Another Indigenous activist has reportedly been killed this week in Honduras. Cerros Escalante was an anti-dam activist and part of the Honduras’ Lenca Indigenous community. Escalante is yet another example of the danger of being an Indigenous organizer taking on big companies and governments over the destruction of Indigenous lands.

Each year there are record numbers of Indigenous and environmental activists killed around the world. 

The most famous case was Berta Cáceres, a Honduran environmental activist and winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, who was shot dead in 2016 over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam.

According to the rights group Global Witness, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental activists, with at least 120 killed between 2010 and 2017.

While these reports highlight the routine murder of activists who oppose extractive industries driving the climate crisis and the destruction of nature, it is not enough unless those responsible are brought to justice. 

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth Show, this is Theresa Church from Global Justice Ecology Project.