Source: Asociación de Mujeres Madre Tierra

Professor Diana Isabel Hernández Juárez was the coordinator of the environmental committee of the parish of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in the southern part of the Department of Suchitepéquez, on the south coast of Guatemala.

At 05.20pm on the evening of Saturday 7 September 2019, she was attacked and shot dead by unknown gunmen as she was taking part in a procession in her community of Monte Gloria in Santo Domingo, Suchitepéquez.

The Professor was a community activist devoted to the protection of the environment and its natural resources. She devoted a large part of her life to creating environmental awareness and recovering rare native species as part of a reforestation programme. She worked particularly closely with communities in her parish to help them address environmental issues.

The Parish and the Asociación are working together with young people and men and women to make them aware of the need to develop a way of life in harmony with Madre Tierra.

“The women of Madre Tierra are deeply saddened by this latest killings which is added to the long list of community leaders who have been killed and whose cases have never been resolved”.

“On behalf of the Asociación we are calling on the authorities to take all the necessary steps to investigate this killing and bring the perpetrators to justice so that this crime does not remain in impunity”.

“At the same time we are calling on all national and international human rights organisations to pursue this case and get justice for Diana and her family”.