CORTÉS, Honduras.- Crimes against environmentalists and indigenous leaders in Honduras do not stop. On Sunday night, in the northern department of Cortés, the murder of the Lenca leader was recorded Joan Carles Turons Escalante, 41, and on Monday morning authorities arrested one of the alleged perpetrators.
The fact was recorded in front of the Catholic church in the community of New Granada, Between the municipalities of Chinda, Santa Bárbara and Sant Antoni Cortés, in the department of Cortés, when the environmentalist was returning from his mother’s house.
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Betty Vásquez, Coordinator of the Santabarbarense Environmental Movement (MAS), told AP that Turons was a pastoral agent of the Catholic Church and that at the time of the crime he was with his children, who witnessed the death of his father .
Hills led the local movement calledor “United Communities” which brings together the groups bordering the river Ulúa de Chinda and San Antonio Cortés, which defend the tributary against the El Tornillito hydroelectric project in this area.
“We condemn the murder of one defender and one more comrade. It is not fair. It is not possible that to defend a territory you will be criminalized, you will be persecuted and then your life will be taken away. We value this crime as a political assassination, “Vásquez said.
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For his part, the inspector of the National Police, Joan Sabillón, In charge of the northwest region, told the PA that “we are conducting investigations and we have several people fully identified.”
“The National Police, after investigative actions and rapes, reports the capture of the alleged intellectual perpetrator of the assassination of indigenous leader Juan Carlos Turons,” law enforcement later wrote in the your official Twitter account.
According to statistics from the international movement via CampesinaIn 2020 alone, a total of 12 natural resource advocates were killed in Honduras.
The last two crimes were recorded in December. On the 26th of this month the leader of the Lenca ethnic group was finalized and pre-nominated for deputy by the Freedom and Refoundation Party (Free), Félix Vásquez, In the municipality of Sant Jaume de Puringla, in La Paz, and a day later the member of the tolupán community died José Adán Medina, In the municipality of Morazán, department of Yoro.
Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries for environmental activism, according to a study by Honduras Global Witness published in 2017, since 2010 more than 120 people have died.
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The most notorious crime to date is that of the environmentalist Berta Cáceres, Arrested on March 3, 2016 by strangers who entered her home in the municipality of Esperanza, Intibucá department and shot her repeatedly.
According to data released by Global Witness, as of March 2, 2020, at least 27 people defending the land and territory had been killed since the fatal attack on Berta.