‘Appalling Figures’: At Least Three Environmental Defenders Killed Per Week in 2023

By Katie Surma

Eduardo Mendúa, a member of the Indigenous A’i Cofán peoples, resisted the expansion of oil operations in Ecuador’s Cofán territory. On February 26, 2023, Mendúa, 40, was in his garden when two hooded men shot him 12 times at point-blank range.