Land Defender Murdered in Oaxaca

Human rights defender José Alberto Toledo Villalobos was attacked the night of April 8 on the Tapanatepec highway in Oaxaca, where he was found with multiple bruises and contusions on his face and abdomen.

According to a statement issued by the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus, José Alberto was driving a motorcycle taxi around 8pm when he was intercepted by a vehicle, from which several people beat him, leaving him seriously injured.

He was refused treatment at the Tapanatepec Basic Community Hospital and transferred to the Juchítan General Hospital, where he passed away on April 9 at around 11:30am.

Alberto Toledo participated as an activist and territory defender against mining and wind energy megaprojects, and against the high cost of electricity in the communities of Chahuites and the Eastern Zone of the Isthmus region. He was also part of the Formation of Indigenous Peoples of the Oaxacan Isthmus and belonged to the National Network of Civil Resistance.

Lastly, social organizations held the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) as well as the federal and Oaxaca state governments responsible “for their inability to provide security to human rights defenders,” they emphasized.

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