Lenca indigenous leader shot to death in Honduras

The blood of indigenous leaders ran again in Honduras, when a well-known leader of the Lenca ethnic group in the west of the country was shot to death on Sunday.

This is Pablo Isabel Hernández, who received several gunshot wounds from unknown persons when he was going to a church in the municipality of San Marcos de Caiquín, department of Lempira, accompanied by a brother and his father. The armed men fled.

It is the first homicide of an indigenous leader in Honduras in 2022.

The head of strategic communications for the Police Investigations Directorate (DPI), Cristian Manuel Nolasco, confirmed to The Associated Press that Hernández was ambushed on a narrow dirt road.

The official said that the hypothesis that the crime was motivated by personal enmities and partisan political problems is being handled, and pointed out that several suspects have already been identified.

He also indicated that the DPI has not detained anyone, and that it will continue with the investigations until it collects solid and irrefutable scientific and technical evidence that helps the prosecution so that those responsible go to prison.

The Association of Community Media in Honduras (AMCH) explained that Hernández was director of Radio Tenan, “La voz indigenous lenca”, from San Marcos de Caiquín.

“We consider this murder one more attack on freedom of expression and the defense of human rights (for which) our colleague Pablo Hernández works with commitment and dedication,” said AMCH.

He also said that Hernández had been threatened and was harassed for defending his ideals and the rights of indigenous people, for which he filed a complaint with the authorities.

Hernández promoted the Indigenous and Peoples University, was mayor of the Auxiliary Office of La Vara Alta de Caiquín, coordinator of the base ecclesial communities and president of the Network of Agroecologists of the Cacique Lempira Señor de Las Montañas Biosphere.

Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries for environmental activism. According to Global Witness research published in 2017, more than 120 people have died since 2010, but the number by 2020 increased significantly.

The most notorious crime to date is that of the environmentalist Berta Cáceres, shot to death on March 3, 2016 by unknown persons who entered her home in the municipality of La Esperanza, department of Intibucá.

According to data published by Global Witness on March 2, 2020, at least 27 defenders of the land and territory have been killed since the fatal attack on Cáceres and, according to Vía Campesina statistics, 12 are added to those deaths. more that occurred in the later months of that year.

On March 21, 2021, the murder of the Lenca leader Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante, 41, was recorded in the department of Cortés, in the north of the country.

The incident occurred in front of the church of the Nueva Granada community, between the municipalities of Chinda, Santa Bárbara and San Antonio Cortés, when the environmentalist was returning from his mother’s house.