Violence against activists in Mexico and Colombia

Social activists and community leaders in Mexico and Colombia are facing targeted violence, including death threats and armed attacks. In Mexico, avocado entrepreneur Luis Manuel Soto Sanabria reported receiving a death threat and a funeral wreath, noting that authorities have failed to provide adequate protection and that his foundation’s operations have been reduced by 80 percent. In Colombia, community leader Sergio Andrés ‘Supermán’ Olaya Silva was shot in the abdomen during an attack he attributes to political disputes.

In response to ongoing aggression, civil society organizations in Mexico have launched the Peninsular Observatory for Freedom of Expression and Protest in Yucatán to document censorship and the criminalization of journalists and activists. Meanwhile, human rights group ARTICLE 19 is seeking justice for environmental communicator Erik Eduardo Saracho Aguilar, who faced an attempted assassination and subsequent systematic harassment, including judicial intimidation and frozen bank accounts, following his reports on illegal land occupation.