#hitmen — Public Fediverse posts

Gangs Europe Crime How “Agent 47” Turned European Teenagers Into Real-Life Assassins

Crime gangs in Europe are recruiting teenagers through social media to carry out murders for money, according to…
#Europe #EU #European #hitmen #SocialMedia #teenagers
https://www.europesays.com/europe/108083/

For better or worse #CliveDavis had a massive influence on what music Americans heard (and didn't hear) during the glory days of coke and vinyl. It was fun while it lasted. For some, at least. #Music #MusicBusiness #HitMen https://www.billboard.com/pro/clive-davis-death-legendary-music-executive-dead-94/

For better or worse #CliveDavis had a massive influence on what music Americans heard (and didn't hear) during the glory days of coke and vinyl. It was fun while it lasted. For some, at least. #Music #MusicBusiness #HitMen https://www.billboard.com/pro/clive-davis-death-legendary-music-executive-dead-94/

For better or worse #CliveDavis had a massive influence on what music Americans heard (and didn't hear) during the glory days of coke and vinyl. It was fun while it lasted. For some, at least. #Music #MusicBusiness #HitMen https://www.billboard.com/pro/clive-davis-death-legendary-music-executive-dead-94/

For better or worse #CliveDavis had a massive influence on what music Americans heard (and didn't hear) during the glory days of coke and vinyl. It was fun while it lasted. For some, at least. #Music #MusicBusiness #HitMen https://www.billboard.com/pro/clive-davis-death-legendary-music-executive-dead-94/

For better or worse #CliveDavis had a massive influence on what music Americans heard (and didn't hear) during the glory days of coke and vinyl. It was fun while it lasted. For some, at least. #Music #MusicBusiness #HitMen https://www.billboard.com/pro/clive-davis-death-legendary-music-executive-dead-94/

[BROWSER VERSION] #retro #8bit #Hitmen #c64 #commodore64 cracktro. -> https://www.docsnyderspage.com/groups/h/hitmen

Powerplant + HITMEN NOSPRAY X ROTOWN PRESENT

Rotown, Wednesday, May 27 at 09:00 PM GMT+2

Powerplant en HITMEN komen op woensdag 27 mei naar Rotown voor een double bill, georganiseerd door Nospray. Powerplant uit Londen is al lange tijd een gevestigde naam in de synthpunkscene. Verwacht een all-out punkact die duidelijk voortborduurt op het geluid van grootheden als DEVO en The Screamers. HITMEN, ook uit Londen, staat bekend om hun ’90s alternative rock-sound met duidelijke invloeden van Dinosaur Jr. en Built to Spill. Met slechts één uitgebrachte EP op zak heeft de band nu al een indrukwekkende live­reputatie opgebouwd.

Nospray is een Rotterdams DIY collectief met scherp oor richting  de meest opwindende bands van morgen. Compromisloos en punk, in zowel de liefde voor muziek als arbeidsethos, een Nospray line-up geeft net zoveel aandacht aan vernieuwers in de gitaarmuziek als ondergewaardeerde bands uit het verleden. De lokale muziekscene bloeit sneller dan ooit sinds de opkomst van Nospray, en dat is geen toeval.

https://calendar.askapunk.nl/event/powerplant-hitmen-nospray-x-rotown-present

Court hears alleged planning behind 2023 cafe shooting of underworld figure Gavin Preston

Underworld figure Gavin Preston was gunned down in a contract killing by two men who travelled from NSW…
#NewsBeep #News #Australia #abbasmaghnie #AU #contract #Crime #gavinpreston #hitmen #jaedentito #killing #lulu'scafe #organised #rahbiizahabe #underworld
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/606078/

Court hears alleged planning behind 2023 cafe shooting of underworld figure Gavin Preston

Underworld figure Gavin Preston was gunned down in a contract killing by two men who travelled from NSW…
#NewsBeep #News #Australia #abbasmaghnie #AU #contract #Crime #gavinpreston #hitmen #jaedentito #killing #lulu'scafe #organised #rahbiizahabe #underworld
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/606078/

Saturday, April 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/saturday-april-11-2026/

Saturday, April 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/saturday-april-11-2026/

Saturday, April 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/saturday-april-11-2026/

Saturday, April 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/saturday-april-11-2026/

Saturday, April 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/saturday-april-11-2026/

Powerplant + HITMEN NOSPRAY X ROTOWN PRESENT

Rotown, Wednesday, May 27 at 09:00 PM GMT+2

Powerplant en HITMEN komen op woensdag 27 mei naar Rotown voor een double bill, georganiseerd door Nospray. Powerplant uit Londen is al lange tijd een gevestigde naam in de synthpunkscene. Verwacht een all-out punkact die duidelijk voortborduurt op het geluid van grootheden als DEVO en The Screamers. HITMEN, ook uit Londen, staat bekend om hun ’90s alternative rock-sound met duidelijke invloeden van Dinosaur Jr. en Built to Spill. Met slechts één uitgebrachte EP op zak heeft de band nu al een indrukwekkende live­reputatie opgebouwd.

Nospray is een Rotterdams DIY collectief met scherp oor richting  de meest opwindende bands van morgen. Compromisloos en punk, in zowel de liefde voor muziek als arbeidsethos, een Nospray line-up geeft net zoveel aandacht aan vernieuwers in de gitaarmuziek als ondergewaardeerde bands uit het verleden. De lokale muziekscene bloeit sneller dan ooit sinds de opkomst van Nospray, en dat is geen toeval.

https://calendar.askapunk.nl/event/powerplant-hitmen-nospray-x-rotown-present

Powerplant + HITMEN NOSPRAY X ROTOWN PRESENT

Rotown, Wednesday, May 27 at 09:00 PM GMT+2

Powerplant en HITMEN komen op woensdag 27 mei naar Rotown voor een double bill, georganiseerd door Nospray. Powerplant uit Londen is al lange tijd een gevestigde naam in de synthpunkscene. Verwacht een all-out punkact die duidelijk voortborduurt op het geluid van grootheden als DEVO en The Screamers. HITMEN, ook uit Londen, staat bekend om hun ’90s alternative rock-sound met duidelijke invloeden van Dinosaur Jr. en Built to Spill. Met slechts één uitgebrachte EP op zak heeft de band nu al een indrukwekkende live­reputatie opgebouwd.

Nospray is een Rotterdams DIY collectief met scherp oor richting  de meest opwindende bands van morgen. Compromisloos en punk, in zowel de liefde voor muziek als arbeidsethos, een Nospray line-up geeft net zoveel aandacht aan vernieuwers in de gitaarmuziek als ondergewaardeerde bands uit het verleden. De lokale muziekscene bloeit sneller dan ooit sinds de opkomst van Nospray, en dat is geen toeval.

https://calendar.askapunk.nl/event/powerplant-hitmen-nospray-x-rotown-present

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Hip Hop - source: Discogs (/release/1097718-Mary-J-Blige-Love-Life)
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/track/3193855331 | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU | SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-hitmen-official/all-my-life
#HipHop #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #EDM #Playlist #Electronic #The #Hitmen #All

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Hip Hop - source: Discogs (/release/1097718-Mary-J-Blige-Love-Life)
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/track/3193855331 | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU | SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-hitmen-official/all-my-life
#HipHop #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #EDM #Playlist #Electronic #The #Hitmen #All

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Hip Hop - source: Discogs (/release/1097718-Mary-J-Blige-Love-Life)
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/track/3193855331 | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU | SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-hitmen-official/all-my-life
#HipHop #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #EDM #Playlist #Electronic #The #Hitmen #All

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Hip Hop - source: Discogs (/release/1097718-Mary-J-Blige-Love-Life)
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/track/3193855331 | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU | SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-hitmen-official/all-my-life
#HipHop #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #EDM #Playlist #Electronic #The #Hitmen #All

HITMEN
It Is What It Is
1982 Australia pressing

From Scotland to Australia.
We’re definitely globetrotting today.

An excellent high-energy #rockandroll album by Sydney’s own Hitmen, a band with a connection to Radio Birdman (lead singer Johnny Kannis sang backup).

I bought this on a random whim, because I’d never heard of it or seen it before. I saw the cool cover, and took the plunge.
These are cool songs, with gnarly guitar and cool hooks. I can almost hear Bon Scott singing some of these.

Also, I love that Australian RCA logo on the label. Pretty sweet.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #australia #hitmen #1980s #80s #80sMusic

HITMEN
It Is What It Is
1982 Australia pressing

From Scotland to Australia.
We’re definitely globetrotting today.

An excellent high-energy #rockandroll album by Sydney’s own Hitmen, a band with a connection to Radio Birdman (lead singer Johnny Kannis sang backup).

I bought this on a random whim, because I’d never heard of it or seen it before. I saw the cool cover, and took the plunge.
These are cool songs, with gnarly guitar and cool hooks. I can almost hear Bon Scott singing some of these.

Also, I love that Australian RCA logo on the label. Pretty sweet.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #australia #hitmen #1980s #80s #80sMusic

HITMEN
It Is What It Is
1982 Australia pressing

From Scotland to Australia.
We’re definitely globetrotting today.

An excellent high-energy #rockandroll album by Sydney’s own Hitmen, a band with a connection to Radio Birdman (lead singer Johnny Kannis sang backup).

I bought this on a random whim, because I’d never heard of it or seen it before. I saw the cool cover, and took the plunge.
These are cool songs, with gnarly guitar and cool hooks. I can almost hear Bon Scott singing some of these.

Also, I love that Australian RCA logo on the label. Pretty sweet.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #australia #hitmen #1980s #80s #80sMusic

HITMEN
It Is What It Is
1982 Australia pressing

From Scotland to Australia.
We’re definitely globetrotting today.

An excellent high-energy #rockandroll album by Sydney’s own Hitmen, a band with a connection to Radio Birdman (lead singer Johnny Kannis sang backup).

I bought this on a random whim, because I’d never heard of it or seen it before. I saw the cool cover, and took the plunge.
These are cool songs, with gnarly guitar and cool hooks. I can almost hear Bon Scott singing some of these.

Also, I love that Australian RCA logo on the label. Pretty sweet.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #australia #hitmen #1980s #80s #80sMusic

HITMEN
It Is What It Is
1982 Australia pressing

From Scotland to Australia.
We’re definitely globetrotting today.

An excellent high-energy #rockandroll album by Sydney’s own Hitmen, a band with a connection to Radio Birdman (lead singer Johnny Kannis sang backup).

I bought this on a random whim, because I’d never heard of it or seen it before. I saw the cool cover, and took the plunge.
These are cool songs, with gnarly guitar and cool hooks. I can almost hear Bon Scott singing some of these.

Also, I love that Australian RCA logo on the label. Pretty sweet.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #australia #hitmen #1980s #80s #80sMusic

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Dance
[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU) | [SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds)
#Dance #Music #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #TranceFamily #EDM #NewMusic #NowPlaying #Playlist #Electronic #Blind #Accessibility #Bot #The #Hitmen #All #Life

Artist: The Hitmen
Title: All My Life
Genre: Dance
[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=algSUVHP3WU) | [SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds)
#Dance #Music #Deezer #SoundCloud #YouTube #TranceFamily #EDM #NewMusic #NowPlaying #Playlist #Electronic #Blind #Accessibility #Bot #The #Hitmen #All #Life

Oh snap Kitty Thomas is apparently going on an unwanted break, buy her book y'all. Ruthless Devotion is the only book I've read recently that I wished was longer. Read Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits while you're at it to see Aidan growing up with those chaos butterflies flitting around him. #books #hitmen

Oh snap Kitty Thomas is apparently going on an unwanted break, buy her book y'all. Ruthless Devotion is the only book I've read recently that I wished was longer. Read Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits while you're at it to see Aidan growing up with those chaos butterflies flitting around him. #books #hitmen

Oh snap Kitty Thomas is apparently going on an unwanted break, buy her book y'all. Ruthless Devotion is the only book I've read recently that I wished was longer. Read Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits while you're at it to see Aidan growing up with those chaos butterflies flitting around him. #books #hitmen

Oh snap Kitty Thomas is apparently going on an unwanted break, buy her book y'all. Ruthless Devotion is the only book I've read recently that I wished was longer. Read Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits while you're at it to see Aidan growing up with those chaos butterflies flitting around him. #books #hitmen

Oh snap Kitty Thomas is apparently going on an unwanted break, buy her book y'all. Ruthless Devotion is the only book I've read recently that I wished was longer. Read Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits while you're at it to see Aidan growing up with those chaos butterflies flitting around him. #books #hitmen

tonight!

kicking off the weekend with Hitmen, Self Immolation Music, Mother Nature, The Apparition & Video Evidence

#FridayNight #BoomLeeds #Hitmen #SelfImmolationMusic #MotherNature #TheApparition #VideoEvidence #BrainRotterRecords #Music 🎧

tonight!

kicking off the weekend with Hitmen, Self Immolation Music, Mother Nature, The Apparition & Video Evidence

#FridayNight #BoomLeeds #Hitmen #SelfImmolationMusic #MotherNature #TheApparition #VideoEvidence #BrainRotterRecords #Music 🎧

tonight!

kicking off the weekend with Hitmen, Self Immolation Music, Mother Nature, The Apparition & Video Evidence

#FridayNight #BoomLeeds #Hitmen #SelfImmolationMusic #MotherNature #TheApparition #VideoEvidence #BrainRotterRecords #Music 🎧

tonight!

kicking off the weekend with Hitmen, Self Immolation Music, Mother Nature, The Apparition & Video Evidence

#FridayNight #BoomLeeds #Hitmen #SelfImmolationMusic #MotherNature #TheApparition #VideoEvidence #BrainRotterRecords #Music 🎧

Watch: Inside the FBI’s #Secret Phone Company

In 2018, a secure communications app called #Anom started to gain popularity among organized criminals. Soon, top tier drug #traffickers were using it all over the world. Because they thought their messages were secure, #smugglers and #hitmen coordinated high stakes crimes across the platform. But Anom had a secret: it was secretly run by the #FBI.
#privacy #security

https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/

Watch: Inside the FBI’s #Secret Phone Company

In 2018, a secure communications app called #Anom started to gain popularity among organized criminals. Soon, top tier drug #traffickers were using it all over the world. Because they thought their messages were secure, #smugglers and #hitmen coordinated high stakes crimes across the platform. But Anom had a secret: it was secretly run by the #FBI.
#privacy #security

https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/

Watch: Inside the FBI’s #Secret Phone Company

In 2018, a secure communications app called #Anom started to gain popularity among organized criminals. Soon, top tier drug #traffickers were using it all over the world. Because they thought their messages were secure, #smugglers and #hitmen coordinated high stakes crimes across the platform. But Anom had a secret: it was secretly run by the #FBI.
#privacy #security

https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/

Watch: Inside the FBI’s #Secret Phone Company

In 2018, a secure communications app called #Anom started to gain popularity among organized criminals. Soon, top tier drug #traffickers were using it all over the world. Because they thought their messages were secure, #smugglers and #hitmen coordinated high stakes crimes across the platform. But Anom had a secret: it was secretly run by the #FBI.
#privacy #security

https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/

Watch: Inside the FBI’s #Secret Phone Company

In 2018, a secure communications app called #Anom started to gain popularity among organized criminals. Soon, top tier drug #traffickers were using it all over the world. Because they thought their messages were secure, #smugglers and #hitmen coordinated high stakes crimes across the platform. But Anom had a secret: it was secretly run by the #FBI.
#privacy #security

https://www.404media.co/watch-inside-the-fbis-secret-phone-company/

Barter of Russians in prison for prisoners in Russia--Redemption of Captives #EconTwitter #barter #diplomats #hitmen #prisons
http://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2024/08/barter-of-russians-in-prison-for.html

Barter of Russians in prison for prisoners in Russia--Redemption of Captives #EconTwitter #barter #diplomats #hitmen #prisons
http://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2024/08/barter-of-russians-in-prison-for.html

http://bit.ly/3IPKxP2
Big #Charlatans of #Science are not very different from #KingPins of Mexican #Drug cartels or #HitMen
Behind these scientific frauds there are large amounts of money in #ScholarShips,donations that are used to buy luxurious villas while people assume what is simple #Fraud as #Truth

http://bit.ly/3IPKxP2
Big #Charlatans of #Science are not very different from #KingPins of Mexican #Drug cartels or #HitMen
Behind these scientific frauds there are large amounts of money in #ScholarShips,donations that are used to buy luxurious villas while people assume what is simple #Fraud as #Truth

#Iranian charged w/ hiring #Canadian #hitmen to kill exiles in #Maryland

The Justice Department charged one Iranian and two Canadian nationals for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot against two Maryland residents, acc/to newly unsealed court documents.

#law #FBI #DOJ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/maryland-murder-for-hire-iran-canada/

#Iranian charged w/ hiring #Canadian #hitmen to kill exiles in #Maryland

The Justice Department charged one Iranian and two Canadian nationals for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot against two Maryland residents, acc/to newly unsealed court documents.

#law #FBI #DOJ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/maryland-murder-for-hire-iran-canada/

#Iranian charged w/ hiring #Canadian #hitmen to kill exiles in #Maryland

The Justice Department charged one Iranian and two Canadian nationals for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot against two Maryland residents, acc/to newly unsealed court documents.

#law #FBI #DOJ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/maryland-murder-for-hire-iran-canada/

#Iranian charged w/ hiring #Canadian #hitmen to kill exiles in #Maryland

The Justice Department charged one Iranian and two Canadian nationals for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot against two Maryland residents, acc/to newly unsealed court documents.

#law #FBI #DOJ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/maryland-murder-for-hire-iran-canada/

#Iranian charged w/ hiring #Canadian #hitmen to kill exiles in #Maryland

The Justice Department charged one Iranian and two Canadian nationals for their alleged roles in a murder-for-hire plot against two Maryland residents, acc/to newly unsealed court documents.

#law #FBI #DOJ
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/maryland-murder-for-hire-iran-canada/

Character of the Day: Fran
The LezWatch.TV character of the day is Fran from Hitmen - #LWTVcotD #Hitmen - https://lezwatchtv.com/character/fran-3/

Character of the Day: Fran
The LezWatch.TV character of the day is Fran from Hitmen - #LWTVcotD #Hitmen - https://lezwatchtv.com/character/fran-3/

Character of the Day: Fran
The LezWatch.TV character of the day is Fran from Hitmen - #LWTVcotD #Hitmen - https://lezwatchtv.com/character/fran-3/

Character of the Day: Fran
The LezWatch.TV character of the day is Fran from Hitmen - #LWTVcotD #Hitmen - https://lezwatchtv.com/character/fran-3/

#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies

In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.

By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023

"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.

"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.

"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.

"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.

"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.

"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.

"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence

"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.

"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.

"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.

"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage.

"The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.

"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes

"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.

"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.

"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.

"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.

"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.

"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."

Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism

#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists

#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies

In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.

By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023

"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.

"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.

"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.

"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.

"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.

"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.

"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence

"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.

"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.

"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.

"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage.

"The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.

"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes

"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.

"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.

"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.

"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.

"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.

"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."

Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism

#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists

#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies

In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.

By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023

"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.

"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.

"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.

"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.

"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.

"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.

"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence

"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.

"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.

"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.

"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage.

"The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.

"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes

"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.

"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.

"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.

"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.

"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.

"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."

Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism

#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists

#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies

In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.

By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023

"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.

"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.

"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.

"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.

"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.

"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.

"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence

"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.

"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.

"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.

"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage.

"The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.

"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes

"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.

"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.

"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.

"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.

"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.

"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."

Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism

#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists

#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies

In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.

By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023

"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.

"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.

"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.

"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.

"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.

"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.

"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence

"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.

"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.

"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.

"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage.

"The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.

"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes

"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.

"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.

"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.

"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.

"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.

"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."

Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism

#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists