A defender of the environment was murdered on Saturday night in the northeastern part of Honduras, a country that is among the most dangerous in the world for environmentalists.

The authorities condemned the murder unequivocally, promising that “justice” would be served.

Juan López, who met with AFP in 2021, said at the time that he had been living in agony since he began to fight against the installation of a mine in his area, a mountainous, forested area in northeastern Honduras.

According to the press, Juan Lopez, 46, was murdered in his car after going to church in Toccoa, where he lived and was an elected councilman.

“We condemn the heinous killing of our comrade and environmentalist leader Juan Lopez in Toccoa. I ordered the security forces to shed light on this tragedy and identify those responsible,” left-wing president Xiomara Castro said via X.

“Justice will be served for Juan Lopez,” he promised.

The fighter was a member of Mrs. Castro’s party, LIBRE.

His wife Thelma Peña, in a brief interview with AFP, said that he was the target of “fire” while leaving a church, where she did not accompany him.

Prosecutor Joel Selaya praised the victim, a man whose “life was an example of struggle”, stressing that an investigation is being carried out by a “specialist” team and “his death will not go unpunished”.

Yesterday morning police asked the public, anyone with information about the crime, to contact them, promising “confidentiality”.

The activist had accused the Los Pinares mining group of exploiting an open-pit mine in a way that was causing destruction in the Botaderos National Forest, near Tocoa, 220 kilometers northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa.

“He was a popular intellectual, a comrade in arms in social change, in the defense of the common goods,” said Joaquin Mejia, a lawyer and human rights defender who had worked with him in the fight to protect the Wapinol River.

The national park includes 34 watersheds, valuable trees, endangered animal species, and pre-Columbian archaeological sites.

Juan López admitted in November 2021 that he feared for his life because of his struggles, explaining that he had been warned that he would suffer the same fate as Berta Cáceres — a famous environmentalist who was murdered on March 2, 2016 because of her opposition to the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the western part of the country.

“When you defend the common goods in this country, you are attacked by powerful interests (…) When you leave your home, you know that anything can happen, that you may not return,” said the environmentalist, father of a daughter who had just he was turning five.

He had confessed that he never left his house alone at night and avoided going to remote areas. “It’s tragic. To live with the fear that they will kill you”, he had noted.

The coordinator of the committee of relatives of imprisoned and disappeared in Honduras, Bertha Oliva, described the deceased as “an outstanding human being, a man of the people who gave his life for his people”.

Besides, Juan López had recently called, during a press conference, for the resignation of LIBRE officials who appeared in a video, revealed by a specialized website, negotiating bribes with drug traffickers in 2013.

The video showed Carlos Zelaya, President Castro’s brother-in-law, resigning as a member of parliament after admitting to taking part in the meeting.

According to a report by the NGO Global Witness, Honduras is among the most dangerous countries on the planet for environmentalists.

In 2023, it ranked third in the world for the number of murders of environmental activists: 18 were committed, as many as in Mexico, behind Colombia and Brazil.

Between 2012 and 2023, 148 environmentalists were murdered in Honduras.