On May 17, 2018, Luis Armando Maldonado, a member of the Social Pastoral of the Earth, was assassinated in Quetzaltenango. The event occurred in Huehuetenango, where he had participated in the formation of the Manos Campesinas organization. Two individuals on a motorcycle shot him to death. In Huehuetenango near the border with Mexico, Chuj, Q’anjob’al, Akateco, and Mestizo communities live in isolation from basic state services such as education, medical services, and electricity. Many indigenous defenders in the region are opposing construction of three controversial hydroelectric projects, Pojom I, Pojom II, and San Andres. In the second part of 2018, UN human rights experts have raised alarm over the increase in killings, attacks and other acts of intimidation against human rights defenders in Guatemala.