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Dying to defend the planet: why Latin America
is the deadliest place for environmentalists
February 11, 2017
Defending nature is a dangerous occupation, especially
in Latin America. According to a recent report by Global
Witness, an NGO, 185 environmental activists were murdered
worldwide in 2015, an increase of 59% from the year before.
More than half the killings were in Latin America. In Brazil
50 green campaigners died in 2015. Honduras is especially
dangerous: 123 activists have died there since 2010, the
highest number of any country relative to its population.
Berta Cáceres, an indigenous leader who was a prominent
campaigner against dams and plantations, was murdered
there.
Why is Latin America so deadly? One reason is its abundant
natural resources, which attract enterprises of all sorts, from
multinationals to mafias. When prices are low, as they are
now, the most rapacious do not go away; to maintain their
profits they become more aggressive, says David Kaimowitz
of the Ford Foundation, which gives money to good causes.
New technologies open up new battlefronts. Soya beans bred
to grow in tropical conditions have encouraged farmers to
displace cattle ranchers, who in turn have advanced into the
rainforest. Small prospectors can now extract gold from soil
rather than just hunting around. That opens up new areas for
exploitation, such as San Rafael de Flores in south-eastern
Guatemala, where activists have been murdered.
The odds of finding the criminals are greater if the victim
is foreign. Dorothy Stang, an American nun who fought to
protect the Amazon rainforest, was killed in Brazil 12 years
ago. Both the gunman and a rancher who had hired him
eventually went to jail. But that is an exception.
(https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2017/02/11/
why-latin-america-is-the-deadliest-place-for-environmentalists. Adaptado)
No trecho do primeiro parágrafo – Berta Cáceres, an
indigenous leader who was a prominent campaigner against
dams and plantations, was murdered there –, o termo em
destaque se refere a
