A Deadly Year for Latin America’s Environmentalists

According to a report released last week, 2020 was the deadliest year on record for environmental and land rights activists around the world. The human rights organization Global Witness recorded 227 killings of such activists a tally which it said was almost certainly an undercount. 

As the report makes clear, the victims were most often killed while resisting the activities of extractive industries on their land: logging, mining, the clearing of forests for agribusiness and other environmentally destructive activities that fuel the climate crisis. Of the confirmed lethal attacks, the highest number was recorded in Colombia, and nearly three-fourths of the incidents documented in the report took place in Latin America.

Today on Trend Lines, Gimena Sánchez, director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, joins WPR’s Elliot Waldman to talk about what’s driving this violence and what can be done about it. For more on the struggles of environmental and Indigenous rights activists and the challenges they face in Colombia, check out WOLA’s podcast, “With Leaders There Are Peace.”

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to [email protected].

Relevant Articles on WPR:

• Colombia’s Shaky Peace Deal Needs Biden’s Support  

• Underlying Colombia’s Protests, ‘an Astonishing Level of Inequality’  

• ‘In Many Ways, the Conflict Never Ended.’ Ongoing Violence Threatens Colombia’s Peace  

• Colombia’s Duque is Presiding Over a ‘Massive Backpedaling’ on Indigenous Rights

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at [email protected].