcio “Marcinho” Matos, involved in the fight for rights of landless peasants in Bahia in north-east Brazil, was shot in front of his son. Three days later, Temístocles “don Temis” Machado, a prominent figure in the struggle of Afro-Colombian communities across the Colombian Pacific, was murdered in his home in the Isla de Paz community.

Machado, of the Black Communities’ Process (PCN) and Matos of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) were tireless land defenders

These killings are designed to silence and break the frontlines of the struggles against corporate power, catastrophic climate change and the unlimited extraction of the world’s natural resources. The violent tactics aim to bypass local communities whose lives and livelihoods stand in the way of corporations looking to profit from exporting primary materials for global markets, whatever the human and environmental cost.


Source : theguardian