"Mexico: National and international organisations demand an end to attacks against indigenous land defenders in the Isthmus of Oaxaca", 18 February 2025

...On 13 February 2025, an armed group ambushed and shot a pick-up truck near the Sol River, Santo Domingo Petapa, Oaxaca. Inside the truck were Wilfrido Atanacio, Victoriano Quirino and Abraham Chirino, members of the Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo (UCIZONI) and inhabitants of the Ayuujk community El Platanillo, Santo Domingo Petapa. The three campesinos were killed in that attack. The communities of the region, the UCIZONI and other organisations have urged the government for immediate measures in response to the context of violence, without obtaining an answer. The community of El Platanillo continues to be under serious threat and requires protection measures.

...These people and communities are affected by the mega-project known as the Interoceanic Corridor of the North Zone in Mogoñé Viejo of Santa María Mixtequilla, of Santa Cruz Tagolaba and of Puente Madera, Oaxaca.

In the report, the organisations stressed the fact that indigenous peoples, collectives and communities who defend their land, territory and indigenous peoples rights, and who oppose the mega-project in its entirety or have questioned specific matters concerning the Interoceanic Corridor, have reported continued attacks in the last three years as a reprisal for their legitimate work. Between May 2021 and May 2024, organisations have reported at least seventy-two attacks with 226 cases of aggression, including harassment, physical assaults, probable enforced disappearances, internal forced displacement, arbitrary detentions, criminalisation and killings. Among those committing these acts of aggression are the Mexican State, businesses or people with an interest in the construction of the mega-project.

Currently, there are three investigations filed with criminal complaints against twenty-four indigenous peoples, some of them members of the UCIZONI, who peacefully showed resistance to the imposition of the Interoceanic Corridor...