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

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You may have never heard of Juan López before. He was a father to two young daughters, Claudia and Julia. His wife is named Telma. He was a community leader in the city of Tocoa in northeastern Honduras.

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

Mr. López was gunned down as he was leaving Mass by a still unidentified assassin, a sicario who fled the crime scene on a motorcycle. He became the latest casualty among defenders of creation and Indigenous and human rights—a toll that has been especially high in Honduras.

Mr. López was a member of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, work that frequently brought him into conflict with commercial interests and local and national politicians eager to pursue “development” in the department of Colón. He has been among the leaders in years of struggle to turn back open-pit iron oxide mining, an industry that threatens the Guapinol and San Pedro river water the Lenca community relies on for drinking, fishing and agricultural needs.

Just days before his murder, Mr. López, along with other local community leaders, had demanded the resignation of Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez. He called the mayor’s continued leadership untenable after a video surfaced of a conversation conducted in 2013 among Honduran politicians and drug traffickers concerning how to distribute bribery money. Mr. Fúnez was mentioned as a possible conduit for drug cash to then-president Mel Zelaya, later ousted in a coup.

This was not the first source of tension with Tocoa’s mayor. Mr. López and other activists had already butted heads with Mr. Fúnez at council meetings convened to discuss mining and hydroelectric proposals in what is supposed to be the protected region of the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park.

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

Mr. Artiga described the work Mr. López committed himself to as “multi-issue from multiple fronts, including the religious all the way to the political. He himself was a city council member and 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 bishops’ conference of Honduras remembered Mr. López as a true “disciple and missionary” who lived out his faith through concrete action in defense of the environment.

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

The bishop noted the activist’s understanding of Pope Francis’ environmental teaching and “tenderness and truth” in responding to his detractors and wrote that his friend knew the risks he was taking. “You knew very well that the extractivist and mining system is a system that kills and destroys the whole world, along with the corruption of the false politicians and the narco-governments.”

Just days before Mr. López’s assassination, Global Witness, an international advocacy group tracking the persisting vulnerability of environmental activists, released its annual report, “Missing Voices,” a survey of the murder and intimidation of environmental and Indigenous activists around the world. Though the actual number is certainly much higher, Global Witness documented the killing of 196 eco-activists in 2023.

“Murdered defenders were, in different ways, trying to protect the planet and to uphold their fundamental human rights,” Global Witness reports. “Every killing leaves the world more vulnerable to the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.”

But murder alone is not the only tactic used to silence entire communities as extractive industries pursue profit—often in collusion with regional and national governments. According to the report, “lethal attacks often occur alongside wider retaliations against defenders who are being targeted by government, business and other non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalisation. This is happening in every region of the world and in almost every sector.”

Latin America consistently has the highest number of murders of land and environmental defenders, and in 2023, 85 percent were recorded in Latin America. Seventy percent of those murders took place in just four countries—Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico. Almost half of the activists murdered worldwide were members of Indigenous communities.

Global Witness reports that Colombia had the highest death toll, with 79 killings in 2023. But on a per capita basis, Honduras emerged (not for the first time) as the most dangerous country in the world to be a defender of the environment—18 were murdered there last year. Three of them were colleagues of Mr. López in the fight to protect water resources in Tocoa.

The murder of Mr. López speaks to the continuing impunity protecting business executives and drug cartels experienced in Honduras and other Latin American states. Mr. López was strongly supported by the Honduran Catholic Church and was close to its leaders. He had been under the protection of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because of 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 those international, regional and local sponsors and connections were enough to save him.

The murder of Mr. López was quickly deplored by the faith community in Honduras. Gregorio Vásquez, S.J., representing the National Apostolic Council of the Society of Jesus in Honduras, demanded a thorough investigation of Mr. López’s murder. But, he told Jesuit-supported Radio Progreso, that investigation should be assisted by competent international entities. He joined many in Honduras concerned that the Honduran public prosecutor’s office was not up to the job, especially in the aftermath of the damning video release that suggests how deep and for how long Honduran drug traffickers have penetrated all levels of government.

The current president, Xiamora Castro, was elected in a landslide victory that was an expression of national hope for reform and a renewed fight against government corruption and incompetence. But with her husband and current chief advisor seriously implicated by the video, many already doubt that those who killed Mr. López will be held accountable.

Esly Banegas, president of the Coordinating Board of Popular Organizations of the Aguán (COPA), told Radio Progreso: “We do not trust 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 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 been receiving various threats after city council meetings in Tocoa called by the mayor. Mr. Fúnez was seeking approval for a power generation project proposed by Grupo EMCO, the parent company of the Los Pinares mining company that Mr. López and other environmental defenders in the region have for years struggled against.

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

It is likely that Mr. López’s assassination will be recorded in next year’s report from Global Witness.

With reporting from The Associated Press and Religion News Service

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

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