TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) 鈥� Honduran authorities on Tuesday arrested three people, including a powerful politician, accused of masterminding the , which became a symbol of government corruption and the ongoing perils of protecting the environment in the region.
Ad谩n F煤nez, former mayor of the city of Tocoa, was captured at his home on Tuesday on suspicion of masterminding the killing, following years of accusations by religious and environmental leaders.
Juan L贸pez was an anti-corruption crusader who led a fierce community effort against an iron oxide mining project in Colon, a rural region of northwestern Honduras, which activists said endangered the zone’s dense jungles and crystalline waters, including protected reserve areas. L贸pez was one of the fiercest critics of then-mayor, Ad谩n F煤nez, a supporter of the mine and close ally of Honduras’ former President Xiomara Castro.
In September 2024, L贸pez called on F煤nez to step down because of a corruption scandal.
Days later, the environmental and human rights defender was shot six times in the chest and once in the head by a masked gunman, fueling by the Biden administration, and the United Nations 鈥� and accusations against F煤nez, a power-broker in the region’s decades-long bloody agrarian conflict. The death brought back stark memories of the global outcry over the of Honduran environmentalist Berta C谩ceres.
More than a year later, F煤nez was arrested Tuesday with two others, businessman H茅ctor Eduardo M茅ndez and Juan 脕ngel Ramos Gallegos, who prosecutors accused of criminal association to the detriment of other fundamental rights.
鈥淭hese three individuals are believed to be the intellectual authors of the environmentalist Juan L贸pez鈥檚 death,鈥� Public Prosecutor鈥檚 Office spokesperson Yuri Mora told The Associated Press.
The detentions come after a handful of other arrests months earlier, but F煤nez was long pinpointed by local environmental and religious leaders as the man who spearheaded the assassination. The trial of the three is set to begin next June.
Protecting the environment is a high-risk profession in Honduras. People like L贸pez often act as unwanted eyes and ears in resource-rich areas of Latin America, the most deadly region in the world for environmentalists, according to nongovernmental organization Global Witness.
Global Witness documented 117 defender killings in 2024, 82% of which were in Latin America. Five were killed in the relatively small Central American nation, and 18 the year before, according to the data in the most recent report. In L贸pez鈥檚 city of Tocoa, environmental defenders fighting the mining project have been getting picked off for years and eight activists were imprisoned for more two years in what lawyers said was retaliation for their work.
Dalila Santiago, a close friend and leader in L贸pez鈥檚 movement, said after rampant impunity in the Honduras, F煤nez’s detention came as a shock. Santiago said the detentions are a sign that their fight for justice and to protect the surrounding lands was worth it, despite the bloody toll. She added that Honduran authorities must continue to go after others responsible and business leaders behind the mining project.
The Honduran companies behind the mine 鈥� Inversiones Los Pinares, Inversiones Ecotek and their parent company 鈥� face prosecution for the mine鈥檚 environmental destruction, launched by the Honduran Public Prosecutor’s Office shortly after L贸pez’s killing. The companies have defended the hundreds of jobs the mine created and their contributions to the region.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been calling for justice for so long,鈥� Santiago said. “And we need the masterminds behind this to be caught and punished.鈥�
___
Follow AP鈥檚 Latin America coverage at
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
