What are the five most dangerous countries to be an environmental defender in Latin America?
Nicole Andrea Vargas
Defending the environment and human rights are high-risk tasks in Latin America, which in 2024 alone recorded 257 violent deaths—80% of the global total—demonstrating that it is the most dangerous region for protecting the planet.
These data are part of the global analysis report by the NGO Front Line Defenders (FLD) that has highlighted on the map the five most dangerous Ibero-American countries for carrying out this type of work: Colombia (with 157 victims), Mexico (32), Guatemala (29), Brazil (15) and Peru (9).
Armed conflicts and extractive activities are some of the causes behind these cases, but the lack of state protection and the "dismantling of environmental legislation" by the respective governments are "the main causes of the increase in this violence," Julia Lima, spokesperson for FLD, explains to EFE.
The problem has worsened since 2023, when 196 people were murdered worldwide, 166 of whom were in Latin American countries, according to the annual report by the NGO Global Witness (GW).
And in the first half of 2025, "the situation continues to worsen," according to Lima, with an "increasing trend toward criminalization" of defenders that "exhausts victims and deepens impunity."
Colombia, in the leadThe Somos Defensores (We Are Defenders) Program, which compiles the cases used by these organizations to compile their annual reports, recorded at least 39 murders in Colombia in the first quarter of the year. According to one of its spokespersons, Juan Manuel Quinche, "a country that has had a very violent history," first with the emergence of "guerrilla and paramilitary groups, and then with those resulting from the demobilization process."
Less than 15% of the murders of defenders are resolved with a court ruling, Quinche asserts, which "perpetuates violence" and has "serious consequences" for other land protectors, particularly in areas where "the State is not present," given the country's "strategic" location, which connects the Andes, the Amazon, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which "favors the presence of illegal transnational armed actors."
Mexico, "systemic racism"In Mexico, the FLD denounces "systemic racism that permeates the criminal justice system" and affects Indigenous defenders with "arbitrary arrests" and prison sentences so severe they are considered "informal life sentences."
This "limits their right to defend their collective interests and rights," such as the protection of their natural spaces, and exposes them to "all kinds of violations."
With a population of 18 million, Guatemala ranks tenth in Latin America, but third in violence against human rights defenders globally, with 29 murders.
The rise in violence against environmentalists is "extreme" in Central America, according to GW, considering that, "in a region with less than 1% of the world's population, 36 defenders were murdered" in 2023 alone: "One in five homicides" worldwide.
The Amazon in the backgroundArmed militias, "often composed of landowners and local rural groups," are blamed by the FLD for the rise in violence in Brazil, particularly against Indigenous peoples.
The Brazilian government's "lack of compliance" with protection mechanisms also contributes to the increase in cases, Lima complains.
Peru covers a significant portion of the Amazon (12%), second only to Brazil (60%), and this territory has been a center of illicit activities such as illegal mining and drug trafficking for years, which has led to an increase in attacks on communities defending their territory.
"The lack of state oversight and corruption have exacerbated the situation," asserts Lima, who points out the link between deforestation cases and private companies whose owners are part of the government itself.
The Escazú Agreement—a regional treaty that entered into force in 2021 after being approved in Costa Rica in 2018 with the aim of, among other things, guaranteeing protection for environmental leaders in the area—has failed to reduce violence in the region.
While, Lima acknowledges, it "sets a precedent in environmental protection," its implementation "is complex due to the lack of state support from the signatory countries," which are charged with "protecting communities" from their aggressors.
Furthermore, it does not include journalists in the category of environmental defenders, a point of debate considering that 44 environmental journalists have been murdered in the last 15 years, according to a UNESCO study.
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