First of all, they highlight the campaigns of disqualification and rejection of the defenders of the environment that have been undertaken by the Executive Power . This situation promotes a hostile environment against those who fight to protect community resources. We are one of the most dangerous countries for environmental activists. just in 2021 there were 25 murders (35% more than in 2020) and 238 assaults .
According to the Agreement, Mexico should commit to guaranteeing a safe environment for environmental activists: preventing, investigating and punishing attacks, threats or intimidation. But, how can we expect this to happen when the State itself is the one that stigmatizes ?
In this same sense, it is evident lack of political will to strengthen the work of government institutions in the environmental sector. A clear example of this is the tendency of budget reduction in this type of agencies, such as the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), among others. Following this same line of action, the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) and the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA) recently disappeared.
Although the real ravages of this trend are not so obvious to the naked eye, the dismantling of the environmental sector has extremely high costs. With weak institutions, it is impossible to count on sufficient and updated information about what happens with the environment in our country; even less, that there are inclusive participatory processes and that environmental justice be sought.
On the other hand, we have the bad example of the federal government with the development of its strategic projects such as the Mayan Train, for which works began even without have the necessary studies and permits , and within the framework of a great opacity about the environmental impact that the work will cause. Because of this, defenders filed appeals to suspend the works and the Executive responded with a decree to declare such works as national security, so that they could evade the suspensions.