MEXICO CITY (AP) — An indigenous rights activist has been slain in the Sierra Madre mountains of northern Mexico just weeks after community members complained about a mining concession granted to outside parties on their ancestral lands.

Julian Carrillo is a leader of the Tarahumara community of Coloradas de la Virgen in Chihuahua state. The Tarahumara have fought illegal logging and other enterprises.

Amnesty International says Carrillo was pursued and killed Wednesday evening. The group said Carrillo had received government protection since 2014 through a program to safeguard human rights activists but armed men continued to threaten the community.

Carrillo's house was burned in 2016, and four of his family members had been slain over the last three years.

At least 17 human rights defenders have been killed this year in Mexico.