[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 22, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               JUAN LOPEZ

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, 4 months ago I made a statement about the 
murder of Honduran indigenous environmental defender and anti-
corruption activist Juan Lopez, on September 14, 2024, who at that time 
was the latest victim of an ongoing epidemic of vigilante violence in 
that country.
  As I mentioned then, my office, like others in Congress, had received 
reports of recurring threats, attacks, arbitrary arrests, and 
assassinations of members of the Guapinol, Tocoa, and other communities 
in the Bajo Aguan region of Honduras. The crimes were intended to 
silence those who opposed the Los Pinares open-pit iron oxide mine and 
the Ecotek Thermoelectric Project in an indigenous reserve which 
threaten their livelihoods and the region's environment, and who 
challenged the companies and corrupt officials who profit from those 
projects.
  Mr. Lopez, a winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in 
2019, had been a victim of wrongful imprisonment, false prosecution, 
and had spoken out against corrupt officials in Tocoa.
  His assassination was the latest in a pattern of similar killings 
that have not resulted in justice. Of the six other assassinations of 
members of the Guapinol water defenders, no one has been prosecuted or 
punished, nor for the murders of scores of other social activists, 
journalists, and human rights defenders in Honduras.
  Last September, I urged the following steps to be taken immediately: 
Convene an international commission of experts to support the Honduran 
prosecutor's investigation, to ensure the investigation is credible, 
thorough, and impartial; Provide protection for human rights defenders 
at risk in the Bajo Aguan region; and investigate the abuses and 
corruption denounced by Juan Lopez and the pattern of violence against 
the Guapinol defenders.
  In the months since Mr. Lopez was killed, the Honduran Government has 
said that it detained three people who were responsible. That is 
encouraging. But government officials believe that the person who 
ordered the killing is still at large. Also, according to press 
reports, Honduran prosecutors formally accused company leaders and 
local government officials connected to the mine of illegally 
exploiting resources, abusing authority, and ``environmental crimes'' 
for mining in the indigenous reserve. Yet people living in the area say 
the mining hasn't stopped.
  After the assassination in May 2016 of Berta Caceres, another 
Honduran indigenous leader who led protests against the construction of 
a hydroelectric dam and won the prestigious Goldman Environmental 
Prize, international pressure pushed the Honduran Government to arrest 
and prosecute one of the top officials of the construction company. But 
he is challenging his conviction, and it is widely believed that there 
may be others who were responsible and have not been charged.
  Before and after her election in 2021, Honduran President Xiomara 
Castro pledged to combat corruption and impunity, including partnering 
with the United Nations to establish an international commission for 
this purpose. Her term ends in November 2025, when a new President will 
be elected in Honduras, yet there has been minimal progress toward 
establishing the promised commission. Corruption and impunity remain 
deeply entrenched in the Honduran public and private sectors.
  Not only do those of us who care about justice in Honduras want to 
see all those responsible for the murders of Berta Caceres, Juan Lopez, 
and the other land and water defenders prosecuted and punished, we also 
want to be able to support a new Honduran commission against corruption 
and impunity. That would be a crucial, tangible way for President 
Castro to demonstrate that she not only replaced Juan Orlando 
Hernandez, her predecessor who was sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. 
prison for cocaine and weapons trafficking, but she also dismantled the 
criminal enterprise that enriched him, his brother, and their cronies. 
Otherwise, the Honduran people will continue to suffer from the 
spiraling poverty and violence and bear the costs and consequences of 
the complicity of yet another corrupt government in undermining the 
rule of law.
  As I said last September, the people of the Bajo Aguan should not 
have to live in fear that powerful companies and corrupt officials will 
steal their land, pollute their rivers, and murder courageous leaders 
like Juan Lopez and Berta Caceres for peacefully defending the natural 
resources that are rightfully theirs.

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