Honduras Resumes Trial Against Guapinol River’s Defenders

In Honduras, the hearing against the eight Guapinol River environmental activists resumed on Friday.

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The defendants are part of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP), an organization that has mobilized communities to peacefully protest iron mining concessions due to the effects on the water quality of the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers. 

The activists have been in preventive detention for more than two years on illegal deprivation of liberty and aggravated arson charges.

Attorney Kenia Oliva lamented that the judicial system in Honduras is biased towards the mining company Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP), the owner of the concessions, and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The meme reads, "This is how International Human Rights Day on December 10 is celebrated in Honduras. Demanding the release of the Guapinol river defenders. Cheer up, comrades. They are not alone. Freedom, freedom, to the prisoners for fighting."

In 2020, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered the detention of the eight Guapinol River defenders to be arbitrary and called for their release. 

In 2018, when construction work on the ILP mining project began to affect the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, residents joined demonstrations to stop the activities. 

The CMDBCP set up a protest camp on the access road to the mines. The peaceful camp lasted 88 days. Even if negotiations took place between protesters and government officials, the police and military violently evicted the camp in October 2018.