Juan Antonio López was a community leader in northeastern Honduras who was concerned about the threat that open-pit iron oxide mining posed to local rivers. The Lenca community relies on the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers for drinking, fishing, and agriculture.
Based in the city of Tocoa, Honduras, López was a member of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods. His work frequently brought him into conflict with commercial interests and local and national politicians in the department of Colón.
On September 14, the 46-year-old husband and father of two was gunned down by an unidentified assailant as he was leaving Mass. [Photo above shows Fr. Ismael Moreno consoling Telma Pena, widow of Juan Lopez, during his funeral in Tocoa on September 16.]
Pope Francis publicly mourned the activist’s death in remarks at the Vatican on Sunday.
“I have learned with sorrow that Juan Antonio López, a delegate of the Word of God, coordinator of Social Pastoral Care in the Diocese of Trujillo, and founding member of the Integral Ecology Pastoral care in Honduras, was killed,” Pope Francis said.
Speaking after the Angelus Prayer on Sunday, the Pope said he joins in “mourning with that Church” and condemns every form of violence.
"I am close to all those who see their elementary rights violated, and to those who work for the common good in response to the cry of the poor and the earth,” the pontiff said.
Church's outrage
According to America magazine, "defenders of creation" such as López, have been particularly targeted in Honduras.
"Mr. López was a member of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, work that frequently brought him into conflict with commercial interests and local and national politicians eager to pursue 'development' in the department of Colón," wrote America's Kevin Clarke. "Just days before his murder, Mr. López, along with other local community leaders, had demanded the resignation of Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez. He called the mayor’s continued leadership untenable after a video surfaced of a conversation conducted in 2013 among Honduran politicians and drug traffickers concerning how to distribute bribery money. Mr. Fúnez was mentioned as a possible conduit for drug cash to then-president Mel Zelaya, later ousted in a coup."
Catholic leaders across the region have expressed grief and outrage for the killing. Bishop Jenry Ruiz of the Diocese of Trujillo issued a message after the incident, as if he were speaking directly to López:
“You told me that you were not an environmentalist because, for you, the social, ecological and political commitment was not an ideological question, but a question of your being of Christ and of the Church,” Bishop Ruiz said.
The bishop noted the activist’s understanding of Pope Francis’ environmental teaching and “tenderness and truth” in responding to his detractors.
Ruiz wrote that López knew of the risks.
“You knew very well that the extractivist and mining system is a system that kills and destroys the whole world, along with the corruption of the false politicians and the narco-governments,” said the prelate.
