The Tarahumara people of Coloradas de la Virgen in the mountains of southwestern Chihuahua State, Mexico, have long known the dangers of their battle to regain ancestral land and save their ancient oak and pine forests. Still, they and activists supporting them were shaken by the murder this month of Isidro Baldenegro, whose defense of indigenous rights to the Coloradas woodlands won him the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2005. The killing, the Tarahumara and activists say, forms part of a violent backlash against recent legal advances they’ve made. It underscores the vulnerability of community activists in remote regions of Latin America who are fighting to preserve the environmental integrity of their lands. Baldenegro was the second Goldman Prize winner in the region to be murdered... [Log in to read more]