Planeta Guapinol
(Castellano) (Euskara)
Environmental activist Juan López was shot dead by hired assassins on the night of 14 September. López belonged to the Comité Municipal para la Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos, an environmental organisation in the town of Tocoa, on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. CMDBCPT fights against mining and hydroelectric projects in their area, which not only affect their territory, but also the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers.
Because of this struggle, activists in this region are suffering great repression, including the death, imprisonment and exile of others. CMDBCPT brings together different organisations in the region: Environmental Committees of Sector San Pedro (13 communities) and Sector Abisinia (14 communities); Environmental Committee of the Community of Guapinol, peasant groups and the organisations Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguán (COPA); Fundación San Alonso Rodríguez (FSAR) and Parroquia San Isidro de Tocoa.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested protection measures for Juan López, which the government obviously failed to comply with. The mentioned organizations hold the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez and his clique responsible for his death, as López had asked for his resignation due to alleged links with drug trafficking.
Today (19 September) it was also learned that the Court of Appeals of La Ceiba revoked the definitive dismissal of five environmental defenders of the Guapinol sector, among them the deceased Juan López. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had filed an appeal against this measure for these activists charged with the crimes of unjust deprivation of liberty, aggravated arson, robbery and illicit association. In addition to the recently deceased, these included Carlos Leonel George, Reynaldo Domínguez Ramos, José Adaly Cedillo Mendoza and Marco Tulio Ramos.
The Comité Municipal en Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos de Tocoa demanded an independent and exhaustive investigation into the murder of Juan López. Independent because CMDBCPT rejects the participation in the investigation of both the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Tocoa and the Specialised Unit for the Investigation of Violent Deaths in Bajo Aguán (UMVIBA) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as well as any local political representatives involved in power structures. They argue that they all play a role in the persecution and criminalisation of Guapinol activists.
Xiomara Castro’s presidency is not living up to expectations, as it was expected to bring about a complete reversal of old policies, and while she has been in power, not only are activities of great environmental and social impact still being implemented, but also repression and death continues against those who question her.
CMDBCPT also demands the immediate implementation of Decree 18-2024 which excludes mining activity from protected areas (as it could not be otherwise! That is why they are protected!). This decree was approved this February 2024. But in the meantime, as we are now seeing, not only is it not being complied with, but those who denounce this outrage are being persecuted and even killed.
We bring here the heartfelt tribute that the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) offered him: ‘Juan López was an exceptional man who, after his assassination, leaves us a word that is always alive and full of permanent struggle for the dignity of every human being who needs and responsibly cares for the natural resources necessary to live with dignity and peace of mind’.
A death which adds to others in Guapinol
On 15 June 2023, Oquelí Domínguez was murdered in the community of Guapinol (department of Colón), and five months earlier, on 7 January 2023, his brother, Aly Domínguez, and Jairo Bonilla Ayala were killed.
Last October 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures in favour of 30 members of this organisation, including López, and his legal team. It also urged the Honduran government to strengthen protection mechanisms for these activists. The Tocoa Committee constantly demands that the state fulfil its obligation to protect these citizens.
On 24 February 2022, eight activists from Guapinol, who had been imprisoned for more than two years for simply defending their territory, their river and their way of life, were also released. Despite the end of the judicial process, the defenders continued to suffer attacks: smear campaigns, threats and even assassinations. Some of them were forced to leave Guapinol for security reasons. They were forcibly displaced.
But the repression did not stop and in February 2023, another six Guapinol river defenders were criminally prosecuted for peacefully questioning the legality of the mining project in the Carlos Escaleras National Park.
The case of the community of Guapinol is emblematic due to the serious environmental and resource impact of a mega-mining project in the Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. This impact has consequently also affected the communities living there. But it has also led to human rights violations against them for questioning and opposing these activities. Thirty-two human rights defenders were criminalised for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.
It should be emphasised that all this is happening while this same year, on 21 February, Decree 18-2024 was approved with the aim of creating the Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. The park was thus incorporated into the National System of Protected Areas and Wildlife of Honduras (SINAPH)’.
Honduras: the country where human rights defenders are murdered
The murder of Juan López is added to the hundreds of other Life defenders murdered on the Planet day after day. Of all the countries on the Planet, Honduras stands out as a country with a sad legacy.
As expressed by the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) ‘Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental and human rights defenders. Since 2010, more than 160 defenders have been killed, according to the Global Witness report. These figures show a serious crisis of impunity, where state institutions, instead of protecting, are often complicit in the repression and violence suffered by community leaders’.
‘In the last five years, more than 1,200 defenders have faced prosecution on unfounded charges designed to undermine territorial and environmental struggles. These prosecutions range from criminalisation for land usurpation to accusations of terrorism, which shows the level of hostility faced by environmental defenders in the country’.
MAPJ starts with the recent murder of Juan López, and continues with the most internationally known of all, that of the Lenca activist Berta Cáceres, murdered in 2016, after years of struggle against the Agua Zarca dam.
But in addition to this and the bloody case of Guanipol, another of the most tragic cases is that suffered by the indigenous community of Tolupán San Francisco Locomapa. This people have suffered multiple attacks because of their opposition to logging and mining in their territories. In 2013, three members of this community were killed by hired killers. Ironicly, they also enjoyed the same protection measures granted to Juan López by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Ramón Fiallos, a defender of the Jilamito river against a hydroelectric project, was the other emblematic case, as he suffered multiple threats before being killed.
