ACTIVISTS on Thursday demanded justice for an environmentalist brutally killed near Mexico City earlier this month.

Alvaro Arvizu was attacked with an axe or hatchet on June 13 at an environmental research and education centre where he worked near the Iztaccihuati volcano, not far from the more famous Popocatepetl volcano.

Activists said that crime appeared to be retaliation for Mr Arvizu’s work in defending forests and water resources in the mountains that ring Mexico City.

Official reports initially suggested that he was killed during a robbery at the centre, but Pedro Moctezuma, its founder, disputed that idea.

Mr Moctezuma, who is now a researcher at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, a public institution that finances the centre, said: “We are certain that this was a planned, premeditated attack.”

Two of Mr Arvizu’s colleagues were badly beaten in the incident. A state official has said that the three attackers wanted money and weapons and took a small-calibre rifle that Mr Arvizu used to kill gophers.

But colleagues dispute the notion that it was a robbery, noting that valuable scientific equipment was not taken. 

There have been robberies at the centre before, but colleagues said that would not explain the bloodthirsty nature of the attack.

The centre offers courses on composting and other agricultural techniques but is also involved in opposing excessive water use and timber extraction. Its phone and electricity lines were cut just before the attack.

Another environmentalist who ran a similar centre nearby was killed the day before Mr Arvizu lost his life.

Cuauhtemoc Marquez was a beekeeper who had been active in campaigns against water pollution and extraction and had reported receiving threats.

The state official said that Mr Marquez was shot in an attempted robbery on June 12 near his home.

The two killings were the latest in a string of murders and disappearances that made Mexico the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defence activists. 

According to a 2022 report by non-governmental group Global Witness, 54 activists were killed in Mexico in 2021, the highest number in the world.

The attacks against activists are part of a broader pattern across the region.

Rich natural resources, powerful international companies, violent criminal groups and entrenched government corruption, including, in some areas, officials who allegedly play a role in or turn a blind eye to killings, has made Latin America in general a hot spot for violence against environmental activists.