On the evening of September 14, after attending mass in his community, Juan López – Tocoa councilman and well-known environmental defender in the region – was shot inside his vehicle by a hitman on a motorcycle. President Xiomara Castro has promised to use every means available to law enforcement to investigate the murder. López had called for the voluntary resignation of Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez, member of the Libre Party who recently appeared in a video negotiating with drug traffickers and other top politicians of the current government.
Text: Jennifer Ávila
Photography: Fernando Destephen
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Contracorriente published a piece on Juan López entitled, How to Fight for the Environment in Honduras Without Becoming a Martyr. The title made sense at the time; environmentalist Berta Cáceres had been murdered four years prior and Honduras was the most dangerous country for environmental activists. López stood out for being hopeful, and despite imprisonment and constant threats, he continued to lead a very unequal struggle. But that headline doesn’t make sense anymore because López was murdered.
López was a community leader, a religious leader of the Catholic Church, and an environmentalist activist. In recent days, López called for the resignation of Mayor Adam Fúnez, whom he had denounced for his alleged ties to organized crime in the region.
“[. . .] Should he ignore this demand, he will have to give in to pressure from the population because he is no longer suitable for leading the municipality,” López said, referring to the video.
López survived many attacks while defending the Carlos Escaleras National Park in the Colón department. In 2019, he was wrongly charged with several crimes, including aggravated arson and deprivation of liberty, and was accused by Honduras’ investigative police unit of leading a criminal gang. He and more than 30 environmentalists were prosecuted and imprisoned. However, López recently denounced that new criminal proceedings were being brought against him and other members of his community.
López and other members of the Tocoa Committee for the Defense of Public Goods had also fallen victim to smear campaigns by people linked to the mining company Los Pinares, the titan that López had faced since it irregularly won two mining concessions in a protected area.
The acting Secretary of Human Rights Angelica Álvarez wrote on X, “We condemn the vile murder of Juan López, well-known defender of public goods, councilman of the Tocoa municipality, a fighter, a great person, and a dear friend. We demand justice, a thorough investigation and a prison sentence for the cowards who murdered him [. . .].” The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had issued protective measures for López, who was killed inside his vehicle in his community. These are recurring events in Honduras. Environmental activist and social leader Berta Cáceres was also under protective measures when she was killed in 2016.
Esly Banegas, president of the Coordinating Board of Popular Organizations of the Aguán (COPA), told Contracorriente a few minutes after the murder that López had been killed by a person on a motorcycle after attending mass, according to preliminary information.
In addition, she said that López and other environmental advocates in the area had received various threats following the series of open councils that Adam Fúnez promoted in late 2023 and early 2024 for the installation of a power generation project by Grupo EMCO, which was endorsed by several government officials, including Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment Lucky Medina. Grupo EMCO is also the parent company of Los Pinares, a mining project led by Lenir Pérez and Ana Facussé. Perez is under investigation in the US over his relationship with the company Nucor Corporation.
Banegas also explained that state security and investigative forces had initiated prosecutions and resumed criminal proceedings against environmental defenders.
Rita Romero, lawyer of the Committee, told Contracorriente, “These actions are premeditated. I would like to believe that this will at least shed light on what the State’s complicity in this death and many others means.”
Father Ismael Moreno, former director of Radio Progreso and social leader, publicly demanded that an international commission cooperates with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation of this murder to avoid impunity as there is no trust in public institutions.
Global Witness reported that 18 environmental defenders were killed in Honduras in 2023. This makes Honduras the most dangerous country for activists in Central America and third in the Americas, only behind Colombia and Brazil.
