"Honduran environmental defenders shot dead in broad daylight", 11 January 2022

...Aly Domínguez, 38, and Jairo Bonilla, 28, from Guapinol in northern Honduras, were murdered on Saturday afternoon as they returned home on a moped after finishing work collecting payments for a cable company. They were intercepted by armed assailants and died at the scene, according to relatives.

Domínguez and Bonilla were co-founders of Guapinol’s grassroots resistance against an iron ore mine owned by one of the country’s most powerful couples. Domínguez was among 32 community leaders falsely accused of crimes by the mining company and local authorities.

Local police and prosecutors immediately ascribed the deaths to a botched mugging – even though the assailants fled without taking the victims’ moped, cellphones or money.

UN agencies, rights groups and the US embassy condemned the killings. Relatives and lawyers have questioned the official version of events, pointing to the ongoing threats and harassment faced by the community...

The Guapinol case stems from a huge open-pit mine in nearby Tocoa, which was authorised inside a protected national park in a process mired by legal irregularities...Community members, including Domínguez and Bonilla, set up a peaceful protest camp after the mine polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people...