Goldman Prize winner shot to death in Mexico

A leader of the Tarahumara people who live among the jagged peaks of the western Sierra Madre, Baldenegro defended the area’s old-growth forests against powerful local strongmen allied with drug traffickers and loggers.

“Unfortunately, too many governments are failing to create safe spaces where people can voice their dissent and organize movements free of persecution and violent attacks,” she said in a statement.

The death of Baldenegro, coming so soon after Caceres’ murder, highlights the danger faced by environmental defenders in Latin America, where mining, energy, agribusiness and logging interests have generated violent conflict with local communities.

Threats had forced the younger Baldenegro, 51, to leave his community in the remote southern part of Chihuahua state, said Isela Gonzalez, the director of Alianza Sierra Madre, an organization that works with the Tarahumara to defend their land rights.

Baldenegro won the Goldman Prize in 2005, the year after he was released from prison, where he had spent 15 months on weapons and drug charges that were eventually thrown out.

In 1993, Baldenegro formed an advocacy group and began organizing sit-ins and marches to force the government to suspend logging licenses, according to the Goldman Prize.

Almost three-quarters of the known deaths of environmental activists worldwide occurred in Central and South America, according to a report by the organization Global Witness, which analyzed 116 killings in 2014.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, the Americas director at Amnesty International, called the killing of Baldenegro “a tragic illustration of the many dangers faced by those who dedicate their lives to defend human rights in Latin America, one of the most dangerous regions in the world for activists.”