Outrage in Honduras over the murder of the third environmentalist so far this year

The residents of Bajo Aguán in northern Honduras took to the streets this Monday to show their mourning and indignation for the murder of social leader Omar Cruz Tomé, completed last week in a wave of homicides against environmentalists in that region of the country. Two other crimes were recorded in early January.

Cruz Tomé presided over the Los Laureles Agricultural Cooperative, had already received threats and the State was aware of the vulnerability of this defender of land rights in a fertile area, where an “inherited conflictive” situation persists, as recognized by the Government Human Rights Secretariat.

The successive attacks where Aly Domínguez and Jairo Bonilla also perished have been recorded in the Department of Colón and according to investigations the three crimes are attributed to heavily armed hit men.

These environmentalists denounced for years “the dispossession of land” from peasants to supposedly benefit foreign companies. The residents of Bajo Aguán ask for the clarification of the crimes and for justice to be done, although they fear reprisals.

“To date they have not done anything, the investigations are not advancing, because the Tocoa authorities are in collusion with a mining company that exploits the Carlos Escaleras Montaña de Botaderos National Park,” he told Associated Press Reynaldo Domínguez, brother of Aly Domínguez, killed on January 7.

The representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Honduras, Isabel Albaladejo, warned local media that the escalation of violence against defenders of land rights generates concern and has called on the State to strengthen protection measures for these leaders.

The peasant movement in Honduras has indicated that lists have been disseminated with the names of social leaders who are under threat for their activities in defense of the rights of peoples and the environment, and that the state must protect them.

The National Network for Escazú, which brings together environmental groups at the national level, said this weekend in a statement that the successive murders against social leaders show the institutional deterioration and the lack of response from the State to guarantee fundamental rights claimed by the communities peasants.

“The events that occurred show once again that in Honduras, in the fight and protection of the environment, there is no guarantee of the right to life free of violations and threats for territorial defenders,” the organization said in a statement of demands to the Honduran government.

The head of the Human Rights Secretariat, Natalie Roque, has said that the government of President Xiomara Castro shares her “deep indignation and pain” at the murders committed against these environmental leaders.

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