{"id":99,"date":"2026-05-23T06:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=99"},"modified":"2026-05-23T06:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:42:29","slug":"the-death-squads-hunting-environmental-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lea este art\u00edculo en Espa\u00f1ol.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before the day\u2019s light had begun to dim, Brandon Lee picked up his phone and texted Sister Genny. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Even until now,\u201d he told the nun, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I feel like I\u2019m being\u00a0watched.\u201d<\/p>

Read more The War on Protest Is Here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was Tuesday, August 6<\/span>, 2019<\/span>, and the habagat<\/em> season was pulling tropical storms across the mountains of the Cordillera, the rural interior of the Philippine island of Luzon. In Lee\u2019s home province of Ifugao, the threat of a\u00a0deluge had passed, leaving behind leaden skies and the sticky heat of the wet season. For a\u00a0week, after a\u00a0fraught decision made with his wife, Bernice, Lee had hardly left their home in the municipality of Lagawe. He no longer went to work at the office down the road, no longer walked his niece and daughter to school, no longer went anywhere on\u00a0foot.<\/p>\n

As Lee texted Sister Genny, he reheated chicken and rice, sharing the meal with his 7<\/span>-year-old daughter, Jesse Jane. At around 5<\/span>:45<\/span> p.m., Lee stepped outside to feed his dogs. As he scraped meat from the leftover chicken bones, he heard a\u00a0thunderous crack. His body crumpled. A\u00a0deafening buzz filled his ears. Then Jesse was outside,\u00a0screaming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Until that day, Lee, a\u00a0Chinese-American activist from the San Francisco Bay Area, had called the Cordillera home for nearly a\u00a0decade. It was where he fell in love, married Bernice and started a\u00a0family. It was also where he became involved with the Ifugao Peasant Movement (IPM), an alliance of groups organizing local farmers and indigenous people against corporations that occupied and stripped resources from their ancestral\u00a0land.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Philippines is among the world\u2019s most mineral-rich countries. Since the passage of a\u00a01995<\/span> law allowing 100<\/span>% foreign ownership of land, the Philippine government has prioritized mining and development companies over its people and the environment. The Cordillera, with its undulating mountains, terraced rice fields and valley-carving rivers, is full of minerals to be mined and waterways to be harnessed. And as deep-pocketed corporations desiccate rivers and destroy peasant livelihoods in a\u00a0nationwide plunder supported by the state, it\u2019s also a\u00a0place where human rights are abused with\u00a0impunity.<\/p>\n

In Ifugao, that had already meant the killing of two indigenous IPM leaders in four years: William Bugatti in 2014<\/span> and Ricardo Mayumi in 2018<\/span>. Both had been involved in human rights and environmental organizing, including, for Mayumi, fighting a\u00a0hydropower project that would dam the rivers, displace communities and impede locals\u2019 ability to grow rice. Both had received death threats, and in both cases, their assailants were never found. But Philippine activists recognized familiar signs that suggest the military was\u00a0involved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Former Ifugao Peasant Movement members William Bugatti and Ricardo Mayumi were killed in 2014 and 2018, respectively, allegedly by state actors. Mayumi had been organizing against a hydropower project in his Cordillera community. Illustration by Matt Rota<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When Lee, who\u2019d been living elsewhere on Luzon, attended Bugatti\u2019s 2014<\/span> funeral, his IPM comrades asked him to move back to Lagawe and continue the activist\u2019s work. But Lee\u2019s return marked the beginning of heightened surveillance and harassment of IPM by members of the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion\u2009\u2014\u2009one of numerous Philippine armed forces units that have received U.S. funding and support. In late July 2019<\/span>, Lee said, a\u00a0battalion leader visited his home and office, knocking relentlessly while he hid quietly inside. A\u00a0week later, Lee was shot in his own\u00a0backyard.<\/p>\n

As Jesse ran back inside, blood pooled around Lee\u2019s collapsed body. He could move his head, eyes and mouth, but it was getting hard to speak. When his brother-in-law arrived, Lee had to sound out each letter of his wife\u2019s name, asking him to call Bernice. They rushed first to a\u00a0small local hospital, then to a\u00a0regional hospital an hour away. Neither could help; Lee needed a\u00a0hospital three and a\u00a0half hours farther. Somewhere amid the peaks and drops of the narrow mountain roads, the ambulance broke down. Then Lee ran out of oxygen and began vomiting\u00a0blood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bernice caught up with the ambulance, and Lee, thinking of his daughter\u2019s scream, apologized again and\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

When they finally arrived at Baguio General Hospital, some six hours later, medical staff asked Lee what had happened. He hadn\u2019t seen the gun or the person aiming it. But in his last conscious moments, Lee told them what he felt certain was true: \u200b\u201c<\/span>It was the\u00a0military.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Between 2012<\/span> and 2022<\/span>, around the world, one environmental defender was killed every other day, according to international human rights group Global Witness. That\u2019s nearly 2<\/span>,000<\/span> peasants, farmers, fisherfolk and activists murdered for defending their land from some of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions\u2009\u2014\u2009including mining, logging and agribusiness corporations\u2009\u2014\u2009as well as hydropower projects, which have their own ruinous environmental\u00a0impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this harrowing toll, indigenous peoples face significantly disproportionate rates of violence, since they are nearly always on the front\u00a0lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indigenous territories protect about 80<\/span>% of the world\u2019s biodiversity, including lands, rivers, oceans and forests that act as important carbon sinks. But their land is also the focus of intense extractive industry speculation. While the United States has signed international environmental treaties like the Paris Agreement or 30<\/span>\u00d730<\/span> (a biodiversity plan to protect 30<\/span>% of natural spaces by 2030<\/span>), the ability to mitigate the effects of climate change ultimately hinges on the protection of environmental defenders, who face surveillance, intimidation, false charges and, increasingly, forcible disappearance. Some communities\u2009\u2014\u2009mostly rural areas near extractive projects\u2009\u2014\u2009face indiscriminate bombing campaigns. As it was in the Cordillera\u2009\u2014\u2009where bombings preceded the shootings of Bugatti, Mayumi and Lee\u2009\u2014\u2009these attacks often presage greater violence. Bodies, sometimes mutilated or showing evidence of torture, are found in ravines, plastic drums and mass graves. No one is found guilty but signs often point to corporations, organized crime and non-state armed\u00a0groups.<\/p>\n

The state, too, is frequently complicit\u2009\u2014\u2009particularly in countries that label environmental defenders as \u200b\u201c<\/span>terrorists,\u201d which casts extrajudicial killings as matters of national\u00a0security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In These Times <\/em>tracked violence against environmental defenders from 2014<\/span> to 2024<\/span>\u00a0in 10<\/span> hotspot countries. Using the same methodology as a\u00a0State Department watchdog group, we collected data from public sources to conservatively identify 573<\/span> killings of environmental activists. Of that number, close to half involved the\u00a0state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n MURDER HOTSPOTS: Extrajudicial killings of environmental defenders, 2014-2024\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In Brazil, 24<\/span> of 53<\/span> cases were connected to the police or military, including a\u00a02017<\/span> massacre of activists participating in a\u00a0land occupation. In India, police were involved in 40<\/span> out of 44<\/span> killings over the past decade, many during demonstrations against mining projects or land grabs. In Peru, police were responsible for 13<\/span> of 18<\/span> killings, most often activists protesting extractive industry\u00a0projects.<\/p>\n

In Guatemala, indigenous defenders protesting a\u00a0mining company in 2021<\/span> faced attacks from police, military and intelligence officers. Tear gas was used, homes set ablaze. In Brazil, some police work for the government by day and as private security for extractive companies by\u00a0night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Powerful companies tell governments, \u200b\u201c<\/span>we need your protection,\u201d says Michel Forst, the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, whose position was created in 2022<\/span> to address increasing attacks on activists. \u200b\u201c<\/span>And, of course, the government will protect the interests of the\u00a0companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philippines is considered the most dangerous country for environmental defenders in Asia, with attacks dating back to the 1980<\/span> murder of Macli-ing Dulag, an indigenous Kalinga man from the Cordillera who was killed by the military while protesting a\u00a0hydropower project. A\u00a0very conservative assessment suggests evidence of state involvement in 109<\/span> of 210<\/span> such killings in the Philippines in the past decade\u2009\u2014\u2009more than\u00a0half.<\/p>\n

In 2017<\/span>, eight indigenous defenders from the Lumad people were killed by the 27<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion after protesting the expansion of a\u00a0coffee plantation on their ancestral land. The violence was so brutal that one woman had to place part of her husband\u2019s brain back into his skull to prepare him for\u00a0burial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2020<\/span>, on Panay Island, nine indigenous Tumandok leaders, also fighting a\u00a0hydropower project, were kidnapped, tortured and killed on the same night, in a\u00a0synchronized military and police operation. The massacre silenced a\u00a0community and cleared the path for a\u00a0megadam.<\/p>\n

In 2023<\/span>, farmers Aimee and Jover Villegas were allegedly killed by members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, a\u00a0paramilitary force trained and funded by the government. In a\u00a0country where farmers and indigenous people are often automatically considered environmental activists\u2009\u2014\u2009because subsistence farming inherently places them at odds with corporate or extractive interests\u2009\u2014\u2009Aimee\u2019s throat was slashed and breast stabbed, and Jover\u2019s left eye was gouged: a\u00a0map of the torture they endured before being\u00a0killed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The hidden nature of the killings and the entanglement of military, paramilitary and local police makes it hard enough to trace state complicity, let alone track them back to more powerful geopolitical actors\u2009\u2014\u2009such as the neocolonial U.S. military apparatus that has long cleared the way for resource extraction, and the global corporate and financial interests that ultimately profit. Yet, in many states\u2009\u2014\u2009including the Philippines and much of Latin America\u2009\u2014\u2009the wars on terror and drugs under which these executions are carried out are extensions of U.S. hegemony and conducted with U.S. weapons and\u00a0training.<\/p>\n

While the State Department condemns such killings\u2009\u2014\u2009and, in 2017<\/span>, even formed an interagency working group to monitor and address violence against environmental defenders\u2009\u2014\u2009in practice, the United States has almost never had to take accountability for the local killings of activists by the governments it\u00a0supports.<\/p>\n

But when a\u00a0U.S. citizen like Brandon Lee is shot, the public begins following the path back to America to look for\u00a0answers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Of the more than 200 killings of environmental defenders in the Philippines in the past decade, more than half have credible links to state involvement. Illustration by Matt Rota<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The intimidation began in 2015<\/span>, when Lee returned to Lagawe to take up Bugatti\u2019s work assisting the defense of political prisoners. That April, 11<\/span> members of IPM were sent brown envelopes with the words, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Gray May, June gloom, No Sky July,\u201d as well as a\u00a0photo of a\u00a0traditional Ifugao funeral blanket. Intricately woven with red, white and dark stripes, the blanket was an implicit death threat: should they continue Bugatti\u2019s work, they would meet the same\u00a0fate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around the same time, Lee and IPM began organizing against a\u00a0newly contracted dam project, the Alimit Hydropower Complex, which would straddle the Ibulao and Alimit rivers. The project is owned and operated by SN Aboitiz Power\u2009\u2014\u2009a partnership between a\u00a0Norwegian energy company and Aboitiz Power, the private corporation of an oligarchic Philippine family friendly with former and current Philippine\u00a0presidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Europe and North America are tearing down rather than building dams, the hydropower industry is booming across the developing world. Often touted as a\u00a0form of renewable energy, hydropower functions in much the same way as extractive industries, replicating not only the environmental casualties\u2009\u2014\u2009such as deforestation and loss of biodiversity\u2009\u2014\u2009but also the human toll. Communities are displaced, farmland is submerged, subsistence fisheries are destroyed, water sources are choked and resistance is met with intimidation and violence. In the Philippines, other SN Aboitiz Power megadams had already eaten away vast swaths of land, rivers and rice fields once held by indigenous people and\u00a0farmers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In an email statement, SN Aboitiz Power maintained that they follow local and international social and environmental standards, are committed to a\u00a0transparent and inclusive process and welcome opposing perspectives. The company was made aware of the attacks on Mayumi and Lee through news reports, stating, \u200b\u201c<\/span>SN Aboitiz Power deplores any form of violence and\u00a0harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Ifugao, as Alimit\u2019s approval process began, familiar patterns emerged. Aboitiz solicited the rights to indigenous peoples\u2019 ancestral lands. Those who protested found themselves \u200b\u201c<\/span>red-tagged\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009publicly declared terrorists. Once or twice a\u00a0week, photos of IPM members, including Lee, were posted on social media pages popular in Ifugao, linking the activists with the New People\u2019s Army (NPA), the armed branch of the Communist Party of the Philippines. A\u00a0Maoist insurgency group, the NPA is known to engage in armed encounters with the Philippine military, attack extractive industry infrastructure and mete out its own form of justice against \u200b\u201c<\/span>counterrevolutionaries,\u201d often civilians. But the \u200b\u201c<\/span>NPA\u201d label has also become a\u00a0means for the government to discredit activists, whether they\u2019re connected to the insurgency group or not. Two years before William Bugatti\u2019s 2014<\/span> murder, his name was included on a\u00a0military list of supposed NPA members, although Lee and other activists say he was never involved with the insurgency\u00a0group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By 2018<\/span>, the red-tagging was escalating. Flyers were distributed across Lagawe listing the names of IPM members, including Lee, and the phrase \u200b\u201c<\/span>accomplices of the terrorist NPA in Ifugao.\u201d In response, the IPM issued a\u00a0statement signed by local political representatives and organizations, condemning the accusations as \u200b\u201c<\/span>malicious\u00a0lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the flyers were anonymous, the consensus among Philippine activists and outside groups such as Human Rights Watch is that most, if not all, red-tagging is connected to the state. The practice, often a\u00a0prelude to violence, not only discredits activists but dismantles entire movements and erodes solidarity among organizers and affected communities. Military battalions and divisions have also posted images on social media purportedly mapping connections between local activists and the NPA through a\u00a0series of lines and arrows, akin to a\u00a0police evidence board. (On Facebook, the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Battalion has consistently maintained that their labeling of activists as NPA members does not amount to red-tagging, even using the hashtag #ThereIsNoRedTagging.)<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Any organization is a\u00a0terrorist now,\u201d reflected a\u00a0former IPM leader, Dick, who was red-tagged alongside Lee (and who requested to use only his first name out of concern of being targeted\u00a0again).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid the heightened harassment, in March 2018<\/span>, IPM member Ricardo Mayumi\u2009\u2014\u2009who\u2019d led the opposition to another Ifugao hydropower project, and who\u2019d also been falsely linked to NPA\u2009\u2014\u2009was shot and killed outside his home. The Philippine-based Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation charged that the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit\u2009\u2014\u2009the same government-affiliated paramilitary allegedly involved in the killings of the Villegas family\u2009\u2014\u2009was behind the\u00a0assassination.<\/p>\n

That same year, President Rodrigo Duterte\u2009\u2014\u2009then waging his bloodthirsty \u200b\u201c<\/span>war on drugs,\u201d which led to at least 2<\/span>,555<\/span> police-related killings\u2014formed an anti-Communist task force that terminated peace talks with the NPA and inaugurated a\u00a0new campaign of intimidation and violence. As one UN special rapporteur concluded, much of the task force\u2019s work amounted to \u200b\u201c<\/span>persecution of environmental human rights\u00a0defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2019<\/span>, another UN special rapporteur\u2009\u2014\u2009Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, whose focus was indigenous peoples\u2019 rights\u2014was red-tagged herself, as the Philippine Department of Justice included her on a\u00a0list of more than 600<\/span> people the Duterte government hoped to declare terrorists. Tauli-Corpuz is from the Cordillera, where her brother, Steve Tauli, has been organizing against a\u00a0hydropower project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Lagawe, Lee and the IPM began to face direct harassment. In April 2019<\/span>, 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion Sgt. Joel Campilis and another high-ranking officer visited IPM\u2019s office, telling Lee they wanted to \u200b\u201c<\/span>partner\u201d with the organization\u2009\u2014\u2009which Lee and his colleagues interpreted as a\u00a0demand to provide information on those involved in the movement. Lee demurred, citing a\u00a0recent massacre on the island of Negros Oriental, where Philippine National Police killed 14<\/span> small-scale farmers after branding them terrorists for advocating for peasants\u2019 rights. The following month, other officers from the battalion returned to the office, asking Lee\u2019s colleagues about his whereabouts, finances and where his daughter attended\u00a0school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Then came the day late that July, when military officers visited Lee\u2019s home and then office, knocking for half an hour while Lee and a\u00a0student refused to answer. When it seemed they had left, Lee went outside and saw four people hiding behind a\u00a0nearby shed. Dressed in a\u00a0mix of plain clothes and army fatigues but no name tags, they said they represented the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Battalion. One officer took photos of Lee on his phone. Another again pressed him to work with their\u00a0unit.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I will give you two names and you can tell your boss why we are reluctant to partner with you,\u201d Lee said. \u200b\u201c<\/span>William Bugatti and Ricardo Mayumi. Your boss should understand\u00a0why.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, Lee stopped going to the office and laid low. A\u00a0week later, three IPM members were visited by military and police, all on the same day, with at least one asked about his relationship with Lee. It was the day Lee was\u00a0shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the days after he was rushed to Baguio General Hospital, doctors attempted to remove the bullet fragments lodged inside his body, although they couldn\u2019t determine whether one bullet had splintered or four had torn through his spine, shoulder, face and arm. During the operation, Lee went into his first cardiac arrest. After seven additional cardiac arrests, Lee\u2019s family and friends were warned he might not survive another. In the intensive care unit, Lee, so consumed by pain he couldn\u2019t hold his wife\u2019s hand, told Bernice, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I\u2019m ready to go\u00a0now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s condition slowly stabilized, but he remained in the ICU for roughly a\u00a0month. According to a\u00a0human rights report, during that time, three police officers, ostensibly providing security, were stationed by the hospital\u2019s entrance 24<\/span>\u00a0hours per day. Lee\u2019s family and friends responded with their own round-the-clock vigil by his bedside, worried someone might try to finish the\u00a0job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While Brandon Lee recovered for roughly a month at Baguio General Hospital, several police officers stood at the entrance. Uneasy, Lee\u2019s family and friends provided their own 24-hour bedside vigil. Illustration by Matt Rota<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The police investigation had given them little grounds for trust. They told Lee\u2019s family that the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Battalion was not a\u00a0suspect and someone from IPM was likely responsible instead\u2009\u2014\u2009a claim Bernice found absurd. As far as she and Lee knew, he had no enemies but the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

As international scrutiny grew, the government\u2019s story changed repeatedly. Immediately after Lee was shot, 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion Commander Narciso B. Nabulneg Jr. told a\u00a0government-owned TV station that his battalion had determined the IPM was part of NPA\u2019s insurgency in Ifugao. Roughly a\u00a0week later, a\u00a0government press release claimed Lee had a \u200b\u201c<\/span>harmonious relationship\u201d with the unit, with Sgt. Campilis claiming Lee had \u200b\u201c<\/span>willingly entertained government forces at the IPM office.\u201d That press release was subsequently scrubbed from the state website. Later still, statements from a\u00a0National Police leader charged that Lee was personally an NPA member and that U.S.-Philippine solidarity groups operate as recruitment\u00a0fronts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But the sort of concrete evidence that could have connected the military to the shooting remained out of reach. While a\u00a0police investigator sought to retrieve the bullets from the attack, doctors had determined that removing them would be too risky after Lee\u2019s repeated cardiac arrests. So they remained lodged within Lee\u2019s body, serving as a\u00a0constant reminder of what he sees as governmental complicity in the attempt on his life\u2009\u2014\u2009complicity that begins with the Philippine armed forces and ends thousands of miles\u00a0away.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s a\u00a0reminder of what the U.S. is doing to activists around the world,\u201d Lee says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>And which side they are\u00a0supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 10<\/span> hotspot countries that In These Times <\/em>examined\u2009\u2014\u2009in which close to half of environmental defender murders can be traced to the state\u2009\u2014\u2009are also countries that received substantial equipment, training and weaponry from the United States for warfare, counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations. Many are in Latin America, where U.S. postcolonial history has involved both intensive resource extraction and military campaigns\u2009\u2014\u2009which have sometimes been intertwined. Between 2014<\/span> and 2022<\/span>, the last year for which data is available, the U.S. collectively sent these countries more than $4<\/span> billion in security\u00a0assistance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A number of instances of confirmed human rights abuses against defenders have been linked to that\u00a0assistance.<\/p>\n

In Honduras, three U.S.-trained former Honduran military officers were involved in the 2016<\/span> assassination of Berta C\u00e1ceres, an indigenous Lenca activist who was fighting a\u00a0hydropower project. (One, former intelligence officer Roberto David Castillo Mej\u00eda, was later convicted of ordering and planning the\u00a0attack.)<\/p>\n

In Colombia, Latin America\u2019s largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, the human rights group Washington Office on Latin America documented several instances of military and police threatening and harassing activists participating in the 2021<\/span> national strike, including a\u00a0contingent of protesters who blocked access to an oil and gas field to protest the harm inflicted by extractive industries. Afterward, 55<\/span> members of Congress sent a\u00a0letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for the suspension of security assistance to Colombia\u2019s\u00a0police.<\/p>

Read more Eviction By ICE?<\/a><\/p>\n

The same year, six members of Congress wrote Blinken about allegations that jeeps the Department of Defense provided to Guatemala were used to harass indigenous activists protesting a\u00a0mining company in El Estor. The U.S. Government Accountability Office documented several more instances of equipment misuse in Guatemala, flagging the troubling fact that the departments of State and Defense have no policy to investigate such\u00a0cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Philippines traces its military relationship with America back to nearly 50<\/span>\u00a0years of U.S. occupation. Although the United States withdrew in 1946<\/span>, the Philippines was still dependent on the U.S. Armed Forces for weapons and equipment. In 1980<\/span>, when indigenous environmental activist Macli-ing Dulag was shot, the bullets at the scene were traced back to an American-made, WWI-era Browning automatic\u00a0rifle.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The Philippine military was designed by the U.S. from the beginning, from colonization,\u201d says Rev. Luisito Saliendra, a\u00a0human rights defender based in Southern Tagalog, where police and military killed nine activists in the March 7<\/span>, 2021<\/span>, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Bloody Sunday\u201d massacre. \u200b\u201c<\/span>I know nothing of any military that is fully designed for\u00a0Filipinos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the Philippines is the largest recipient of U.S. security assistance in the Indo-Pacific region. From 2015<\/span> to 2022<\/span>, the country received $1<\/span>.14<\/span> billion worth of arms, equipment and training, including $475<\/span>.3<\/span> million in foreign military financing, whereby Congress appropriates money to help other governments make military\u00a0purchases.<\/p>\n

As the shells and bullets from Lee\u2019s attack have either disappeared or remain embedded in his body, any direct evidence linking the United States back to his assailants is harder to\u00a0trace.<\/p>\n

Complicating matters, public data on U.S. arms sales and military aid sent around the world each year is either unavailable, unclear or undetailed. Most arms transfers are functionally untraceable, since the weapons are transferred to a\u00a0central government agency, rather than directly to a\u00a0unit, for distribution by the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

That means there\u2019s no way to know if any of the more than $87<\/span> million in arms\u2009\u2014\u2009including aircraft, rifles, rocket launchers and more than 6<\/span>\u00a0million rounds of ammunition\u2009\u2014\u2009sent to the Philippines in 2018<\/span>, the year before Lee was shot, went to the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion, or even its parent unit, the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry\u00a0Division.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to military trainings, some specific information is available: Between 2014<\/span> and 2019<\/span> (the most recent available data), nearly 3<\/span>,500<\/span> Philippine military personnel were trained with the support of U.S. funding. And in a\u00a0yearly exercise called Balikatan, a\u00a0Tagalog phrase meaning \u200b\u201c<\/span>shoulder to shoulder,\u201d thousands of U.S. service members travel to the Philippines to train alongside its\u00a0troops.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to data In These Times <\/em>collated from State Department and Department of Defense reports, between 2014<\/span> and 2021<\/span>, 25<\/span> members of Philippine infantry divisions that were potentially implicated in human rights abuses received training either in the United States or with U.S.\u00a0funding.<\/p>\n

In Luzon, the 7<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division\u2009\u2014\u2009linked to four extrajudicial killings\u2009\u2014\u2009participated in the 2015<\/span> Balikatan training and two officers received additional U.S.-funded\u00a0training.<\/p>\n

On the island of Mindanao, where indigenous peoples and Muslim minorities live under extreme militarization linked to counterterrorism operations, 11<\/span> soldiers from the 4<\/span>th<\/sup> and 10<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Divisions received U.S. training, even though these divisions were linked to nine extrajudicial killings and several enforced disappearances over the past decade. In 2023<\/span>, the 4<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division was involved in three aerial bombings across\u00a0Mindanao.<\/p>\n

In the case of Lee\u2019s shooting, six soldiers from the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division received some form of U.S. training. The division also participated in Balikatan training in 2018<\/span>, the year before Lee was\u00a0shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the United States, one of the strongest, if flawed, avenues of accountability around military aid is the Leahy Law. Named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who introduced the bill 27<\/span>\u00a0years ago, the law prohibits the U.S. government from providing security assistance to foreign military units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. Each year, thousands of potential Leahy violations are vetted by the State Department, which then makes recommendations around sanctions. Across Asia, the Leahy Law has limited military aid, including to Indonesia in 1999<\/span>, in the wake of its scorched earth campaign in East Timor, and more than a\u00a0decade later to Pakistan, where military units were linked to torture and extrajudicial\u00a0killings.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0case like Lee\u2019s, if there were credible evidence that a\u00a0Philippine military unit intentionally shot someone without justification, explains Tim Rieser, a\u00a0senior foreign policy advisor to Leahy who was instrumental in drafting the law, that unit should not be eligible for security\u00a0assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We want partners that respect the rights of civilians, that respect the laws of war, that respect human rights,\u201d Rieser says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The alternative is that, even when units of foreign security forces commit the worst crimes and their governments do nothing about it, the U.S. will support them anyway. That\u2019s\u00a0indefensible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The State Department knew about the Philippine military\u2019s possible role in violence against Cordillera activists as early as 2014<\/span>. That year, its Philippines Human Rights Report widespread suspicions that Bugatti\u2019s killing was linked to the Philippine\u2019s 86<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion, which is also part of the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry\u00a0Division.<\/p>\n

When Lee received the threatening letter and photo of a\u00a0funeral blanket in 2015<\/span>, his mother, Louise Lee, reported it to Justin Prairie, an official at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Prairie told Louise his office would inquire with the Philippine armed forces about the harassment. Louise implored her son to meet with Prairie, too. But after Lee heard that Prairie had joked about how his mother should place a\u00a0bag over her son\u2019s head and fly him out of the country\u2009\u2014\u2009evoking, however unintentionally, the ways that Philippine activists have had their heads covered with hoods before being disappeared by the state\u2009\u2014\u2009Lee refused to meet him. After that, Lee and his mother never heard back from the embassy. (The State Department declined to\u00a0comment.)<\/p>\n

But when Lee was shot four years later, the State Department was suddenly facing an international incident. Within a\u00a0day of the shooting, it established contact with Lagawe police. According to heavily redacted public records Lee shared with In These Times<\/em>, the police confirmed the shooting had occurred but offered the State Department no further information, citing the ongoing investigation. Internal State Department emails noted \u200b\u201c<\/span>inconsistencies\u201d in police progress reports, including the wrong date of the attack. In a\u00a0document outlining press guidance regarding Lee\u2019s case, the State Department stresses the talking point that its foreign embassies and consulates have \u200b\u201c<\/span>no greater responsibility than the protection of U.S. citizens\u00a0overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yet there\u2019s no public record to suggest that Lee\u2019s shooting triggered further State Department scrutiny. Lee was never mentioned in the department\u2019s 2020<\/span> Philippines Human Rights Report, and department documents indicate that only one Philippine military unit was denied security assistance between 2017<\/span> and 2022<\/span>\u2009\u2014\u2009a Coast Guard unit involved in the shooting of a\u00a0Taiwanese fisherman.<\/p>\n

But Leahy Law vetting is private, and a\u00a0State Department spokesperson told In These Times<\/em> they could not share details about any cases. Even sanctions can be kept confidential\u2009\u2014\u2009and commonly are, under the catchall of diplomatic sensitivity, according to\u00a0Rieser.<\/p>\n

Another Leahy Law loophole is that sanctions don\u2019t necessarily halt arms shipments. In the midst of Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the State Department determined that at least five Israeli military units were involved in gross violations of human rights. But instead of restricting or terminating aid, the Biden administration claimed Israel had already remediated those units. In one example, \u200b\u201c<\/span>remediation\u201d amounted to three months of community service for an Israel Defense Forces soldier who shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian man in the West Bank. In mid-May, the Biden administration announced plans to send $1<\/span> billion in new military aid to\u00a0Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>In some of the most egregious cases,\u201d says Bill Hartung, a\u00a0senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, \u200b\u201c<\/span>the weapons are still\u00a0flowing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The year Lee was attacked, 2019<\/span>, marked the zenith of Duterte\u2019s deadly war on drugs. Throughout Duterte\u2019s reign of terror, evidence suggests police units credibly implicated in human rights abuses continued to be armed and trained through U.S. security assistance. Also in 2019<\/span>, the Trump administration authorized the export of $56<\/span> million in firearms, guns and ammunition to the Philippines through direct commercial sales. The following year, In These Times<\/em> found, 18<\/span> Filipino environmental activists were killed, with evidence suggesting that all of the deaths could be linked to the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

In 2020<\/span>, in response to Duterte\u2019s repression, U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) introduced the Philippine Human Rights Act, which would have suspended security assistance to the Philippines until its police and armed forces were reformed. Wild also introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2023<\/span> that would have specifically limited assistance to the Philippine National Police. Neither\u00a0passed.<\/p>\n

Under the Biden administration, as tensions in the South China Sea have intensified, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.\u2009\u2014\u2009son of notorious dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.\u2009\u2014\u2009has forged an even closer alliance with America. This not only has pushed the Philippines into the middle of dangerous U.S.-China relations but opens the Philippines to more security assistance and more foreign troops. In 2022<\/span>, the United States made $100<\/span> million in foreign military funding available to the Philippine military to \u200b\u201c<\/span>use as it wishes.\u201d This April, a\u00a0bipartisan Senate bill proposed sending the Philippines $2<\/span>.5<\/span> billion in security assistance over the next five\u00a0years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Under the 2023<\/span> Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, the U.S. military has access to nine military bases across the Philippines, with four added just last year. One of the new bases is Camp Melchor Dela Cruz\u2009\u2014\u2009home to the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division, of which the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Battalion is\u00a0part.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The current [Philippine] regime has kind of a\u00a0hold on the Biden administration,\u201d says Hartung, who has called for reconsidering U.S. security assistance to the\u00a0country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

During the State Department\u2019s long silence, Lee\u2019s U.S. community began campaigning to not only get Lee back to the United States, but to draw attention to what had happened and who was at fault. While on a\u00a0human rights fact-finding mission to the Philippines (planned prior to the attack), San Francisco Board Supervisor Matt Haney visited Lee in the Baguio ICU. When Haney returned home, his board\u2009\u2014\u2009which had voiced support for Lee when he was first red-tagged\u2009\u2014\u2009adopted a\u00a0resolution urging his immediate repatriation, a\u00a0congressional investigation and the suspension of U.S. security assistance to the\u00a0Philippines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We wanted to make sure the Philippine military knew there was an international spotlight on Brandon,\u201d says Raquel Redondiez, who works for San Francisco\u2019s Filipino Cultural Heritage District and was part of the fact-finding\u00a0mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Supporters and human rights organizations across the United States and the Cordillera, politicians in the Philippines, and even then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi implored the Philippine government to investigate the shooting. Three years later, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights released its investigation. Citing the Philippine Army\u2019s \u200b\u201c<\/span>interest\u201d in Lee, its long history of harassment and intimidation and the extrajudicial killings of Bugatti and Mayumi, the resolution concluded that \u200b\u201c<\/span>the involvement of the military in the gunning of Brandon Lee no matter how nil could not be discounted.\u201d The statement is perhaps as close to an admission of culpability as Lee will receive, but the case has since been archived and the 54<\/span>th<\/sup> Battalion has never been held\u00a0accountable.<\/p>\n

Since Lee returned to America, his pursuit of justice has mostly been met with platitudes from U.S. officials. After a\u00a0lengthy back and forth with Pelosi\u2019s office, as Lee pushed for an independent U.S. investigation, he says he was praised as a \u200b\u201c<\/span>hero\u201d but told that all they could do was wait for a\u00a0response from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Two years later, he says no response has come. Lee also lobbied the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, requesting the Philippine Commission on Human Rights reopen his case, but, he says, Consul General Neil Ferrer told him it was not within their\u00a0purview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an email statement, the Philippine Consulate clarified that the Consul General has sought regular updates from the Commission on Human Rights regarding Lee\u2019s case and recommended that Lee undertake any appropriate legal action and seek assistance from U.S.\u00a0authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The Philippine Government is firmly committed to upholding human rights and the rule of law,\u201d the statement\u00a0concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Lee\u2019s last month in the Philippines was spent in a\u00a0hospital in Manila, more than 200<\/span>\u00a0miles from the Cordillera. He\u2019d been paralyzed from the chest down, put on a\u00a0ventilator and underwent a\u00a0temporary tracheostomy. The last procedure meant he could no longer speak. From his hospital bed, Lee thought to himself, Maybe<\/em> they succeeded: They have silenced\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the months and years that followed, the Ifugao Peasant Movement disintegrated and ultimately disbanded. Fear spread. The Lagawe office was abandoned. Today, former IPM comrades only speak of what happened to Lee quietly. Bugatti\u2019s and Mayumi\u2019s murders are not publicly discussed at all. It\u2019s hard to see it as anything other than the exact chilling effect the state and military intended: shattering a\u00a0movement of\u00a0defenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, some have\u00a0persisted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
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In the face of red-tagging and death, Dick, former vice chair of the Ifugao Peasant Movement, continues to organize against the Alimit Hydropower Project. The dam would submerge land and displace communities. Illustration by Matt Rota<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

In October 2023<\/span>, at the peak of Ifugao\u2019s harvest season, IPM\u2019s former vice chair, an indigenous farmer named Dick, drove his powder-blue van through five villages in and around Lagawe, trying to once again rally opposition to the Alimit Hydropower Project that, five years prior, had torn his community apart. For two days\u2009\u2014\u2009over cups of instant coffee and plates of steamed rice, from one house to the next\u2009\u2014\u2009Dick explained how the dam, still in its planning stages, would displace their community, submerge their farms and divert their water. He warned that the benefits the company promised\u2009\u2014\u2009to build roads, provide free electricity and relocate locals to better land\u2009\u2014\u2009would never\u00a0arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Aboitiz came only to persuade us and when they have done their purpose, they will leave and we will suffer,\u201d says Marceline Wagdang, a\u00a0member of the community group Hapiyo, which Dick and other community members formed in 2020<\/span> as IPM\u2019s successor to fight the hydropower project. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Money is powerful\u2009\u2014\u2009it can kill\u00a0people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagdang\u2019s village, Olilicon, a\u00a0community of just under 500<\/span> people, is divided over the project, but some of her neighbors, including the local elected official, publicly support it. Wagdang cannot see any benefit. Rice, a\u00a0staple grown by many who rely on the river, is expensive to buy from the store. Growing food keeps them alive. The hydropower project threatens to starve them. To the ire of the village official, Wagdang collected 70<\/span> signatures on a\u00a0petition against the dam. She was mobilizing her community alone and at times was threatened\u2009\u2014\u2009once, even by her nephew, who warned, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Just see if nothing bad happens to\u00a0you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Since Lee was shot, the military has had a\u00a0quieter presence in Lagawe, though it\u2019s still active in Ifugao. After Hapiyo began circulating its petition, Dick noted, a\u00a0police operation took place in a\u00a0neighboring village. In a\u00a0region that\u2019s long endured state terror, it doesn\u2019t seem\u00a0coincidental.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division has carried out indiscriminate aerial bombings across the Cordillera, purportedly targeting the NPA. Red-tagging has also continued, along with groundless claims and military attacks. This past fall, as Dick canvassed his neighbors, a\u00a0farmer from another Cordillera province, Antonio Diwayan, was shot and killed by members of the 5<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division. The division claimed Diwayan\u2009\u2014\u2009an elderly man known in his community as a\u00a0small-scale miner and farmer\u2009\u2014\u2009was an NPA member who had been killed in an armed encounter. The day Diwayan was killed, the division posted a\u00a0blurred photo on its Facebook page of a\u00a0rifle laying beside the dead body of an unidentified \u200b\u201c<\/span>NPA\u00a0member.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s really difficult, even for us, to understand why farmers \u2026 end up victims of military combat operations,\u201d says Audrey Beltran, vice chair of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Diwayan\u2019s case is indicative of how state policies look at the value of innocent\u00a0civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Around the same time, environmental activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro were abducted and interrogated for nearly three weeks by suspected members of the 70<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion, part of the 7<\/span>th<\/sup> Infantry Division in Luzon. Under threat and coercion, they signed an affidavit \u200b\u201c<\/span>confirming\u201d they were NPA members. But at a\u00a0government press conference after their release, the pair refused to lie and spoke out about the state\u2019s role in their disappearance. They now face \u200b\u201c<\/span>grave oral defamation\u201d charges filed by the Philippine Department of\u00a0Justice.<\/p>\n

Even human rights organizations\u2009\u2014\u2009those who defend the defenders\u2009\u2014\u2009have been recently targeted, says Beltran. In 2023<\/span>, the Anti-Terrorism Council\u2009\u2014\u2009a government body appointed by Duterte that has escalated red-tagging and streamlined the arrest of Philippine activists\u2009\u2014\u2009used a\u00a0full page spread in the Manila Times<\/em> to label four staff members of the human rights network Cordillera Peoples Alliance as terrorists. In May, military personnel distributed flyers across Kalinga, proclaiming that Cordillera Human Rights Alliance and Cordillera Peoples Alliance are\u00a0NPA.<\/p>\n

Also in May, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a\u00a0landmark ruling declaring red-tagging a\u00a0threat to people\u2019s \u200b\u201c<\/span>right to life, liberty and security\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009a decision welcomed by human rights and environmental organizations. President Marcos has not yet endorsed the decision or adopted measures to criminalize the practice, but recent comments suggest he\u2019s unlikely to support investigations of his own\u00a0government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the near certainty of retaliation, in October 2023<\/span>, after Dick had driven from village to village, some 50<\/span> people gathered in a\u00a0corner of Ifugao for a\u00a0Hapiyo general assembly. Even if the project had stalled, they knew the threat from this dam or another would\u00a0remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I will not stop organizing,\u201d says Dick, \u200b\u201c<\/span>until I\u00a0physically can no\u00a0longer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an email statement, SN Aboitiz Power said they had spent four years engaging with indigenous and local leaders, responding to project opposition and eventually securing the approval of four indigenous communities. The project was put on hold due to the pandemic and is now being reviewed to consider an additional\u00a0component.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n\n
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In November 2023, Brandon Lee joined protesters in San Francisco to rally against a free-trade economic forum that had brought the Philippine president to the United States. Illustration by Matt Rota<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

A month later and an ocean away, in San Francisco, Lee joined protests against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a\u00a0free trade conference that had brought Marcos to the United States. In 2015<\/span>, soon after returning to IPM, Lee had stood beside his comrades to protest the forum in Manila. Eight years later, steering a\u00a0motorized wheelchair down Market Street, a\u00a0red Ifugao cloth draped over his shoulders, Lee was again on the front line. Though Lee speaks more slowly now, he has regained his voice\u2009\u2014\u2009a fact he doesn\u2019t take for\u00a0granted.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>There are thousands who were extrajudicially killed before me, and they can no longer speak out,\u201d said Lee. \u200b\u201c<\/span>There are those who were abducted, the communities being bombed and militarized. They can\u2019t speak out. So with whatever platform I\u00a0can, even if it\u2019s just me sharing what\u2019s happening there, I\u00a0will continue to do\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was supported by the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative\u00a0Reporting.<\/em><\/p>

Read more My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner<\/a><\/p>\n

Fact-checking provided by Aaliyah Berryman, Thomas Birmingham and Joyce\u00a0Li.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around the world, government forces regularly attack environmental activists with impunity\u2014and U.S. support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders - Summit Relocation Timess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=99\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders - Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Around the world, government forces regularly attack environmental activists with impunity\u2014and U.S. support.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=99\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-23T06:42:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8779075a7835156ed3e886ef343d038a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"34 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\"},\"headline\":\"The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-23T06:42:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99\"},\"wordCount\":6749,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/8779075a7835156ed3e886ef343d038a.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=99\",\"name\":\"The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders - 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