“Mexican activist shot dead before vote on pipeline he opposed”, 20 of February 2019

…A Mexican environmental activist has been murdered before a referendum on a controversial thermal-electric plant and pipeline that he opposed. Samir Flores Soberanes, an indigenous Náhuatl, was killed in his home during the early hours of Wednesday in the town of Amilcingo in Morelos state…He was a human rights activist, producer for a community radio station and long-time opponent of the Proyecto Integral Morelos (the integral project for Morelos) – which includes the plant and pipeline. Mexican media reported that Flores had been shot twice in the head by unknown assailants. The Morelos state prosecutor, Uriel Carmona, said the murder had nothing to do with the thermal-electric plant and investigators were probing links to organised crime. The People’s Front in Defence of the Land and Water for the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala (FPDTA) said in a statement that Flores had no enemies besides those behind the project. “This is a political crime for the human rights defence that Samir and the FPDTA carried out against the [project] and for people’s autonomy and self-determination,” the statement said…There will be a referendum on the project in the three states this weekend…The president condemned Flores’s murder but said the referendum would proceed as planned…