IRTF News

Recent attack on human rights workers and their families in Honduras. This case is especially shameless as a 90-year-old woman was one of the victims. Injured in the attack by police was the mother of Hedme Castro, director of Asociación para una Ciudadanía Participativa (ACI PARTICIPA) in Choluteca, where residents have been protesting government policies that open up land to extractive activities, such as mining.

Assassinations of two more social leaders: musician Edwin Andrés Grisales Galvis and indigenous leader Ebel Yonda Ramos.

Argemiro López Pertuz, a rural organizer, was murdered on March 17. Armed men broke into his home in the village of La Guayacana in Tumaco municipality, Nariño Department, attacked him and his family, injuring his partner and his mother. Argemiro López Pertuz promoted the implementation of the Comprehensive National Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS), which was established under the peace agreement 2016. More than 30 people working on crop substitution programs have been murdered in this area since November 2016. Meanwhile, coca production is increasing.

Paramilitaries forcibly displaced hundreds of families from their homes in Córdoba Department and abducted three local peasant farmers from their homes in San José de Uré. On March 22 two of those abducted, Jhon Jeimer González Vasquez and Julio César Taborda Caro, were found dead. Both men had been tortured. Authorities also expect to find the body of the third man. All had enrolled in land restitution programs for victims of forced displacement.

While walking home on March 27, journalist Leonardo Gabriel Hernández was shot six times and killed. On his TV program El Pueblo Habla (The People Speak), he discussed social issues and local politics and was known to speak out critically against the municipal government in Nacaome, Valle Dept.

attacks against LGBTI rights leaders Andrea Ayala and Barbara Romero of ESMULES (Salvadoran Lesbian Women’s Space for Diversity) in San Salvador.

assassination of LGBTI rights defender Liliana Holguín, age 40, and her nephew (unnamed), on February 26 as they were traveling by motorbike from Guáramo to Caucasia in the Bajo Cauca region of Antioquia Department. Persons on another motorbike approached them and fired several gunshots, killing them both.

assassinations of social leaders in Puerto Asís, Putumayo Department: rural organizers Milena García and her husband, Darwin Reyes, and Doctor Zonia Rosero.