Father Melo celebrates first arrests for the murder of Juan López and demands that the masterminds be found
Environmentalist Juan López was shot several times on September 14 as he was leaving the church he attended in Tocoa, Colón.
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The Jesuit priest, Ismael Moreno, celebrated this Friday the arrest of the alleged perpetrators of the murder of environmentalist Juan López, on September 14 in Tocoa, Colón department, in the Caribbean of Honduras.
Through his social media account, Father ‘Melo’, as Moreno is also known, welcomed the fact that the Public Ministry (MP) and the Security Secretariat have captured the first suspects 20 days after the environmentalist’s murder.
He added that “it is a first big step” and that they will continue to demand that not only the gunmen – the alleged gunmen – be arrested. ” We hope to capture those in the networks that ordered the crime ,” Moreno wrote.
The capture of the alleged murderers
The alleged murderer of environmental activist Juan López was arrested on Friday, as was one of his accomplices, said Secretary of Security Gustavo Sánchez.
“In a coordinated effort, we have captured the person responsible for the death of environmentalist Juan López. An accomplice was also arrested and the motorcycle used to commit the crime was seized,” Sánchez said on the social network X.
He added that “the investigation is supported by technical and scientific evidence” and that the investigation into the crime is underway , in which the perpetrator would have had the support of three other people.
Murder of Juan Lopez
López was shot by two men in Tocoa, a region with high rates of violence in Honduras.
The environmentalist, who was also a councilor of the municipality of Tocoa for the ruling Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party, was murdered despite having had precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2023.
According to information provided by the National Police after the crime, López was attacked by armed men while he was inside his vehicle in a busy neighborhood of Tocoa, and died from the gunshot wounds he received.
López is one of several Honduran environmentalists murdered in the last 40 years, including Berta Cáceres, on March 2, 2016, in her home in the city of La Esperanza, department of Intibucá.
