CORTÉS, HONDURAS.- Crimes against environmental and indigenous leaders in Honduras do not stop. The assassination of leader Lenca was recorded in the northern department of Cortés on Sunday evening Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante, 41 years old, and on Monday morning the authorities arrested one of the alleged perpetrators.
The event was recorded in front of the Catholic Church in the community of New Granada, between the municipalities of Chinda, Santa Bárbara and San Antonio Cortés, in the department of Cortés, when the ecologist was returning from his mother’s house.
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Betty Vásquez, the coordinator of the Santabarbarense Environmental Movement (MAS), told The Associated Press that Cerros was a pastoral agent of the Catholic Church and that at the time of the murder he was with his children, who witnessed their father’s death.
Cerros led the so-called local movemento “United Communities” which brings together the groups surrounding the rivers Ulúa de Chinda and San Antonio Cortés, which defend the tributary against the El Tornillito hydroelectric project in that area.
“We condemn the killing of a defender and another comrade. That’s not fair. It is not possible for you to be incriminated, persecuted and then take your own life to defend a territory. We offer this crime the appreciation that it is a political crime “, said Vásquez.
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In turn, the inspector of the National Police, Juan Sabillon, the head of the northwestern region, told the PA that “we are conducting investigations and we have several people fully identified.”
“The national police, after investigative actions and raids, report the arrest of the alleged mastermind of the crime of the indigenous leader Juan Carlos Cerros”, the law enforcement authorities later wrote on their official Twitter account.
According to international movement statistics Via CampesinaIn 2020 alone, a total of 12 natural resources defenders were assassinated in Honduras.
The last two crimes were registered in December. On the 26th of that month, the leader of the Lenca ethnic group and a candidate for deputy for Freedom and Refoundation Party (Free of charge), Felix Vasquez, in the municipality of Santiago de Puringla, in La Paz, and a day later died a member of the community Tolupán Jose Adam Medina, in the municipality of Morazán, Yoro department.
Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries for environmental activism, according to a survey of Global witness published in 2017, since 2010 over 120 people have died.
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The most notorious crime so far is that of the environmentalist Berta Cáceres, shot to death on March 3, 2016 by unknown persons who entered her house in the municipality of La Esperanza, Intibucá department and shot her repeatedly.
According to data published by Global Witness, as of March 2, 2020, at least 27 defenders of the country and territory had been killed in the fatal attack on Berta.