UN calls for probe into killing of two Honduran environmentalists

Two environmental activists have been killed on Saturday after they opposed an open-pit iron oxide mine in a reserve.

Mary Lawlor, a UN particular rapporteur, says the activists might have been killed for his or her work defending human rights [File: Reuters]

United Nations particular rapporteur on the scenario of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor has known as for an unbiased investigation into the killing of two environmental activists in Honduras, days after they have been shot useless.

On Saturday, Aly Dominguez, 38, and Jairo Bonilla, 28, from the village of Guapinol in Honduras’s japanese Colon Division have been killed by unidentified males. Native police attributed the deaths to a theft.

“It’s very important that an unbiased investigation is carried out into the killing of the 2 defenders in Guapinol, Honduras,” Lawlor stated on Twitter on Wednesday.

“Which should have in mind the chance that they've been retaliated towards for his or her work defending human rights,” she added.

It’s very important that an unbiased investigation is carried out into the killing of the 2 defenders in #Guapinol, Honduras, which should have in mind the chance that they've been retaliated towards for his or her work defending human rights.@ninalakhanihttps://t.co/1qA9kurPY5

— Mary Lawlor UN Particular Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) January 11, 2023

Dominguez and Bonilla had co-founded the Municipal Committee for the Protection of Widespread and Public Items for the town of Tocoa, some 8km (5 miles) from Guapinol.

In response to the environmentalist group, that they had since 2015 put up a powerful resistance to the operation of an open-pit iron oxide mine in a forest reserve, a concession they are saying was illegally granted to an organization of influential businessman Lenir Perez.

Inversiones Los Pinares, the corporate working the mine, argues the concession is authorized. It didn't instantly reply to a request for remark.

Authorities stated Dominguez and Bonilla have been on bikes working their day jobs accumulating service funds for a regional cable tv firm once they have been attacked in a secluded space.

Colon police spokesperson Angel Herrera informed native media the crime was motivated by an try to rob the cash they have been carrying.

However Guapinol Resiste, the environmentalist group Dominguez and Bonilla belonged to, rejected this declare on Wednesday.

“It was not a theft. They have been killed for defending the rivers from unlawful mining. Justice for Aly and Jairo,” the group stated on its Fb group. It additionally identified that the criminals didn't take the cash, which was as an alternative later handed over to their employer.

Many environmentalists and native communities in Central American international locations oppose open-pit mining and the constructing of hydroelectric dams, which may pollute rivers, contaminate water provides and displace populations.

In March 2016, Indigenous chief and environmentalist Berta Caceres, who was combating the development of a hydroelectric dam in western Honduras, was murdered. Six employed assassins and two executives of a agency selling the dam’s development have been later convicted.