Slaying of 2nd Honduras activist halts Dutch funding
THE ASSASSINATION of another leader of the organization headed by murdered environmentalist Berta Cáceres in Honduras has led a Dutch Government development funding organization to suspend all activities in the country.
Nelson García was killed last week by two unknown assailants reports the AFP News agency.
He received at least four gunshots to the face after leaving a site where police and soldiers had evicted a campesino group that he was part of, from private land,
He was on his way to lunch at his mother-in-law’s house, says the website of the Civic Council of Indigenous and People’s Organizations (COPINH), which Cáceres co-founded
García had spent Tuesday morning, March14 helping the evicted campesinos collect their belongings.
The eviction took place in Río Lindo 180 kilometers north of the capital.
Nearly 150 police, military and other public security officers took part in the eviction of some 150 families, according to COPINH.
García’s death comes just two weeks after unknown assailants broke in to the home of COPINH leader Berta Cáceres Esperanza, killing her and wounding Mexican activist Gustavo Castro.
Last year, Berta Cáceres won the prestigious Goldman Prize for grassroots environmental activism for her work in waging peaceful protest against a hydroelectric dam project in the indigenous Lenca territory. Opponents say the Agua Zarca dam would displace hundreds of indigenous Lenca people and affect other communities downstream.
The dam is being funded by several international financial bodies, including the Dutch government’s Entrepreneurial Development Bank,(FMO). Following the news of García’s death, the FMO announced that it was suspending all activities in Honduras “given the present situation and the continued violence.”
The FMO said a delegation, including the bank’s CEO, had planned to travel to Honduras to meet with communities around the planned Agua Zarca dam to better understand the situation.
Several opponents of the dam have been killed in recent years, prior to the recent deaths of Cáceres and García.
According to the human rights group Global Witness, more than 100 people have been killed in Honduras since 2010 “for taking a stand against destructive dam, mining, logging and agriculture projects.”
Hundreds of COPINH supporters started a march Thursday from their communities to the capital Tegucigalpa to demand justice for Cáceres and García.
