The National Lawyers Guild International Committee strongly condemns the assassination of Juan López, Guapinol River water protector and mining resistance leader, in Honduras. Juan was a key leader of the community defenders of the national parks and rivers and a healthy environment for the 14 communities impacted by the mining project.
The NLG IC is part of the Observatory for Justice for the Guapinol River Defenders, which said:
“The murder of Juan López and the crisis in the Bajo Aguán are a crude reflection of the serious situation of violence, impunity and state negligence in Honduras, especially in relation to the defense of common goods, land and territory. The crisis in the Aguán is not an isolated event, but rather the expression of a long-term territorial conflict, where the interests of private companies and criminal groups continue to exploit natural resources, with total impunity and at the cost of life in the communities. The situation is urgent and unacceptable: in 2023 and 2024 alone, four defenders linked to the fight for the Guapinol River have been murdered in Honduras: Oquelí and Aly Domínguez, Jairo Bonilla and, now, Juan López, the latter with protection measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2023….The national and international organizations that make up the Observatory also support the crisis of permanent risk experienced by the Municipal Committee, its legal representatives in Honduras and family members through litigation and international advocacy. We regret that, despite the recognition that international protection organizations have made of the risk situation of Juan López and other members of the Municipal Committee and despite having a mandate of differentiated protection and risk mitigation dictated by the protection measures, which by law it had to comply with, the State of Honduras has decided to ignore them.
“The State must not only protect the rights to life and personal integrity of the beneficiaries of the precautionary measures against possible attacks from private individuals, but it also has the obligation to refrain from promoting and participating in defamation campaigns, dissemination of negative representations or the stigmatization of human rights defenders and the work they do. We remind the State that guaranteeing the life and integrity of human rights defenders and, in particular, of the beneficiaries of protection measures is its international obligation: the security of these people is in its hands. The Observatory recalls that during President Xiomara Castro’s inauguration, a call was made for the release of the Guapinol defenders, which generated hope for a change in the protection of human rights in Honduras and attention to the root of the crisis. However, more than two years after these statements, today the human rights movement in Honduras and the entire region is in mourning once again.
“To the family of Juan López, to his fellow fighters, to his community:
our solidarity embrace. We honor his legacy and his life and in his name we will continue to ask for justice and support the just cause for the rivers in Honduras.”
Guapinol River water protector and mining resistance leader Juan López killed by gunmen in Tocoa, Colón, Honduras
By Brent Patterson, PBI Canada, September 15, 2024
Late last night (September 14), Guapinol Exige Justicia posted on social media:
“OUR COMRADE JUAN LOPEZ HAS BEEN MURDERED. Our great friend, colleague and coordinator was murdered as he was leaving the church by men on motorcycles just days after he asked for the resignation of the mayor of Libre Adan Funez for his links with drug traffickers. Our hearts are broken. Our deepest condolences go out to Juan Lopez’s wife and daughters, and to all those who have been hurt in this fight for dignity. We will not rest until there is justice for Juan and our martyrs.”
Now, Criterio.hn reports:
“Tonight [September 14] around 8:40, Juan López, defender of the Botaderos mountain, the Carlos Escaleras National Park and the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers in the municipality of Tocoa, Colón, was murdered. López was a man who professed the Catholic faith and was a celebrator of the word, he was leaving a religious service when he was attacked by hitmen when he was driving in a vehicle. Despite all the warnings issued by national and international organizations about the risk he faced and of being a beneficiary of the National Protection System, the measures adopted by the State of Honduras were insufficient to protect the life of defender Juan López.”
“Seven Headed Monster” Guapinol mining project
The Spanish news agency EFE adds: “López was opposed to a mining project known as Guapinol, in the department of Colón, in the Honduran Caribbean, which allegedly originates from the illegality of the mining concession.”
Proceso Digital further notes: “The environmental defender of Guapinol, leader of the Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) and councilor of the municipality of Tocoa, Colón, Juan López was murdered this Saturday.”
El Salto also explains:
“He defended his land from the Facussé family’s mining project in Guapinol, in the north of the country. He did so through two paths: first, and always, from the popular struggle of the Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods, then he added the institutional struggle, joining the Libre Party and obtaining a councillorship in the last elections.
He was fighting the Seven-Headed Monster. This is what they call this seven-legged megaproject in Tocoa:
- two iron oxide mines built in a supposedly protected area (the Montaña Botaderos National Park);
- the thermoelectric plant already built and that if turned on will steal the water that the municipalities need to live from the Guapinol River and its tributaries;
- a pelletizing plant that will work with the energy of the thermoelectric plant – based on the polluting petroleum coke; and
- three wells of water that would dry up the earth.
This megaproject arose with former president and now convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández, skipping Honduras’ ban on mining projects and granting construction permits to Ana Facussé and Lenir Pérez, the large Honduran landowners living in the United States.”
Reaction on social media
On social media, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) has posted: “Juan was murdered for his work defending the Guapinol River against Lenir Pérez’s Minera Los Pinares Ecotek [mining-thermoelectric plant megaproject] and its local mafias. Juan was murdered days after calling for the resignation of the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, for his links to drug trafficking.”
COPINH general coordinator Bertha Zuniga Caceres adds: “It is with great pain that I receive the horrible news of the murder of my comrade Juan López. How many memories come to my mind of the struggles we have endured. I have fought for justice for my mother [Berta Caceres] because I wanted this not to happen again, but that dream is becoming more and more distant. Honduras Hurts!”
The Honduran Center for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) has also posted: “We strongly condemn the murder of environmental leader, defender of our common home and our comrade in arms, Juan López. We demand an immediate investigation to find the perpetrators of this crime. We demand justice!”
And Edy Tabora, director of the law firm Justice for the Peoples, has posted: “Another great comrade and social activist was murdered. He was fighting for life and against extractivism. He died as a criminal, without the threats he constantly received being investigated. He died without the State complying with the precautionary measure of the IACHR [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] that ordered his life to be protected.”
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.
The struggle to defend the Guapinol River has claimed the lives of too many environmental defenders including Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada and José Mario Rivera (August 28, 2019), Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo (October 13, 2020), Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), Óscar Oquelí Domínguez Ramos (June 15, 2023) and now Juan López.
PBI-Canada extends its condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Juan López and we remain attentive to this situation.
- Further reading: The struggle of the Guapinol River defenders against the Los Pinares megaproject continues in Honduras (PBI-Canada, September 3, 2024).
Hidden connection between US steel company NUCOR Corp. & illegal mine in Guapinol, Honduras
Rights Action, January 26, 2021
https://mailchi.mp/
A courageous, community-led human rights and environmental defense struggle continues in Guapinol, where local people resist the illegal imposition of an iron oxide mine, suffering violence and criminalization by company-linked operators and the US and Cdn-backed Honduran regime.
From The Intercept:
“In 2014, John Ferriola, then CEO of Nucor, told Time Magazine that Honduras could play a central role in Nucor’s strategy to revive the U.S. steel industry. Nucor would produce pellets that, when combined with recycled steel, that would improve product quality and reduce costs.
“When Nucor invested in iron mining and steel production in Honduras, it did not do so by the light of day. Instead, its subsidiaries — Nucor South America and Nucor Trading — partnered with holding firms for Hondurans that were created in a tax haven, Panama.
“Nucor was an important donor to Donald Trump’s last two presidential campaigns.
“Under the Trump administration, reforms aimed at benefiting the steel sector particularly favored Nucor, according to an investigation by the New York Times.”
The hidden connection between a US steel company – NUCOR Corp. – and the controversial Los Pinares mine in Honduras
By Jennifer Avila & Danielle Mackey, 9 Nov 2020
https://www.univision.com/
The Struggle to Defend Water in Guapinol
Honduras Now Podcast Ep. 14, Jan. 15, 2021
https://redcircle.com/shows/
The Guapinol community, on the country’s north coast, has become militarized in an effort to defend the river that supplies it
By Nina Lakhani, 6 Oct 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/
