CORTÉS, HONDURAS. – Crimes against environmental and indigenous leaders in Honduras don’t stop. On Sunday evening, the murder of the Lenca leader was registered in the northern department of Cortés Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante, 41, and on Monday morning, authorities arrested one of the alleged perpetrators.
The event was recorded for 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 environmentalist returned from his mother’s house.
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Betty Vásquez, 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 crime he was witnessing the death of their father along with his children.
Cerros led the local movement that was called upono “United communities” which brings the groups together around the rivers Ulúa de Chinda and San Antonio Cortés, which defend the tributary against the El Tornillito hydropower project in that area.
“We condemn the murder of a defender and another comrade. That’s not fair. You cannot be criminalized, prosecuted and then taken your life for defending a territory. We judge this crime as a political murder, ”said Vásquez.
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For his part, the Inspector of the National Police, Juan Sabillon, chief of the northwest region, told the AP that “we are conducting studies and we have several fully identified people.”
“The National Police, after investigations and raids, are reporting the arrest of the alleged mastermind of the murder of indigenous leader Juan Carlos Cerros,” law enforcement authorities later wrote on their official Twitter account.
According to the statistics of the international movement Via CampesinaIn 2020 alone, a total of 12 natural resource defenders were killed in Honduras.
The last two crimes were registered in December. On the 26th of that month, the leader of the Lenca ethnic group and pre-candidate for deputy for the Party for Freedom and Restoration (Free), Felix Vasquez, in the municipality of Santiago de Puringla, in La Paz, and a day later the member of the Tolupán community died Jose Adam Medina, in the municipality of Morazán, department of Yoro.
Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries for environmentalism, according to a study by Worldwide witness published in 2017, more than 120 people have died since 2010.
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The most notorious crime to date is that of the environmentalist Berta Cáceres, shot and killed on March 3, 2016 by unknown persons who entered her home in the municipality of La Esperanza, Intibucá department and repeatedly shot her.
As of March 2, 2020, at least 27 defenders of the country and territory had been killed since the fatal attack on Berta, according to data published by Global Witness.