Rasim Aliyev died on 9 August 2015 in a Baku hospital after being severely beaten on 8 August. He had reported receiving continuous threats and intimidation via social media networks for three weeks leading up to his death.
On 7 March 2016, human rights defender Mr William Castillo Chima was shot dead in the public establishment of “Los Galvanes”, in Villa Echeverry, in the municipality of El Bagre, Antioquia. The assassination occurred one day after his colleague and fellow human rights defender Ms Maria Dania Arrieta Perez received several death threats in text messages sent to her mobile phone.
On 8 June 2016, human rights defender Daniel Choc Pop was killed in the afternoon by unknown individuals who repeatedly shot him.
On 14 June 2016, Guarani-Kaiowá leader and human rights defender Clodieldo de Souza was shot dead during a raid conducted by paramilitary forces in the indigenous settlement Tey Jussu, in the region of Caarapó (Mato Grosso do Sul, MS). The attackers are presumably acting on orders from local landowners who perceive indigenous communities as obstacles to large scale farming in MS, despite these communities' constitutional right to have their territories demarcated.
On Friday 3 June 2016, the body of LGBTI rights defenders René Martínez was found in San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Rene had been missing since 1 June; the body bore signs of a brutal murder. René Martínez had just arrived home from work when assailants seized him and forced him into a car. Family members immediately alerted police, but it took 48 hours to find his body in another neighbourhood.
On 15 March 2016 human rights defender Mr Nelson García was killed in the aftermath of a violent eviction conducted in Río Lindo, Department of Cortés, Honduras. The human rights defender was returning home following a violent eviction conducted by the Public Order Military Police (Policía Militar de Orden Público) and the Cobras Special Force (Comando Especial Cobras) in the municipality of Río Lindo when he was intercepted by unidentified men who shot him in the face four times and killed him.
On 16 March 2016, Walter Méndez Barrios was shot and killed outside his home in Las Cruces, in the department of Petén. Prior to his assassination, he had recently visited the Boca del Rio Hydroelectric Dam and had been conducting activities to raise awareness about the negative environmental impact of palm oil production in Guatemala, the expansion of which has caused the destruction of the Petén Rainforest. Local human rights organisations report that he had recently received death threats.
