Activist group claiming Yanez's White attorney displayed racism toward Black juror [jury was mostly white]

From [HERE] The leader of a local activist group concerned with police brutality is calling out one of the attorneys who represented former St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez for allegedly displaying racism toward a juror during the officer's trial.

Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, filed a complaint in late June with the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility about what she says was unprofessional conduct on the part of defense attorney Earl Gray.

It's not clear whether the office will investigate the complaint or determine it lacks the requirements necessary to move to that stage.

Gray, along with attorneys Paul Engh and Thomas Kelly, represented Yanez in his successful legal case against manslaughter charges stemming from his decision to fatally shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop last summer.

Gross attended the duration of the trial and said in a statement released Tuesday that Gray's behavior was unacceptable.

"I understand the need for lawyers to provide zealous representation of their clients but Mr. Gray's conduct toward a very earnest potential juror simply because of her ethnicity was beyond the pale," Gross said in the statement.

Gray, a longtime defense attorney, called Gross's complaint "ridiculous."

"She has the right to file a complaint, but if I had done something wrong in the courtroom I am sure Judge (William H. Leary III) would have sanctioned me and he didn't," Gray said.

A jury acquitted Yanez in mid-June after the officer testified at trial that Castile, a 32-year-old black man, ignored his orders not to grab for his gun. Yanez said he fired out of fear for his life. The state had argued that Castile was trying to comply with the officer's request to see his driver's license when Yanez, who is Latino, recklessly shot him.

Gross alleges in her complaint that Gray violated the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct in his treatment of a young Ethiopian woman during the trial's jury selection process.

Gray twice tried to get the 18-year-old struck from the final jury panel, arguing that the woman had an insufficient grasp of the United States' legal system.

He also inappropriately asked her if she was a citizen and whether she grew up in a camp or village in Ethiopia and further if she attended school, the complaint argues.

The young woman told Gray she grew up in a house and that "of course," she attended school as a child, the complaint said.

He went on to ask her to define legal terms, such as "culpable negligence" and "impeachment" and instructed her to explain the country's criminal justice system.

When she struggled with the tasks, Gray moved to strike her for cause, telling Leary that the woman wouldn't "be able to contribute to jury deliberations," the complaint said.

Leary denied the motion, saying at the time that many people who sit on juries aren't familiar with the country's criminal justice system and that they don't need to be in order to competently serve as jurors.

Gray tried to strike the woman a second time during the defense's opportunity to exercise its allotted "peremptory strikes," or strikes granted without explanation so long as they are not motivated by race or gender.

The prosecution objected, arguing the strike was racially motivated. Leary ended up denying the defense's motion and the woman was ultimately seated on the 12-member jury.

"I am not an attorney but I believe Mr. Gray's conduct during this encounter violates Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct. ... in that his conduct with this potential juror had 'no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person,' especially given that Mr. Gray asked no such questions of and displayed no similar animosity toward white potential jurors," Gross wrote in her complaint.

Gray said Gross's complaint was baseless.

"I wasn't insulting to the young lady," Gray said. "...This is a ridiculous complaint. It's just crazy."

Susan Humiston, the director of the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, said she does not comment on complaints filed unless they result in public discipline.

Speaking in general terms, she said her office first determines if a complaint has grounds to be investigated before passing it onto a team of lawyers to begin that work.

Only about half of the complaints filed last year made it to that stage, Humiston said.

Most don't end up resulting in discipline, either. Only 44 attorneys were publicly disciplined last year and 115 privately disciplined, for example. The office has received about 1,300 complaints annually since 2009, according to its 2017 annual report.

Gray has never been publicly disciplined for his conduct as an attorney in Minnesota. His career dates back to the 1970s.

Gross said the office has not yet notified her whether her complaint against Gray will be investigated.

Bakari Sellers: Racist Trump Keeps His Mouth Shut When It Comes to Condemning Hate Speech

After Scaring White People to Death w/his Talent RGIII is at Home On Couch

NBC

Nothing is more valuable in the NFL than a talented quarterback, and yet there’s a quarterback who has been chosen to a Pro Bowl, has led a team to the playoffs, is just 27 years old, and can’t get so much as a sniff from any team in the league: Robert Griffin III.

We at PFT monitor every single report about player signings around the NFL, and we haven’t had a post about Griffin since the day he was cut by the Browns, on March 10. We’ve mentioned Griffin a handful of times, but generally in passing when listing veteran quarterbacks who are available. There hasn’t been so much as a rumor of a team that might bring him in for a workout, or a visit, or offer him a league-minimum contract.

Griffin’s immense talent made him the second overall pick and the rookie of the year in 2012. His knee injury that postseason may have permanently changed him as a player, but what would be the harm in offering him a camp-arm contract and letting him show if he still has something left?

There are no questions about whether Griffin can keep his mouth shut and avoid being a distraction as a backup, because that’s exactly what he did in his last season in Washington. He was benched for Kirk Cousins in the preseason, never played a down all year, and also never complained in the media or made the kinds of headlines that coaches don’t want their backup quarterbacks to make. Griffin hasn’t been arrested or otherwise been in off-field trouble, and his social media presence consists of things like welcoming his newborn daughter into the world and announcing that his foundation has given money to support an injured firefighter. He conducts himself exactly the way teams want players to conduct themselves off the field.

And yet Griffin remains unemployed, with training camps fast approaching. Griffin wasn’t particularly good in Cleveland last year, but he was no worse than Josh McCown, who managed to get a $6 million salary this year with the Jets. Among the quarterbacks who have shown significantly less upside than Griffin but have managed to sign with new teams this offseason are Mark Sanchez, Nick Foles, Josh Johnson, Aaron Murray, Case Keenum, Geno Smith, David Fales, T.J. Yates, EJ Manuel, Matt McGloin, Blaine Gabbert and Austin Davis. If you’re an NFL coach and your starting quarterback goes down, would you really rather turn to Murray, Manuel or McGloin than Griffin?

Apparently some coaches would. And so Griffin will have to hope the call that hasn’t come yet comes some time before the start of the season.

NC NAACP Wants Special Master to Draw Legislative Maps & to Stop Lawmakers from passing laws until a special election is held

USNews

The North Carolina NAACP wants an outside authority — and not the General Assembly — to redraw legislative maps and state lawmakers barred from passing laws until a special election is held.

Attorneys for the civil rights group asked a Greensboro federal court Tuesday to consider the requests in its deliberations about when redistricting should occur, even though the NAACP isn't formally in a lawsuit. A three-judge panel is weighing how to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld the judges' earlier ruling throwing out 28 House and Senate districts as racial gerrymanders.

The NAACP says a special master should be ordered to redraw lawful maps and elections held under those boundaries this year. The group argues the current Republican-dominated legislature can't be trusted to pass constitutional laws.

Bernie Sanders to endorse Ben Jealous, former NAACP president, in Maryland governor’s race

WashPost

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution, a national progressive group that formed after the senator’s upstart presidential bid, are scheduled to endorse Ben Jealous in the Maryland governor’s race on Thursday, according to an email sent to Our Revolution supporters in Maryland.

The joint announcement of the endorsement of Jealous, former president of the NAACP, will be made in Silver Spring.

“With Ben as governor, we can make health care a right, not a privilege,” Sanders said in a statement. “We can create a minimum wage which is a living wage. We can stop the school-to-prison pipeline and end mass incarceration. We can make college tuition affordable, protect our environment and create good-paying jobs.”

Backing from Sanders (I-Vt.) and Our Revolution is not a surprise given Jealous’s role in Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign and his former position on the board of Our Revolution. The endorsements will help Jealous, a civil rights leader and political outsider who has never run for political office, raise money and energize liberal voters across the country.

But it remains unclear how much the support will mean to voters in Maryland, where Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton by a wide margin, and where Jealous is competing with several other Democrats for the nomination to challenge popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in 2018.

Jealous, who served as the co-chairman of Sanders’s campaign in Maryland, said he and Sanders both believe that “now is not a time for timidity.”

“Our leadership must reflect the urgency of this moment,” Jealous said in a statement. “It’s time for Maryland to get back to doing big things again, but it starts with new leadership.”

Our Revolution is the second national progressive group to throw its support behind Jealous. In May, before Jealous announced his candidacy, Democracy for America said it was ready to mobilize to help him run. [MORE]

Although Non-Whites Make up 36% of U.S. population, they only make up 7% of top Senate staff

TheHerald

Of the Senate’s 336 top staff jobs – the kind that carry six-figure salaries and behind-the-scenes clout – just 24 were held by people of color during the last Congress.

U.S. lawmakers are not subject to some of the government’s most historic, most celebrated anti-discrimination and labor laws. And there’s little momentum on Capitol Hill behind efforts to get Congress in line with the sort of equal access that private employers have had to practice for decades.

The best Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., an outspoken critic of Congress’ practices, could do this summer was to get a House subcommittee to go along with a study of diversity in House offices and how to achieve more of it. And that still needs congressional approval, which is unlikely until at least the fall.

"Too bad that we who make the laws don’t have to comply with those laws," Lee said.

The Senate figures come from a study conducted by the nonpartisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies of black, Hispanic, Native Americans, Asian-American and other non-white staffing on the Hill. No authoritative studies of House hiring exist.

The one group that boasts it practicing what it enacts for others are Senate Democrats. Fifteen of the 48 senators who caucus with Democrats said that more than 20 percent of their total staff is African-American, topped by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., at 36 percent, according to a study by the Senate Democratic Caucus. Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Jon Tester, D-Montana and Jack Reed, D-R.I., had no black staffers.

Among Hispanics, five senators reported staffs with more than 20 percent Hispanic employees. At the top was Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., with 43 percent. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Tester had no Hispanic staffers. The study did not say how many African-Americans and Hispanics were in higher-paying jobs.

House Democrats and Republicans provided no data, but several diversity advocates and current and former Capitol Hill staffers maintain the GOP efforts are improving.

George Lopez Says If Trump Wants Safer Streets, Deport The Police

Huff Post

George Lopez has taken a shot at President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. 

The comedian posted a message to his Instagram on Saturday that was specifically aimed at the president’s administration. Lopez made it clear he didn’t support Trump’s handling of immigration, which led to a 38 percent increase in deportation arrests in the president’s first 100 days. In that time, the arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal histories doubled. 

“The Trump administration is deporting Latinos to make the streets safer ... you wanna make the streets safer, deport the police!” Lopez’s photo said. 

While Case is Pending Federal voting data collection on hold

StlToday

A federal commission seeking voter data from Missouri and other states has asked election officials to hold off on transmitting the information it requested in June.

In response to a lawsuit seeking to block the commission from collecting the data, Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity said states should wait to turn over the data while the case is pending.

“Until the Judge rules on the (temporary restraining order,) we request that you hold on submitting any data,” noted commission officer Andrew Kossack in a memo to states.

Although Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has said he would provide all publicly available information to President Donald Trump’s panel, spokeswoman Maura Browning said Monday that the information has not been sent.

The decision to put a hold on the collection of the data comes after officials in both parties have raised red flags about complying with the commission. Along with privacy concerns, there are legal restrictions on how such material can be used.

Ashcroft’s office has been flooded with calls from anxious voters.

U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, is among those expressing concern.

In a letter to Ashcroft sent last week, Clay asks what actions Ashcroft is taking to safeguard Missouri elections from foreign tampering in the wake of allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

“The real threat to democracy and the integrity of our election process is from the widespread and clearly dangerous attempts by foreign adversaries to hack, penetrate and manipulate state and local election authorities,” Clay wrote.

“I hereby request that you swiftly identify and report back to me what specific steps you will take within your own office and among all election authorities at the county level in Missouri to safeguard voter registration rolls, voter tabulation software and our overall electoral process from this very real danger of foreign sabotage,” Clay added.

Ashcroft has repeatedly said he was only providing information that is already available to the public for a $50 processing fee. The voter information is typically used by political candidates to canvass for voters.

Said Browning, “We are preparing a response to the congressman.”

The lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center seeks to block the commission’s data request until its impact on privacy can be weighed. The American Civil Liberties Union also has filed a lawsuit against the commission, arguing they are violating public access rules.

Eleanor Holmes Norton to Trump: Leave DC alone

WashPost

The District of Columbia's representative in Congress says President Donald Trump hasn't paid a lot of attention to her city and she's hoping he won't.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's nonvoting representative, made the statement Monday as part of an annual news conference with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser to decry what they see as lawmakers' meddling in the city's affairs.

The Washington Post reports that Bowser and Norton, who are both Democrats, are fighting efforts to block city laws that govern legal marijuana, firearms, assisted suicide and abortion for low-income women.

Under Trump's budget proposal, the city would be barred from spending its own tax dollars to implement its assisted-suicide law. A congressional subcommittee with jurisdiction over the city will meet Thursday to discuss its budget bill. [MORE]

So far in the 115th Congress, there have been significant attacks & threats to D.C. home rule & local laws

WeedNews

Today I started off my morning the same way I always do – by checking out the Marijuana Moment daily newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you really need to. It is an OUTSTANDING resource for anyone that wants to stay ‘in the know’ about cannabis policy and news. One item on the newsletter today was that Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is holding a press conference today to bring attention to the issue that Washington D.C. is prohibited from using local funds to start a commercial marijuana industry.

Washington D.C. voters approved marijuana legalization in 2014, but unlike the 8 states that have also voted to legalize marijuana, Washington D.C. does not have a system in place in which people can buy marijuana from a regulated outlet. For obvious reasons, that is a bad idea. The unregulated market in Washington D.C. is thriving from what I have read in media articles, and it does nothing to benefit the citizens of Washington D.C.. Unregulated sales do not generate tax dollars that go to schools and other public needs, they do not create good jobs like a regulated market would, and it results in a lot of people buying cannabis that has not been tested and may be resulting in dollars going towards gangs and cartels.

Washington D.C. should be able to do as it pleases in the area of cannabis commerce. The citizens want it, and they should be able to pursue a regulated industry. Below is more information about the press conference, via Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s website:

The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that Norton will host a press conference with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and a coalition of national organizations to protect D.C.’s local laws during the fiscal year 2018 appropriations process on Monday, July 10, 2017, at 11:00 a.m., in HVC-215 (Capitol Visitor Center).  With the help of coalition partners, Norton has been able to turn back most of the riders before.  Last Congress, she defeated eight attempts to overturn D.C.’s gun safety laws.

Interested media and other attendees should RSVP to: Benjamin.Fritsch@mail.house.gov

The speaking representatives from national organizations will be: Kate Ryan, Senior Policy Representative, NARAL Pro-Choice America; Kimberly Callinan, Chief Program Officer, Compassion and Choices; Kate Bell, Legislative Counsel, Marijuana Policy Project; Cynthia A. Finley, Director of Regulatory Affairs, National Association of Clean Water Agencies; T Christian Heyne, Legislative Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence; and Bo Shuff, Executive Director, DC Vote.

Thus far in the 115th Congress, there have been significant attacks and threats to D.C. home rule and local laws.

Marijuana

• The House’s fiscal year 2018 D.C. Appropriations bill, which was passed out of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, contains a rider that prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds on marijuana commercialization.

D.C. Budget Autonomy

• The House’s FY 2018 D.C. Appropriations, which was passed out of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee bill, repeals D.C.’s budget autonomy referendum.

D.C. Death with Dignity Act

• House and Senate disapproval resolutions (H.J.Res. 27/S.J.Res.4) were introduced to nullify D.C.’s medical aid-in-dying law, the Death with Dignity Act (DWDA).  The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed H.J.Res. 27.
• Representative Andy Harris (R-MD), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, has publically threatened to block the DWDA during the appropriations process.

D.C. Gun Safety Laws

• There are three bills pending in the House and Senate that would gut the District’s local gun safety laws.
• H.R. 1537 and S. 162 would wipe out almost all of D.C.’s local gun safety laws, including its ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines and its registration requirements, and would prohibit D.C. from passing gun laws in the future.
• H.R. 2909 would force D.C. to recognize out-of-state permits to carry concealed guns, regardless of the standards those states use for issuing permits.

Abortion

• The House’s FY 2018 D.C. Appropriations bill, which was passed out of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, contains a rider that prohibits the District from spending its local funds on abortion services for low-income women.
• There are House and Senate bills (H.R. 7/S. 184) to permanently prohibit the D.C. government from spending its local funds on abortion services for low-income women, prohibit D.C. government employees from providing abortions, prohibit abortions in D.C. government facilities, and define the D.C. government as part of the federal government for purposes of abortion.  H.R. 7 passed the House.

D.C. Law on Wipes Labeling

• Representative Harris has told the press he is considering offering an amendment to block a new D.C. law regulating the labeling of personal hygiene products, particularly wet wipes, as safe to flush.

DL Hughley On Mistreatment From Elected Puppeticians In Government

Chicago: Report says 1 of 4 African-American students stuck in subpar schools

SunTimes

One in every four African-American students in Chicago Public Schools attends a “failing” school, according to a new analysis that puts the number for Hispanic students at two in 25, and for white students, two in 100.

That’s according to a new analysis published Monday by the education advocacy group New Schools for Chicago, which also says about one in every five schools overall isn’t fulfilling the promise of a quality education. New Schools, previously known for charter school advocacy, took a two-year average of the scores, such as test scores and attendance, that CPS uses to rate its schools from Level 1+ at the top down to Level 3.

Fundraising site (YouCaring) will not support lawsuits against Black Lives Matter

PBS.org

A personal injury lawyer trying to raise money for her lawsuits against Black Lives Matter and its leaders on behalf of Baton Rouge police officers was rejected by a crowdfunding website on Sunday.

The YouCaring site is a free, online fundraising source for people around the country and in Baton Rouge, including residents whose lives were devastated by floods last year or families who have expensive medical needs. It also supports various versions of local and national Black Lives Matter campaigns.

But when lawyer Donna Grodner, who has filed two federal lawsuits on behalf of police against Black Lives Matter that target one of its leaders Deray Mckesson, created a page to raise $20,000 for expenses, YouCaring took it down.

“In alignment with our mission, we removed this fundraiser because it was not within our community guidelines around promoting harmony,” YouCaring chief marketing officer Maly Ly told the NewsHour Weekend in an email. “We are not the right platform to air grievances, or engage in contentious disputes or controversial public opinion.”

Then, Grodner created a GoFundMe page. GoFundMe did not immediately return a request for comment.

Grodner has filed two lawsuits that accuse Black Lives Matter and its leaders of causing the injuries of two police officers in separate incidents. [MORE]

Canada issues formal apology to former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr

From [HERE] The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale [official profiles] issued a joint statement [text] on Friday apologizing to former Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr for violating his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) [text]. Freeland and Goodale's statement read:

Today, we are announcing that the Government of Canada has reached a settlement with Mr. Omar Khadr, bringing this civil case to a close. On behalf of the Government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. Khadr for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm. We hope that this expression, and the negotiated settlement reached with the Government, will assist him in his efforts to begin a new and hopeful chapter in his life with his fellow Canadians. The details of the settlement are confidential between Mr. Khadr and the Government.

The government has refused to confirm the details of the settlement, but various media sources reported that the amount of the settlement [NYT report] was approximately $10.5 million (Canadian). Andrew Scheer [official profile], leader of Canada's conservative party called the settlement disgusting [NYT report] while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau [official website] stated [Huffington Post report] that the Charter protects all Canadians "even when it is uncomfortable" and added that "When the government violates any Canadian's Charter rights, we all end up paying for it." Khadr, now 30, said that he is "really sorry" [NYT report] for the pain he caused, adding that he was "never was angry or upset about" what was done to him.

A severely wounded Khadr was captured by US troops in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was a child soldier at 15 years of age. Khadr is the only Canadian citizen [NYT report] to have been imprisoned at the US military base in Guantánamo Bay. He had pleaded guilty [NYT report] to using a hand grenade against US soldiers Christopher Speer and Layne Morris. Speer died in the incident, while Morris partially lost his eyesight. This apology concerned Khadr's interrogation by Canadian government officials post his capture. Khadr was transferred to Canada in 2012, and he was released on bail [JURIST report] in May 2015. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] stated of Khadr's release [JURIST report] at the time that Canada was taking a "significant step toward ending his ordeal." The following week, the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] rejected the government's bid to have Khadr declared an adult offender. In September 2015, Justice June Ross of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta [official website] ruled that Khadr can visit his family [JURIST report] in Toronto for two weeks and do so without an electronic monitoring bracelet. 

Inaction Not An Option to Latin America’s Eco-Activists Struggle Against Corporate Feudalism, Colonialism & Resource Scarcity

MintPress

On Jan. 12, Isidro Baldenegro López traveled to his hometown for the first time in years to visit his aunt who had fallen gravely ill. As he lay down to sleep that Saturday night in Coloradas de la Virgen, a small community in the western Sierra Madre mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico, he heard a man call his name repeatedly.

When he got up to see who was there, Baldenegro was shot six times. The young gunman casually walked away when the deed was done, leaving his victim for dead. Baldenegro succumbed to his wounds hours later, dying around 1 a.m. on Jan. 16.

He lived humbly as a subsistence farmer, but Baldenegro was an internationally renowned environmental activist. One of just four Mexicans to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, Baldenegro made a name for himself as a principled activist who was falsely imprisoned, threatened, and eventually murdered for his fight to protect the native forest and his indigenous community from predatory logging interests infecting much of Latin America, a struggle he inherited from his father who was also murdered for his activism.

Isidro Baldenegro’s work inspired activists throughout Latin America and the world, bringing international attention to the ecological wonder of the Sierra Madre’s old-growth forests as well as the fight for survival of the Tarahumara people and their rich cultural heritage.

Equally stunning as his sudden, grisly murder was the negligence of the government response, prompting many locals and international observers to allege that such carelessness was intentional. After news of Baldenegro’s death circulated, authorities did not go to retrieve his body, leaving one of his brothers to bring his remains to state police.

In the weeks since the murder, not a single authority — municipal, state, or federal — has visited the community to investigate the incident or look for Baldenegro’s killer.

A tragic, but increasingly common reality

The story of Isidro Baldenegro López, however tragic, is an increasingly common reality for Latin American environmental activists and indigenous leaders who often find themselves in the crosshairs of powerful multinational corporations and the elite who control them and the political class. These interests, as they have done for centuries, place profit over people and have cultivated violence within indigenous regions as a means of quelling dissent.  

In the case of México, the drug war initiated by former President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa in 2006 made violence the norm in Chihuahua, the region where Baldenegro lived and died. In the last decade, this “war” has left over 100,000 murdered and tens of thousands disappeared while also creating an organized crime network involving CIA-connected drug traffickers, politicians, and logging interests. Logging interests have become particularly powerful in the region, especially post-NAFTA, largely because U.S. companies have come to rely on the region as a source of raw materials. These same logging interests are widely believed by locals to be responsible for Baldenegro’s murder.

In an interview with journalist John Gibler for Sierra magazine, Isela González of the Sierra Madre Alliance said:

“We are wounded and outraged by Isidro’s murder, but we don’t want for people to think that the violence was aimed only at this one individual: This is violence waged against the indigenous communities who have been struggling for years to protect their ancestral territories.”

In Latin America, an average of two activists are killed every week, a gruesome statistic that has only worsened in recent years, according to Oxfam. Despite the constant threats to their lives, many of these activists know that staying silent and giving in to the short-sighted demands of both industry and government would consign them and their communities to annihilation, ultimately giving them little choice in the matter.

For years, experts and analysts have warned of coming wars over natural resources as years of industrialization and increasing resource scarcity have left major industries scrambling for the rights to the remaining supplies of key raw materials. Yet, for Latin America, these wars have long been a harsh reality, largely the legacy of ongoing and centuries-old conflicts between indigenous communities and colonialist governments over national resources. Originally perfected by the Spanish in the colonial era, the strategy of using intimidation and fear in order to force local communities to accept a foreign agenda is a fundamental extension of colonialism, showing that colonialism in Latin America has never died but merely changed form.

Largely due to foreign meddling in Latin American affairs, particularly by the United States, several nations — most notably, Honduras, Brazil, and Peru — have made the choice to brutally repress eco-activists instead of listening to their concerns, preferring to clear the path for unregulated industrial exploitation as opposed to any potentially inclusive solution. They also have sizable police forces and even paramilitary groups that target any group that stands in the way of industrial “progress.”

Baldenegro’s death is just the tip of the iceberg. [MORE]