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Mexico is world’s deadliest spot for environmental activists

A Yaqui Indigenous homeless drinks water from a bottle that holding flowers decorating a tomb at the cemetery where slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo is buried in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. With little water, widespread poverty and no farm work available, younger Yaquis have begun to migrate to nearby cities and the U.S. border city of Nogales and seldom return, threatening the survival of Yaqui culture. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A person fishes in the Yaqui River where its water is held back by the Oviachic dam, on the outskirts of Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador apologized in August 2022 to the Yaqui Indigenous for past abuses and promised a series of infrastructure programs to improve their lives, but has refused to stop the siphoning off of their water, though the director of the local water district says it is illegal. Yaqui water-defense leader Tomás Rojo was killed in June 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) Yaqui Indigenous girls play in water from a leak outside their home in the hometown of slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo, in Potam, Mexico Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Only those wealthy enough to buy and operate small electric pumps have running water. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous wears a bandana over his mouth as he walks through dust past the cemetery where slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo is buried in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Rojo was a descendent of Tetabiate, a Yaqui leader killed in a 1901 battle with the government, which deported the surviving Yaquis to work in slave-like conditions on henequen plantations in far-away Yucatan. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous man herds cows near the Yaqui River on the outskirts of Vicam, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. The Yaquis are the legal owners of at least half the water in the river basin that bears their name and which they have defended through nearly five centuries of massacres and extermination, but they have seen much of their water redirected to feed burgeoning industries and projects to plant vineyards and avocados in the desert. Water-defense leader Tomás Rojo was killed in June 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) Water hoses criss cross a yard in the hometown of slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo, in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Only those wealthy enough to buy and operate small electric pumps have running water. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous man removes his hat as he enters the church where slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo is buried in the outdoor cemetery, in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. With little water, widespread poverty and no farm work available, younger Yaquis have begun to migrate to nearby cities and the U.S. border city of Nogales, and seldom return. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous family walks past the cemetery where slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo is buried, outside a church where they arrive to celebrate the Virgin Mary in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Between 2010, when state authorities built a pipeline to siphon off the Yaquis' water for use in the state capital, Hermosillo, to 2020, Rojo led a series of massive demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) The Oviachic dam is at half its capacity near Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. An Indigenous movement to defend the Yaqui tribe’s water was born after the government built this dam to divert Yaqui water to the rapidly-growing city of Hermosillo in 2010. Water-defense leader Tomás Rojo was killed in June 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous woman and child rest in a hammock in their yard in the hometown of slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo, in Potam, Mexico Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. The Yaquis are the legal owners of at least half the water in the river basin that bears their name, but they have seen their share of the water redirected to feed burgeoning industries and schemes to plant vineyards and avocados in the desert. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) The Yaqui River is dry on the outskirts of Vicam, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. The Yaqui Indigenous people find themselves at the center of a perfect storm: everybody from Mexican drug cartels to water-hungry lithium mines covet their land, but they themselves live in poverty and often don’t even have running water in their homes. Water-defense leader Tomás Rojo was killed in June 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) Guillermo Rojo, the father of slain water-defense leader Tomás, prays next to his tomb, decorated with a blue cross, at the cemetery in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Rojo recalls his son as “iron-willed ever since he was a young boy.” “He didn't forget where he was from, who his ancestors were, and that may be what led him to become a social activist.” (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous person wears a neckerchief tied with the tribe's flag colors, on the outskirts of Vicam, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. The Yaqui Indigenous people of northern Mexico are still mourning the killing of water-defense leader Tomás Rojo in June 2021, whose body was initially identified by a red neckerchief he had been wearing around his neck when he left home. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) A Yaqui Indigenous family walks past the cemetery where slain water-defense leader Tomás Rojo is buried, outside a church where they arrive to celebrate the Virgin Mary in Potam, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Mexico has become the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defense activists, and the Yaqui Indigenous people of northern Mexico are still mourning the killing of Rojo in June 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)