Every three days someone is killed for defending nature. In 2025, watchdog group Global Witness documented 124 such deaths worldwide, a toll researchers say is likely only a fraction of the total number because repression and armed conflict make many deaths impossible to verify. The victims included Indigenous people, small-scale farmers and community organizers peacefully protecting…
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about a shift in the Pentagon’s boat bombing operations, in which the US in recent days has begun interdicting suspected refueling vessels for drug boats in Ecuador’s territorial waters — but he made clear that the military is also still killing people aboard boats, as it did Wednesday in the latest bombing in the…
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is reportedly running a secret operation bombing boats off of the coast of Ecuador that’s separate from the Trump administration’s boat strike campaign, raising more questions about the U.S.’s violence in the region. The agency was seemingly involved in conducting surveillance flights for attacks on three vessels sailing near the Galápagos Islands in…
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U.S. boat strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed at least 221 people since September, while the Trump administration has provided no evidence linking the vessels or their passengers to drug trafficking. Ecuadorian prosecutor Alexandra Bravo was fatally shot on June 14 by a hitman in the city of Manta. Bravo had been investigating U.S. strikes on three Ecuadorian boats in…
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Environmental and Indigenous rights defenders remained among the world’s most targeted human rights advocates in 2025, despite landmark rulings by international courts affirming governments’ obligations to protect both the environment and those who defend it. At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders…
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