On 4 July 2024, the Honduran judicial system declared illegal an open council that the Tocoa Municipal Committee for the Defence of Public Goods had organised a few weeks previously to hear the community's rejection of mining and other extractive projects in their community, including Ecotek's mining project. Honduran civil society have interpreted this as an intimidatory act that forms part of a strategy that crimianlises defenders for their legitimate human rights defence work.