The killing of an eco-defender in Honduras highlights a global problem of impunity

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You may not have heard of Juan López. He was the father of two young daughters, Claudia and Julia. His wife’s name is Telma. He was a community leader in the northeastern Honduran city of Tocoa.

On September 14, he became a statistic, a martyr.

Mr. López was shot as he left mass by a still unknown hitman, a beard who fled the scene on a motorcycle. He became the latest victim among defenders of creation and the rights of indigenous peoples and man, a toll that is especially high in Honduras.

Mr. López served on the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods in Tocoa, work that often brought him into conflict with commercial interests and local and national politicians eager to “develop” the department of Colón. He has been a leader in the years-long fight to reverse open-pit iron oxide mining, an industry that threatens the waters of the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers that the Lenca community relies on for drinking water, fishing and agriculture.

Just days before his murder, Mr. López, along with other local community leaders, had called for the resignation of Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez, calling the mayor’s continued leadership untenable after video emerged of a 2013 conversation between Honduran politicians and drug traffickers over the distribution of bribes. Mr. Fúnez had been implicated as a possible conduit for drug money to then-President Mel Zelaya, who was later ousted in a coup.

This was not the first source of tension with the mayor of Tocoa. Mr. López and other activists had already clashed with Mr. Fúnez during council meetings convened to discuss mining and hydroelectric proposals in what would be the protected area of ​​the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park.

Mr. López was remembered fondly on September 18 by José Artiga, the executive director of California’s Share Foundation. In an email to Americahe compared Mr. López to another prominent environmental and indigenous defender of Honduras, Berta Cáceres, who was martyred in 2016. Mr. López, he wrote, “embraced” all the struggles faced by his community, “the indigenous people, the Tolupanes, who have been displaced by the companies that cut down their trees, and also the struggle of the African/Honduran Garifunas who have been displaced to use their beautiful beaches for tourist projects.”

Mr. Artiga described the work Mr. López has devoted himself to as “multi-issue on multiple fronts, from religion to politics. He himself was a city councilor and a member of the Libre Party.”

But, he added, “Juan’s anchor was (his faith), formed by the Jesuits. As a catechist, he interpreted the Gospel and applied it as the preferential option for the poor from the liberation theology of Puebla and Medellín.”

The Episcopal Conference of Honduras remembered Mr. López as a true “disciple and missionary” who lived his faith through concrete action in defense of the environment.

In a message addressed to Mr. López after his death, the Very Reverend Jenry Ruiz of the Diocese of Trujillo wrote: “You told me that you were not an environmentalist, because for you social, ecological and political commitment was not an ideological issue, but a question of your being of Christ and of the Church.”

The bishop noted that the activist understood Pope Francis’ environmental teaching and was “tender and honest” in his response to his opponents, writing that his friend knew the risks he was taking. “You knew very well that the extractive and mining system is a system that kills and destroys the entire world, along with the corruption of the false politicians and the narco-governments.”

Just days before Mr. López’s murder, Global Witness, an international advocacy group that documents the continued vulnerability of environmental activists, released its annual report, “Missing Voices,” an investigation into the murder and intimidation of environmental and indigenous activists around the world. While the true number is certainly much higher, Global Witness documented the killing of 196 eco-activists in 2023.

“Defenders killed were trying to protect the planet and uphold their basic human rights in different ways,” Global Witness reports. “Every killing makes the world more vulnerable to the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.”

But killing is not the only tactic used to silence entire communities as extractive industries pursue profits, often in collaboration with regional and national governments. According to the report, “deadly attacks often occur alongside broader retaliatory measures against defenders, who are targeted by government, corporate and other non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalization. This is happening in every region of the world and across almost every sector.”

Latin America consistently has the highest number of killings of land and environmental defenders, with 85 percent recorded in Latin America in 2023. Seventy percent of those killings occurred in just four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico. Nearly half of the activists killed globally were members of indigenous communities.

Global Witness reports that Colombia had the highest death toll, with 79 murders in 2023. But based on population, Honduras emerged (not for the first time) as the most dangerous country in the world to defend the environment, with 18 murdered there last year. Three of them were colleagues of Mr López in the fight to protect water sources in Tocoa.

Mr. López’s murder is evidence of the continuing impunity surrounding the protection of businessmen and drug cartels in Honduras and other Latin American states. Mr. López had strong support from the Honduran Catholic Church and was close to its leaders. He was under the protection of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights due to the many threats against his life, and in 2019 he traveled to the United States to receive the prestigious Letelier Moffitt Human Rights Award from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. None of these international, regional and local sponsors and connections were enough to save him.

Mr. López’s murder was quickly deplored by Honduras’s religious community. Gregorio Vásquez, SJ, representing the National Apostolic Council of the Society of Jesus in Honduras, demanded a thorough investigation into Mr. López’s killing. But, he told Jesuit-backed Radio Progreso, the investigation should be assisted by competent international bodies. He joined many in Honduras who worried that the Honduran Public Prosecutor’s Office was not up to the task, especially after the devastating release of video footage suggesting the depth and length of Honduran drug traffickers’ infiltrates at all levels of government.

The current president, Xiamora Castro, was elected in a landslide victory that reflected national hopes for reform and a renewed fight against government corruption and incompetence. But with her husband and current chief adviser heavily implicated in the video, many already doubt that those who murdered Mr. López will be held accountable.

Esly Banegas, president of the Coordinating Council of Popular Organizations of the Aguán (COPA), told Radio Progreso: “We have no confidence in the justice system in Honduras because we have not seen results over the years.”

“This Aguán Valley has been massacred. We have fought and we are still at risk… We hope that the political will will translate into concrete actions to protect human rights defenders.”

Ms Banegas told the independent Honduran news service Contra Corriente that she and Mr López had received several threats following meetings of the Tocoa city council called by the mayor. Mr Fúnez was seeking approval for an electricity generation project proposed by Grupo EMCO, the parent company of the Los Pinares mining firm that Mr López and other environmentalists in the region have been fighting for years.

Ms. Banegas called on President Castro to take action against drug trafficking and to end attacks on environmental and civil rights defenders in the region. “They have established a pattern of killing,” she said. “They used it with Berta and now with Juan. They threaten, criminalize and then kill.”

It is likely that Mr López’s murder will be included in Global Witness’s report next year.

With reporting from The Associated Press and Religion News Service

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