Recording and documenting the struggle for territory by activists in Mexico through Wikipedia in Spanish and Wikidata

Claudia García / DeBolsillo (Wikimedia México)

Luis Álvarez / Luisalvaz (UAA / Wikimedia México)

CC by SA 4.0, PetrohsW

Introduction

This presentation will show the documentation of the activists who have been killed for their fight and struggle in Mexico, between 2001 and 2025, through Spanish Wikipedia and Wikidata.

This is part of the human rights projects by Wikimedia Mexico, that we call ‘Yo edito DDHH’ (I edit human rights). We believe that editing and contributing about this topics is a way to participate in the construction of a collective memory and archive for the future.

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¿Quiénes somos?

Luis Álvarez/ Luisalvaz

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Claudia García / DeBolsillo

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Source 📸Car.argh

Mexico's humanitarian crisis has been going on for decades and is multifactorial. The struggle for land by current activists is intrinsically linked to factors such as:

• Colonization, which distributed land unequally to landowners.
• A land distribution policy that was left incomplete in the 20th century.
• The persecution and criminalization of guerrilla groups, community police forces, workers, students, and teachers.
• The privatization of water by business groups, as well as the contamination of aquifers and rivers.
• The exploitation of land by national and foreign mining companies, which hold concessions lasting 50 to 100 years.
• Organized crime, which is allied with business, political, military, and police groups.

Human rights crisis in Mexico

TUBS CC BY

The forced disappearance of 43 students from the Normal Rural Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, in 2014 is a clear example of the policies of criminalizing protest and social struggle, in which state actors (police, military, and public officials) participate, as well as organized crime, with the complicity of private actors close to the mining industry.

PetrohsW, 2020, cc by-sa 4.0

The list (el anexo)

QR to visit the list on Spanish Wikipedia

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Activistas_asesinados_en_México

Data of the list (datos del anexo)

The list was created on April 8, 2020.

Since then, it has been edited 584 times by 36 people (editors).

It has been visited 52,295 times, as of July 2025, with a monthly average of 830 visits.

The top 5 editors of the list are: Luisalvaz, Mtenaespinoza, DeBolsillo, BenjaBot, PetrohsW.

Monthly views of the list. Source: Pageviews, wmcloud, 2025, july.

Introduction

Types of activism

Statistics

Murdered activists by year

Murdered activists by state

List of activists murdered by year

1974-2025

References

Structure of the list

Estructura del anexo

When you scroll down in the page, the first part is the Statistics. These are created using the data from the list.

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The first are a chart that shows the number of murdered activists by year. The second is a table with all the activists by state and by year.

All these data are updated manually.

Statistics

Estadísticas

Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Activistas_asesinados_en_México

This is the fundamental part of the list. Here you can see the names, the type of activism, the data of their activities, the date and place of death, the causes of the death and the sources.

In the list, currently, there are 525 names of activists.

List of activists murdered by year

Lista de activistas asesinados por año

Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Activistas_asesinados_en_México

The list it is created with 531 sources. The majority of the sources are news articles, but other important sources of information are the human rights reports made by agencies, ONGs and other nonprofit organization.

The principal sources are:

• Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos (Red TDT)
• Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA)
• Global Witness
• DesInformémonos
• La Jornada
• Proceso
• Pie de Página

The sources Las referencias

Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Activistas_asesinados_en_México

Dataset of the murdered activists in 2022, ready to being upload to Wikidata. Source: OpenRefine, with data from Wikipedia

Data of the list (datos del anexo)

The list was created on April 8, 2020.

Since then, it has been edited 584 times by 36 people (editors).

It has been visited 52,295 times, as of July 2025, with a monthly average of 830 visits.

The top 5 editors of the list are: Luisalvaz, Mtenaespinoza, DeBolsillo, BenjaBot, PetrohsW.

Monthly views of the list. Source: Pageviews, wmcloud, 2025, july.

Schema for the refine process with OpenRefine.

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Label: es & en

Description: es & en

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Statements:

• instance of (P31)
• sex or gender (P21)
• occupation (P106)
• country of citizenship (P27)
• date of death (P570)
• place of death (P20)
• manner of death (P1196)

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References: journal notes and reports from ONGs.

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Source: OpenRefine, with data from Wikipedia

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Number of activists murdered in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, by type of activism. Source: Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Oaxaca (111)

Guerrero (96)

Chiapas

(42)

Michoacán

(42)

Activistas asesinadas y asesinados, por Estado, de 2001 a 2025. Con datos del anexo en Wikipedia en español.

(Murdered activists, by state, from 2001 to 2025. Data from the Spanish Wikipedia list.)

Number of names: 307

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Geographic location of people killed in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, for defending their territory (land defenders). The south (Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas), and the center, are the most affected territories.

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Link to results: https://w.wiki/Es9i

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Source: Wikidata with data from journalists and human rights organizations.

Number of names: 125

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Geographic location of people killed in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, for defending human rights.

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Link to results: https://w.wiki/Erxk

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Source: Wikidata with data from journalists and human rights organizations.

Number of names: 22

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Geographic location of people killed in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, for searching missing people.

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Link to results: https://w.wiki/Erxs

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Source: Wikidata with data from journalists and human rights organizations.

Number of names: 20

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Geographic location of people killed in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, for defending LBTTTQ+ rights.

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Link to results: https://w.wiki/Erx$

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Source: Wikidata with data from journalists and human rights organizations.

Number of names: 34

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Geographic location of people killed in Mexico, from 2001 to 2025, for defending for defending the environment.

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Link to results: https://w.wiki/EryA

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Source: Wikidata with data from journalists and human rights organizations.

Alberta Cariño, conocida como Bety Cariño, (1973-2010) fue una defensora de los derechos humanos y el territorio de origen mixteco. Defendía a comunidades indígenas de Oaxaca a través del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos.

Alberta Cariño, known as Bety Cariño (1973-2010), was a defender of human rights and the Mixtec territory. She defended indigenous communities in Oaxaca through the Working Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos.

Alberta Cariño (Q4711599)

Wikimaribarre, cc by-sa 4.0

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¿Quiénes son? (Who are they?)

Susana Chávez (1974-2011) fue una poeta, psicóloga y defensora de los derechos humanos. Luchó en contra de los feminicidios en Ciudad Juárez, y acuñó la frase “Ni una menos, ni una muerta más”.

Susana Chávez (1974-2011) was a poet, psychologist, and human rights advocate. She fought against femicides in Ciudad Juárez and coined the phrase "Not One Women Less, Not One More Death."

Susana Chávez (Q457812)

CC BY-SA 3.0, Zerk

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¿Quiénes son? (Who are they?)

Isabel Cabanillas (1993-2020) fue una artista visual, diseñadora y activista por los derechos de las mujeres, de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Era integrante de la Red de Mujeres de Ciudad Juárez A.C.

Isabel Cabanillas (1993–2020) was a visual artist, fashion designer, and women's rights activist from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. She was a member of the Ciudad Juárez Women's Network A.C.

Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre (Q85030978)

CC BY-SA 4.0, Favia Lucero

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¿Quiénes son? (Who are they?)

Samir Flores (1982-2019) fue un campesino, comunicador y activista por la tierra, en Amilcingo, Morelos. Luchó en contra de la instalación de una termoeléctrica y un gasoducto que ponían en riesgo el agua, la vida y la tierra dentro de su comunidad y los alrededores. Fue asesinado el 20 de febrero de. 2019.

¿Quiénes son? (Who are they?)

Samir Flores (1982-2019) was a farmer, communicator, and land defender in Amilcingo, Morelos. He fought against the construction of a thermoelectric plant and a gas pipeline that endangered the water, lives, and land in and around his community. He was assassinated on February 20, 2019.

Samir Flores Soberanes (Q61903101)

CC BY 3.0, Los Tejemedios

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Eugui Roy Martínez (1998-2020) fue un biólogo y activista por el medio ambiente, de Santiago la Galera, Oaxaca. Participó en el redescubrimiento de una especie de rana que se creía extinta y una nueva especie de serpiente. Estaba cursando sus estudios de biología cuando fue asesinado.

Eugui Roy Martínez (1998-2020) was a biologist and environmental activist from Santiago la Galera, Oaxaca. He participated in the rediscovery of a frog species thought to be extinct and a new species of snake. He was pursuing his biology studies when he was murdered.

Eugui Roy Martínez (Q124354885)

CC BY-SA 4.0, Luisalvaz

¿Quiénes son? (Who are they?)

Challenges to building the List and to editing human rights on Wikimedia projects

• Few sources, sources that only mention death, the cause of death, and not the activists' work or their daily lives.
• Sources that are not stable and are lost. Several have been rescued using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

• This is a sensitive issue that requires careful handling of information sources and safeguarding personal data.
• We recommend working with specialized human rights organizations.

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• Reflexionar como comunidad los efectos psicosociales de editar sobre violaciones graves a derechos humanos.
• Cómo escribir con dignidad de las, los y les activistas de quienes escribimos.
• Editar y contribuir más desde lo local.
• Contribuir a otros proyectos Wikimedia: Commons y Wikidata
• Tener acompañamiento de organizaciones de la sociedad civil y activistas en territorio.

Next steps / Siguientes pasos

• To think as a community the psychosocial effects of publishing about serious human rights violations.
• Edit and contribute more about local activists
• Contribute to other Wikimedia projects: Commons, Wikidata.
• Have support from civil society organizations and activists in the field.
• Care and self-care for those of us who write and edit about human rights.

Documenting protests and struggles for land and territory at the local level.

Photo: Fight for the La Pona Urban Forest, Aguascalientes, April 2025, KONTRA.PKC, cc by-sa 4.0

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KONTRA.PKC, cc by-sa 4.0

Record of the fires in the La Pona urban forest that occurred in 2025, prior to the attempt to build a road and destroy the native trees (mesquite and huizache). Drone footage taken and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as a documentary record.

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Source: Luisalvaz, cc by-sa 4.0

Thanks

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