(Castellano) (Euskera)
On the morning of 15 June 2023, Oqueli Domínguez was murdered. Oqueli was brother of Ali Domínguez, also murdered as we denounced earlier this year, and Reynaldo, leader of the Committee for the Defence of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, who was criminalised and persecuted for his struggle in defence of the Guapinol River and the Carlos Escaleras National Park. He was murdered in his mother’s house. In fact, his mother herself was injured during the armed attack for trying to defend him. Oqueli’s murder was carried out in front of children.
According to the organisation Guapinol Resiste, the attack took place after the mining company Los Pinares, part of the Emco Group, massively dismissed hundreds of employees. The communities living in the Guapinol river valley have been in conflict for a long time to defend this river and the Carlos Escaleras National Park from the effects of mining exploitation by the company Inversiones Los Pinares of Lenir Pérez.
The community of Guapinol has been bloodied since the Pinares company installed a mining company that has caused serious damage to the environment and to the community and its social fabric. In addition to those killed, the defence of this territory has provoked great repression that has resulted in the imprisonment of 8 activists for more than 2 years, as well as threats and the consequent exile of others.
Once again, A Planeta joins the collective indignation and stands in solidarity with Reynaldo Dominguez and his family, and with the collective of defenders of the Guapinol River and the Carlos Escaleras National Park.
We join the National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Honduras in their demand for an immediate halt to the murder of defenders from the Guapinol community.
The government is obliged to protect these leaders at mortal risk and to carry out an immediate and effective investigation of these crimes so that impunity does not encourage more violence.
We call on national and international public opinion to speak out in favour of protecting the lives of the leaders who are at high risk.
