Another indigenous environmentalist was killed in Honduras, consolidating the country’s inglorious classification as the deadliest place in the world to defend land and natural resources from exploitation.
Félix Vásquez, 60, a veteran leader of the Lenca indigenous people, was shot dead at his home in Santiago de Puringla, a rural community in the department of La Paz, western Honduras, on the night of December 26 – just weeks after reporting threats death linked to his work. Their adult children were beaten and threatened by the four armed robbers in balaclavas, but they survived the ordeal.
Vásquez has been involved in defending indigenous land rights since the 1980s and was known nationally for organizing opposition to environmentally destructive megaprojects, such as mines, dams, wind farms and logging, as well as helping destitute communities to reclaim land titles. ancestors.
In recent weeks, an intimidation campaign against several Lenca leaders, including Vásquez, had escalated amid a tense land dispute between a small indigenous community and a local farmer allegedly linked to the ruling national party.
Vásquez reported being followed and monitored at home, while two other Lenco leaders were arrested on counterfeit charges related to the land dispute. Vásquez also recently announced his intention to run for the progressive Libre party in the March 2021 primaries.
His death comes almost five years after the assassination of the famous leader Lenca and winner of the Goldman Berta Cáceres award, who was shot dead at home in March 2016, after suffering years of threats and harassment linked to his opposition to an internationally funded dam . Seven men were convicted of their role in planning and executing the crime, but none of those who ordered, paid and benefited from the crime was tried.
Vásquez’s death was condemned by European and American human rights groups, legislators and diplomats. “Justice, the rule of law and the fight against impunity are needed more than ever,” tweeted UN representative Alice Shackelford.
But hopes for justice are low. “Félix was very intelligent and a great strategist who opposed extraction for more than 35 years, so he was killed,” said Roger Medina, a friend and lawyer who represents the local communities in Lenca. “We live in a dictatorship, so I have no doubt that this will be another crime against another indigenous environmentalist who will go unpunished”.
On Tuesday, reported in the local media the murder of another defender, Adán Mejía, of the Tolupán indigenous people, who was allegedly attacked on the way back for taking care of his corn plantation in Candelaria, a rural community in the northern Yoro department.
Honduras has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world to defend natural resources and land rights after the 2009 coup inaugurated an autocratic government that remains in power despite several allegations of corruption, electoral fraud and links with international networks of drug trafficking.
Hundreds of defenders were killed and disappeared, while many others were silenced as a result of forged criminal charges.
This year has been particularly bleak. In July, a group of black indigenous Garifuna land defenders was forcibly disappeared by armed assailants in police uniforms. Eight water defenders from the Guapinol community were held in pre-trial detention during the pandemic, despite international condemnation of the charge linked to their peaceful protests against a polluting iron oxide mine.
According to a report by the UN working group on business and human rights, the “root cause of most social conflicts [in Honduras] it is the systematic lack of transparency and meaningful participation ”of the communities affected by the exploitation of natural resources.
However, the link between political and economic elites means that crimes against environmental advocates are rarely prosecuted. Investigations of allegedly corrupt officials who sanction large-scale projects without legally required consultations and environmental impact assessments are also rare.
In La Paz alone, at least 40 megaprojects were sanctioned in indigenous territory without consultation with local communities.
Marlen Corea, 32, vice president of a collective of indigenous and peasant environmental groups in La Paz who worked alongside Vásquez, said: “All community leaders are threatened, without exception, as part of the intimidation campaign to silence us and prevent our resistance to projects to exploit natural resources imposed on our territory without consultation. So Felix was killed, but our fight is fair. “