Indigenous Mexican activist Isidro Baldenegro López was just murdered in his own family’s home.

Baldenegro, a world-famous environmental activist who stood up to illegal logging, is the latest victim in a tragic wave of environmental activists murdered for their leadership. Just months ago, Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was murdered by assassins linked to the dam project she fought to stop.

The murders of indigenous environmental activists like Baldenegro take corporate power to the extreme. They attempt to silence our very right to criticize corporate policies that endanger our families, communities, and planet. In the wake of Baldenegro’s tragic murder, we must call on Mexican officials to thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible.

Urge Mexican law enforcement to prove that violence against activists will not be tolerated by committing to prosecute those responsible for Baldenegro’s murder.

After watching his own father murdered as a child for his stance against logging, Baldenegro committed his life to fighting illegal logging in the Sierra Madre mountain range. The area is not only one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, but it is home to Baldenegro’s Tarahumara community, who have been pushed by the logging industry into smaller, isolated areas.

Unfortunately, Baldenegro’s tragic murder is all too familiar. In 2015, at least 122 activists were murdered in Latin America while fighting to protect their communities and land from big corporate mines, dams, and logging projects, making it the deadliest year on record for environmental activists.

If those who killed Baldenegro go unpunished, it will only encourage more violence against environmental activists. That’s why the SumOfUs community has continually stood alongside victims of violent corporate intimidation -- like when we came together to fundraise for a security detail for Peruvian farmer Máxima Acuña after she was attacked by private security guards allegedly working for mining companies she opposed. Indigenous environmental activists are at the forefront of our people-powered movement against corporate abuse -- and we need to do everything we can to stand by them.