Tegucigalpa, Aug 9 (EFE).- The Garífuna indigenous group of Honduras demanded Tuesday an investigation into the disappearance of five of its members in July 2020 in the Caribbean Triunfo de la Cruz community.
The demand was made during a demonstration by dozens of Garífuna residents in front of the main headquarters of the public ministry in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.
“We are here to demand justice and to investigate the disappearance of our five brothers from Triunfo de la Cruz two years ago,” said one protester.
The missing people, who are suspected to have been kidnapped in the early hours of July 18, 2020 by armed men wearing vests bearing the logo of the Police Investigation Directorate, are Milton Joel Martínez, Suami Aparicio Mejía, Gerardo Misael Trochez, Albert Snaider Centeno and Júnior Chávez, the latter president of the board of trustees of the Triunfo de la Cruz community and a member of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras.
On Aug. 7, 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights urgently issued an order to the State of Honduras to protect the Garífuna community and search for the missing youth.
The protesters sounded drums, maracas and other instruments among angry claims that they were not allowed to enter the public ministry, which in the end they achieved amid a tense atmosphere.
The deputy prosecutor, Daniel Arturo Sibrián, appealed to the secretary of security to safeguard the facilities and provide protection to public ministry staff. EFE
