Pope denounces slaying of Honduran environmental defender

MEXICO CITY — MEXICO CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the slaying of an environmental activist in Honduras, adding to a growing number of international voices that have raised concern over the killing.

The environmental leader, Juan López, was gunned down earlier this month in the municipality of Tocoa in rural northern Honduras after spending years combating mining companies to preserve the region’s rivers and forests.

“I stand with those who see their basic rights trampled and with those who act for the common good in response to the cries from the poor of the earth,” Francis said at the end of his Angelus message at the Vatican.

The rural Caribbean region of Colón has seen a wave of slayings of environmentalists in recent years, and three activists from López’s organization were killed last year.

The religious leader joined a number of global leaders to condemn the killing.

Last week, Brian A. Nichols, assistant U.S. secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, demanded justice for López. The United Nations called for “competent authorities to carry out an immediate, exhaustive and impartial investigation to identify and punish the people responsible, both material and intellectual, for this murder.”

Honduran President Xiomara Castro called López’s death a “vile murder” and promised to meet mounting demands to investigate his slaying.

Latin America is the deadliest region in the world to be an environmental defender, according to the nongovernmental organization Global Witness, which tracks killings of environmentalists.

Last year, Honduras was ranked one of the most deadly countries to defend the environment alongside Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. All four countries, which saw 140 environmentalists killed last year, accounted for 71% of the overall slayings of environmental defenders across the world.

Environmental leaders often act as watchdogs in rural regions, becoming an unwanted pair of eyes in places where organized crime thrives.

They also tend to challenge powerful companies and individuals seeking to profit from industries like mining and logging, doing so in remote swaths of Latin America far from the reach of the law.

Honduras received global attention for such violence when environmental and Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres was killed in 2016. The killing continues to haunt Honduras as many details of her death remain unsolved.