Activist Roberto Chávez, known for his work defending forests and aquifers, was shot and killed in Villa Madero after reporting threats.
The armed attack occurred on Sunday, April 12th, around ten at night in the community of El Sangarro.
Blood stained the forests of Michoacán once again this Sunday with the murder of Roberto Chávez, an environmental defender from the Madera region. His murder confirms that the state has become a high-risk area for those who oppose the plundering of natural resources.
Known for his staunch opposition to illegal logging and land-use change driven by the expansion of the avocado industry and organized crime groups, the activist was the target of a direct attack that silenced one of the most critical voices in the mountainous region. He had previously received threats.
But Roberto Chávez’s death is not an isolated incident in Michoacán.
Just last January, the bodies of activists Anayeli Hernández and Víctor Manuel Mujica, along with their daughter, were found burned alive in an act of barbarity intended to send a message of terror to communities in resistance.
The Madera region, where Chávez was murdered, remains under constant siege by armed groups that have displaced the authorities to impose a regime of illegal logging that fuels black markets for timber.
The national picture is equally bleak: with the death of Roberto Chávez, the preliminary number of environmentalists murdered in Mexico so far in 2026 has risen to seven, maintaining a deadly trend that already claimed the lives of 22 defenders in 2025.
According to data from the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (Cemda) and international observatories, the country has seen more than 123 murders of land rights activists this decade, with an impunity rate exceeding 95 percent.
Michoacán, along with Chiapas and Oaxaca, has the highest rate of violence, exacerbated by a collusion of interests between extractivism (an economic model based on the intensive, large-scale exploitation of natural resources) and drug trafficking.
Chávez’s death leaves a void in community leadership in Madera and underscores the failure of security policies in the country’s forest regions, where environmental activism has become the most dangerous profession.
Source: 24 Horas
