A Mexican environmental activist was murdered, soon before a referendum on a controversial thermal-electric plant and pipeline that he had been opposing. Samir Flores Soberanes, an indigenous Náhuatl, was killed in his home on 19th February 2019 in Amilcingo in Morelos state. He was a human rights activist, producer for a community radio station and a long-time opponent of the thermal-electric plant and pipeline Proyecto Integral Morelos (the integral project for Morelos). Mexican media reported that Flores had been shot twice in the head by unknown assailants. The Morelos' state prosecutor said the murder had nothing to do with the thermal-electric plant and investigators were probing links to organised crime. The People’s Front in Defence of the Land and Water for the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala (FPDTA) said in a statement that Flores had no enemies besides those behind the project. “This is a political crime because of the human rights defense that Samir and the FPDTA carried out against the [project] and for people’s autonomy and self-determination,” their statement said. There will be a referendum held on the project in the three states. The president condemned Flores’s murder but said the referendum would proceed as planned.