Two Activists Killed in Honduras

Two Honduran land-rights activists from the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA), including the organization’s president, Jose Angel Flores, were murdered on October 18. Flores and Silmer Dionisio George, a member of MUCA, were shot in a drive-by while leaving a meeting in the small town of Tocoa in northeastern Honduras. MUCA is an organization dedicated to the re-distribution of the immensely fertile lands of the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras amongst local farmers. The lands in question were appropriated and privatized in the 1990s, when most of the land came under the ownership of corporations all belonging to one man. Recently, MUCA has been fighting to reclaim the land and has successfully seized thousands of acres of territory that had not been returned despite an agreement with the government in 2010.

Honduras has had the highest murder rate in the world for several years due to staggering rates of gang violence. However, in recent years, the country has seen an increasing amount of violence in the form of targeted assassinations of various environmental and agrarian activists, which some argue is directly linked to tensions between activist groups and opposing corporations. As such, Honduras has drawn the attention of human rights groups across the world, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

Particular scrutiny has been directed at the Honduran government itself for its perceived apathy towards the violence and targeted assassinations. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called out the government for its inadequate responses to the violations taking place, specifically in its failure to provide suitable protection for besieged activists. That negligence was exemplified by the assassination of another high-profile environmental and indigenous activist, Berta Cáceres, earlier this year.

Cáceres had led a decade-long protest against the construction of a dam through territory sacred to a tribe of indigenous peoples in western Honduras. She was shot in her home in March, despite orders of protection issued by the IACHR to the Honduran government for her safety.

In a protest over her murder, friends, family and supporters criticized the government for the absence of the security forces assigned to protect her on the day of her death and for the failure of local authorities to investigate the 33 threats against her life that she had previously reported.

Both Flores and George had been designated to receive police protection in 2014, and, after their murder, international human rights organizations have once again turned their gaze to Honduras. Human Rights Watch, amongst other prominent rights groups, issued a statement condemning the assassinations, thereby putting further pressure on the Honduran government to take more decisive action to combat intimidation and violence against activists in the country and to provide a secure environment for citizens to exercise freedom of speech.