ONLINE CURRENTS VOL3 - Flipbook - Page 31
Evident in this moment and in this gaze is that what we are seeing is a personal landscape of
resistance, and that resistance does not have to be a barricade, a grand gesture, a firearm
or a picket line, but it starts and ends with a personal act.
For Pedro Uc Be, the act is to breathe, to endure, to stand his ground - to refuse to be
exterminated.
Woye' mix máak péeksiken.
Here he stands.
Afterword
Pedro Uc Be regularly receives threats to his life and person. He is not alone. Indigenous,
environmental and land rights defenders are being killed at record rates. The persecution of
dissenting voices has never been as marked as it is today, and these individuals and the
groups they represent continue to be unprotected. Recent forced disappearances and
killings include Samir Flores, Sergio Rivera Hernandez, Pablo Hilario Morales, Samuel
Hernández Sánchez & Dr. Ernesto Sernas García. It also includes the political imprisonment
and fabrication of charges of those fighting for their rights such as Miryam Vargas Teutle,
Fidencio Aldama, Kenia Inés Hernández Montalván, Fredy García, Marcelino Ruíz Gómez,
Abraham López Montejo, Miguel López Vega, Germán López Montejo the Okupa Cuba women
and the seven political prisoners of Eloxochitlán.
This is a fraction of what we know, which is in itself a fraction of what we don’t know.
Emily Holdcroft is an activist working in the field of human and environmental rights, with
a particular focus on colonial and post-colonial systems.
Jonathan Bonfiglio is a long-time print and broadcast journalist. He writes for a variety of
publications, including Euronews, and is Latin America Correspondent for TimesRadio,
TalkTV & TalkRadio.
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