Nine months after the IACHR issued Precautionary Measures on behalf of 30 human rights defenders at risk, their situation has worsened because the Honduran State has failed to implement any effective protective measures.

July 23, 2024

Despite the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issuance of Precautionary Measures in October 2023, the Honduran government has failed to implement any measures, on behalf of the communities of Guapinol, San Pedro and Tocoa, or their advocates, all at great risk due to their opposition of the EMCO Holdings Pinares/Ecotek megaprojects, leaving the beneficiaries under a worsening situation and absolute lack of protection.

In recent months, the risks to affected communities have heightened due to intensifying defamation and stigmatization campaigns, spread through local and social media against the community human rights defenders. These campaigns have led to an increase of death threats accompanied by continued reclamations about the lack of security in the region.

Although the Precautionary Measures were granted in October 2023 to protect members of the Tocoa Municipal Committee for the Defense of Public Domain (CMDBCPT), it was not until May of 2024 that the Attorney General’s Office transferred the file to the National Protection Mechanism. This is clear evidence of seven months of complete government inaction while community defenders face ongoing threats to their physical integrity and lives.

The defamation campaigns have heightened. Of particular concern are the public statements by Tocoa Mayor Adan Funes imputing members of CMDBCPT for violence, including arson of the Tocoa Municipal offices on July 4, 2024, putting the beneficiary defenders at risk of further criminalization. The defenders have reported the multiple defamation campaigns to the corresponding national authorities who have failed to conduct investigations or take concrete action to ensure the safety of the people and communities defamed. Immediately after the fire incident, the CMDBCPT issued a public statement demanding that authorities conduct a full and impartial investigation into the burning of the Tocoa Municipal Offices, public property of the inhabitants of Tocoa.

The communities also have denounced the mayor of Tocoa for ignoring the sovereign decision of the December 2023 public town hall meeting, when the local population rejected the approval of the Ecotek Thermoelectric Project and all other components of the Emco Holdings Extractive Megaproject. The irregular mining activities have been carried out inside the national park Botaderos Carlos Escalera Mejía and impacting the communities surrounding the protected area.

The communities also denounced the mayor’s decision to hold a second town hall meeting in June 2024, as an illegal abuse of power. The purpose of the second town hall was to approve the previously rejected petroleum coke thermoelectric project, despite a resolution from the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice suspending the meeting’s effects until the Court resolves a request for injunction filed by the affected communities, CMDBCPT, Plataforma Agraria, and other human rights organizations.

Given this context and the Honduran government’s lack of implementation of any protective measures, the above international organizations, together with the beneficiaries, have once again requested the IACHR to insist upon the State of Honduras to immediately comply with the urgent measures agreed upon to protect the beneficiaries. Also, we are concerned that no apparent actions have been made to comply with the decree to restore the area of Carlos Escaleras National Park and advance the prosecutorial investigation of the environmental crimes, illegal mining, acts of corruption, threats, incitement to discriminate, and above all, the apparent lack of progress to prosecute the 2023 murders of defenders Jairo Bonilla, Aly Dominguez, and Oqueli Dominguez.

These measures were granted in October 2023 due to the historical context of violence against people defending the land and territory of Bajo Aguán, in addition to the current violence arising from the thermoelectric megaproject and mining investments of Los Pinares and Ecotek of Emco Holdings, plus the assassination of three Rio Guapinol defenders. The issuance of IAHCR protective measure is a mechanism to insist upon the Honduran State to protect individuals who are at severe and urgent risk of irreparable damage to their rights to life and bodily integrity.

The organizations representing these measures are the Comité Municipal de Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos de Tocoa, the Bufete Justicia para los Pueblos, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights center, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación (ERIC), the International Committee of the National Lawyers Guild, the International Human Rights Law Clinic of the University of Virginia, and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).