- Three rangers were shot dead and a fourth wounded near the slopes of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano in central Mexico.
- The incident occurred while the rangers were carrying out their duties and the attackers are believed to be illegal loggers.
- The area around the volcano has been attacked by loggers, with previous incidents of violence against environmental activists.
Suspected illegal loggers shot dead three patrolling rangers and wounded a fourth in central Mexico, near the slopes of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano.
Police in the central state of Puebla, east of Mexico City, said Sunday night that the killings took place earlier that day. The injured man was being treated at a hospital, police said.
The four men were “performing their ranger duties” when they were shot, police said. Because Mexico does not have a national forest service, farmers on local communal farms often conduct patrols to protect their communities' forests, combat forest fires and logging.
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The attackers were “allegedly illegal loggers,” according to a police statement, and a search was underway for them.
The Iztaccíhuatl volcano is seen from the Izta-Popo National Park in the state of Puebla, central Mexico. Suspected illegal loggers shot dead three patrolling rangers and wounded a fourth near the slopes of the volcano. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
Loggers have long targeted the lower forested slopes of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, which is not far from the still active Popocatépetl volcano.
Last year, Mexican researcher and environmentalist Álvaro Arvizu was hacked to death at an environmental education center where he worked near Iztaccíhuatl. His colleagues said the killing appeared to be retaliation for his work defending forests and water resources in the mountains surrounding Mexico City.
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And in early 2023, indigenous anti-logging activist Alfredo Cisneros was shot dead in the Purépecha indigenous village of Sicuicho, in the violence-plagued western state of Michoacán.
Cisneros was a local leader and anti-logging activist, and a member of the community land council. The indigenous communities of Michoacán have fought for years against illegal mining and logging that affect the region's pine and fir forests. Loggers often cut down trees to plant avocados, a lucrative export crop in Michoacán.
In 2021, Mexico was named the deadliest country in the world for environmental and land defense activists in an annual report by Global Witness, a non-governmental organization. Some 200 activists were murdered worldwide that year, 54 of those murders in Mexico.
