Environmentalist Juan López, who fought against open-pit mining in Honduras, was shot dead on Saturday night in the northeast of the country, a crime that is being investigated by the police and has been condemned by the authorities.
According to local press reports, López, 46, was killed by individuals when he was inside his vehicle after leaving a church in the municipality of Tocoa (in the Department of Colón), where he lived and worked as a city council member.
“We condemn the vile murder of our comrade and environmental leader Juan López in Tocoa, Colón. I have ordered that all the capacity of law enforcement be used to clarify this tragedy and identify those responsible,” Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on the social network X after the crime.
“Justice for Juan López,” added the leftist leader, expressing her solidarity with the family and friends of the environmentalist, who was a member of the ruling Libertad y Refundación (Libre) party.
Thelma Peña, López’s wife, said in a brief phone call that the activist was “shot” moments after leaving the church, where she was not present.
In the early hours of Sunday, the Police stated in a press release that units of the institution, including an anti-gang unit, are collecting evidence “that will allow the facts to be clarified” and asked “the population that has relevant information regarding the criminal act to communicate confidentially” through their 911 emergency line.
IACHR precautionary measures
The environmentalist had recently called for the resignation of officials in Tocoa, who belong to the Libre party, after they appeared in a video negotiating bribes with drug traffickers in 2013, sparking a scandal in the country.
Carlos Zelaya, brother of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya – who in turn is the husband of the current president – appeared in the video. After acknowledging that he participated in the meeting, he resigned from his seat as a deputy and his position as secretary of Congress.
The environmentalist had precautionary measures ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since October 2023 due to threats against him and other environmentalists in Tocoa.
“The vile murder of the renowned environmentalist Juan López is a reprehensible act, his life was an example of struggle, he never gave up in his incessant battle alongside the people to preserve natural resources in the northwest of the country,” said Honduras’ Attorney General, Johel Zelaya, on X.
The prosecutor indicated that “specialized teams” from the institution “are already investigating so that his death does not go unpunished.”
Danger for environmentalists
López was a staunch opponent of open-pit mining and denounced damage to the Botaderos forest reserve, near Tocoa, 220 km northeast of Tegucigalpa.
In November 2021, López commented on the risks faced by environmentalists in Honduras: “When one gets involved in this country to defend common goods […] one clashes with big interests,” he said during an interview with AFP.
“If one leaves home, one always has in mind that one doesn’t know what might happen and if one can return home, and if one can see the family again,” López said on that occasion.
In the interview, he recounted that someone once warned him that the same thing would happen to him as to Berta Cáceres, the renowned Honduran environmentalist leader who was shot dead on March 2, 2016, for opposing the construction of a hydroelectric plant in the west of the country. Honduras is one of the deadliest countries for environmental activists in the world, according to the NGO Global Witness.
The organization, in a report published last week, indicated that the Central American nation is in fourth place among the most dangerous places for environmentalists with 18 murders in 2023, after Colombia (79), Brazil (25), and Mexico (18).
