Americas - HRD killing
Wednesday 18.5.2022 Honduras - Latest Developments -
Honduras: Lenca and Garífuna leaders killed within two days
On 30th April 2022, human rights defender and Lenca Indigenous leader Justo Benítez Sánchez was shot and killed at his home in the San Isidro community, Santa Bárbara department. He was a renowned leader who defended land and water rights and had a key role in the resistance against a mining project that would affect the Gualcarque River. Separately, on 1st May 2022, Garífuna leader Alonso Salgado was killed in an attack at the house of another Garífuna leader, Zury Quintanilla, in Rio Tinto. Read more
Tuesday 17.5.2022 Colombia - Latest Developments -
Colombia: attacks on HRDs and journalists amid increasing violence
According to data from the Observatory of Human Rights, Conflict and Peace of the Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz (Institute for Development and Peace Studies - INDEPAZ), 64 social leaders and human rights defenders were killed between the beginning of 2022 and 19th April 2022. Read more | Read in Spanish
Tuesday 26.4.2022 Brazil - Latest Developments -
Brazil: shocking violence on HRDs and journalists continues
On 10th February 2022, nine-year-old Jonatas de Oliveira dos Santos was shot and killed in an attack in Engenho Roncadorzinho, a community in the town of Barreiros, Pernambuco state. According to the local police, the boy was killed in retaliation against his father, Geovane da Silva Santos, a community leader and president of the local smallholder farmers’ association. Read more
Tuesday 12.4.2022 Peru - Latest Developments -
Peru: protests over price rises and violence against human rights defenders
On 3rd December 2021, Indigenous Asháninka leader Lucio Pascual Yumanga was found dead with gunshot wounds in the Puerto Bermúdez district, Pasco department. Rising fuel, fertilizer and food costs led transport workers to call for a strike in late March 2022, in protests that soon spread throughout Peru. Read more | Read in Spanish
Wednesday 30.3.2022 Ecuador - Latest Developments -
Ecuador: Amnesty granted to 268 rights defenders and protesters
On 11th March 2022, the National Assembly approved a bill granting amnesty to 268 people who faced prosecution for their defence of land, Indigenous and environmental rights, and for their involvement in 2019 protests. The bill was approved by the plenary of the National Assembly with 99 favourable votes out of the 125 parliamentarians in attendance. Read more | Read in Spanish
Wednesday 2.3.2022 Colombia - Latest Developments -
Colombia: surveillance of civil society and detention of protest leaders
2022 began with astounding violence in the north-eastern department of Arauca along the Colombia-Venezuela border. Over 60 homicides were recorded in the region in January 2022, attributed to the escalating dispute over narcotrafficking routes between armed groups ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) and dissidents of the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). Read more
Friday 21.1.2022 Honduras - Latest Developments -
Honduras: Two human rights defenders, Pablo Isabel Hernández Rivera and Thalía Rodríguez, killed
Trans human rights defender Thalía Rodríguez was murdered in her house in Tegucigalpa on 10th January 2022. According to Reportar Sin Miedo, two assailants entered her home and shot her multiple times. Read more | Read in Spanish
Tuesday 18.1.2022 Brazil - Latest Developments -
Brazil: environmental and land defenders killed, journalists attacked and pandemic data blackout
In early January 2022, three environmental defenders of the same family were found dead in São Felix do Xingu, south of the state of Pará. José Gomes, known as Zé do Lago, Márcia Nunes Lisboa and their teenage daughter Joene Nunes Lisboa were executed with multiple gunshots and their bodies were found near their home. Read more
Friday 1.10.2021 Colombia - Latest Developments -
Colombia: four months since the beginning of National Strike
As previously reported on the CIVICUS Monitor, at the end of April 2021, a tax reform bill sparked nationwide anti-government protests in Colombia. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 68 people had died during the protests by the beginning of June. Over a thousand were injured and detained, and hundreds were reported missing. Read more | Read in Spanish
Wednesday 29.9.2021 Guatemala - Latest Developments -
Guatemalan civic space continues to shrink during Giammattei’s government
On 23rd July 2021, Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras removed the country’s lead anti-corruption prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval, from his position as head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (FECI). Read more | Read in Spanish
