The Life and Death of a Mexican Environmental Prophet: Felipe Arreaga Sanchez
Don Felipe is dead. An internationally-known forest defender and organic farming promoter, 60-year-old Felipe Arreaga Sanchez was killed September 16, Mexican Independence Day, while driving his ATV in Petatlán, Guerrero. The longtime campesino activist was struck by a mini-bus and died a few hours later in a hospital in nearby Zihuatanejo. Although Petatlán is the site of a military base, the town lacks civilian medical facilities capable of handling serious injuries. The driver of the mini-bus fled the scene of the crash, and many circumstances of the incident are unclear.
Oddly, Arreaga was killed September 16, almost exactly four years to the date of his release from prison, September 15, 2005, amid threats. Because Arreaga had lived with threats hanging over his head for years, there was some speculation that the crash was intentional. But family members and friends simply blame a reckless driver, who was perhaps drunk or hung-over from the previous evening's festivities.
"We feel like our hands, our wings have been cut off," said Arreaga's widow, Celsa Valdovinos. Married in 1972, Arreaga and Valdovionos raised six children and numerous grandchildren.
"He was my living hero," added environmental educator Yadira Rios, a co-founder of the New World environmentalist organization of Petatlán. "He lived by example and followed his beliefs to their ultimate consequences."
Arreaga first rose to national and international prominence during the 1990s as one of the leaders of the Campesino Environmentalist Organization of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catatlán (OCESP), a group of small farmers in Guerrero that waged protests against logging being done in the Sierra Madre Mountains for the Boise Cascade Corporation.
The campesino environmentalists were persecuted by logging interests and authorities, with some members hunted down, arrested, tortured, or killed. Jailed by the Mexican Army, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera became a cause célèbre of the international environmental movement before Mexican President Vicente Fox released the pair in 2001. Ethel Kennedy and Mikhail Gorbachev were among thousands of people worldwide who lent their support to Montiel and Cabrera. A son of the Guerrero Mountains like Arreaga, Montiel was awarded both the Goldman and Sierra Club Chico Mendes environmental prizes.
After world attention on Guerrero's forests faded, Arreaga was jailed on flimsy murder charges before a renewed international human rights campaign helped to win his acquittal in 2005. While still in jail, Arreaga was also awarded the Chico Mendes prize. In 2006, Mexico's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources also recognized Arreaga's efforts....
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Oddly, Arreaga was killed September 16, almost exactly four years to the date of his release from prison, September 15, 2005, amid threats. Because Arreaga had lived with threats hanging over his head for years, there was some speculation that the crash was intentional. But family members and friends simply blame a reckless driver, who was perhaps drunk or hung-over from the previous evening's festivities.
"We feel like our hands, our wings have been cut off," said Arreaga's widow, Celsa Valdovinos. Married in 1972, Arreaga and Valdovionos raised six children and numerous grandchildren.
"He was my living hero," added environmental educator Yadira Rios, a co-founder of the New World environmentalist organization of Petatlán. "He lived by example and followed his beliefs to their ultimate consequences."
Arreaga first rose to national and international prominence during the 1990s as one of the leaders of the Campesino Environmentalist Organization of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catatlán (OCESP), a group of small farmers in Guerrero that waged protests against logging being done in the Sierra Madre Mountains for the Boise Cascade Corporation.
The campesino environmentalists were persecuted by logging interests and authorities, with some members hunted down, arrested, tortured, or killed. Jailed by the Mexican Army, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera became a cause célèbre of the international environmental movement before Mexican President Vicente Fox released the pair in 2001. Ethel Kennedy and Mikhail Gorbachev were among thousands of people worldwide who lent their support to Montiel and Cabrera. A son of the Guerrero Mountains like Arreaga, Montiel was awarded both the Goldman and Sierra Club Chico Mendes environmental prizes.
After world attention on Guerrero's forests faded, Arreaga was jailed on flimsy murder charges before a renewed international human rights campaign helped to win his acquittal in 2005. While still in jail, Arreaga was also awarded the Chico Mendes prize. In 2006, Mexico's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources also recognized Arreaga's efforts....