PBI-Honduras observes court hearing of three accused in the killing of Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez
PBI-Honduras has posted on social media:
“Yesterday [March 11], we observed the initial hearing against three defendants from the company Inversiones Los Pinares/Ecotek accused of #environmental damages to the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park. The Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods demands #justice and highlights the alleged existence of a criminal structure that would be behind the installation of the company in the national park and the murder of community leaders, such as #defender Juan López.”
The Spanish news agency EFE has previously reported: “A court in San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, on [October 6, 2024] ordered the judicial arrest of three men accused of the murder of environmentalist Juan López, which occurred on September 14. The measure was issued against Hondurans Óscar Alexi Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía…”
Two weeks ago, on February 26, PBI-Honduras also observed a media conference held by the Municipal Committee in Defence of Public and Common Goods (CMDBCP) demanding justice for Juan López.
At that time, EFE reported: “[Th CMDBCP] demanded that the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) investigate and prosecute the ‘criminal structure’ responsible for the murder of environmentalist Juan López, on September 14, 2024. The demonstrators consider that although so far three people have been arrested, including the alleged perpetrator of the murder of Juan López, the intellectual authors are missing. [Many people] believe that executives of the mining company Pinares Ecotek and the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez are involved in the murder of Juan López.”
The Los Pinares megaproject
The Los Pinares megaproject has seven components including: the ASP and ASP2 concessions to dig for iron oxide, a thermoelectric plant that would burn petroleum coke (pet coke) to power the operations, an iron oxide pelletizing plant that could produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange, and the Guapinol River and Ceibita stream concessions that would extract one hundred gallons of water per minute for the pelletizing plant.
Accompaniment
PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson visited Tocoa and Guapinol, Honduras on October 29-30, 2024, to learn more about this case.
A poster of Juan Lopez in Tocoa, the city where he was killed.
The entrance to the village of Guapinol.
From Canada we continue to follow the legal proceedings, the demands for the intellectual authors of the murder to be held accountable, as well as the demand for the Los Pinares megaproject to be cancelled.
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.
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