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 Editorials | Environmental | June 2007 
Murder of Activist Shows Grim Face of Illegal Logging in Mexico
 Reuters
| | Corruption and greed in the form of illegal logging is wreaking havoc on the livelihoods and peace-of-mind of villagers who must vie against outside logging syndicates with more money and power to protect their forests. |
The brazen murder of an environmental activist by illegal loggers who are still free almost a month later has highlighted Mexico's failure to tackle powerful gangs decimating its forests.
Aldo Zamora was gathering information for environmental group Greenpeace when four men identified by witnesses and police as brothers in a logging gang ambushed his car on a forest road in the State of Mexico and sprayed him with bullets.
The state attorney general's office says 15 detectives are on the case and identified the four brothers as the suspects.
But no arrests have been made. Critics say the police moved too slowly and the suspects went into hiding.
Greenpeace and Zamora's father Ildefonso Zamora have staged protests, put up "Wanted" posters and pressured the state's governor to bring the killers to justice.
Anti-logging locals in Zamora's small village of San Juan Atzingo have threatened to cut off the water supply to a neighboring state in protest.
"It has been 24 days since the murder and they still haven't arrested anyone. The people of San Juan Atzingo are desperate. They are worried about their safety, they're scared," said Greenpeace activist Hector Magallon.
Zamora, 21, was with three uncles and a brother when he was attacked on May 15. His brother Misael, 16, was injured.
Illegal logging destroys some 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) of Mexican forest each year, the government says, putting Mexico near the top of a UN list of nations losing primary forest fastest. Environmental activists say the figure is far higher.
Mexico's justice system is famously ineffective, thanks to a mix of corruption and incompetence.
President Felipe Calderon pledged "zero tolerance" against illegal loggers earlier this year, but environmentalists say the gangs enjoy ever greater protection.
"This gang knows it has people looking after it. They have protectors," Ildefonso Zamora said. An anti-logging activist himself, he has received death threats since 2005, when he reported the men now suspected of killing his son.
Chopping down trees is a lucrative source of cash for impoverished indigenous communities in rural central Mexico. In San Juan Atzingo, some 3,000 of a total 10,800 hectares of forest have been cleared or thinned by illegal logging. |
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