Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined statement condemning the assassination of Honduran Environmental Leader Juan López on Sunday, September 15, 2024, and calling for justice. Juan López was an outspoken critic of open pit mining and hydro-electric projects. He was shot multiple times in his car after he left church. Honduras remains the fourth most dangerous country in Latin America for environmental activists. Read as a PDF.
September 19, 2024
As faith based and non-governmental human rights organizations with a long history working for human rights in Honduras, we strongly condemn the assassination of renowned environmental activist Juan López on Saturday, September 14 in Tocoa. An outspoken critic of open pit mining and hydro-electric projects, he was shot multiple times in his car after he left church.
Juan was a member of the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (Comité Municipal de Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos de Tocoa -CMDBCP), a committee formed in 2015 to organize against concessions to an iron ore mining project in the Carlos Escaleras National Park because of the risks the mine posed to rivers and watersheds. The mining concessions were granted to Los Pinares mining company, owned by some of the most powerful families in Honduras.
Juan and other environmentalists received numerous death threats for their work and in October 2023, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission granted protective measures to him and 29 other activists in the community. In recent months, Juan reported being followed by two men on motorcycles and receiving numerous threats from a local businessperson and a representative of the mining company.
Juan was 46 years old, married and with a daughter. In 2019, the CMDBCP was the recipient of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for their unwavering work to protect their forests and rivers. Accepting the award on behalf of the organization, Juan said “We dream of a world free of violence, free of drug trafficking, free of corruption and empire… With the same spirit of Berta Cáceres, we say: Wake up humanity, there is no more time!”
We urge an immediate investigation into his assassination so that the perpetrators are brought to justice, including those who ordered the killing. We call on the Libre government to strengthen its protective measures for environmentalists and activists and for President Xiomara Castro to keep her campaign promise to end open-pit mining in the country.
Honduras is the fourth most dangerous country for environmental activists in the world, with 18 activists killed in 2023, according to Global Witness. Honduras is a country that is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by climate change including hurricanes, floods, droughts and landslides. The frequency and intensity of these events is expected to increase. The time to change course is now.
Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective, Honduras Program (WfPSC)
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
Solidarity Center
SHARE Foundation
Root Causes Initiative
Quixote Center
Presbyterian Church (USA), Office of Public Witness
Pax Christi USA
Pax Christi International
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Loretto Community Latin America/Caribbean Committee
Latin American Working Group (LAWG)
Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI)
Institute for Policy Studies
Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
Familias Unidas en Acción
Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
