We must honour lost land defenders by fighting the system which killed them

Two more defenders in Latin America have lost their lives challenging their country's economic growth model which prizes profit at all cost

As the Guardian and Global Witness revealed that almost four environmental defenders were murdered every week in 2017, War on Want learned of two more killings through our Latin American partner organisations.

On 24 January, Mircio "Marcinho" Matos, involved in the fight for rights of landless peasants in Bahia in north-east Brazil, was shot in front of his son. Three days later, Temistocles "don Temis" Machado, a prominent figure in the struggle of Afro-Colombian communities across the Colombian Pacific, was murdered in his home in the Isla de Paz community.