On 14 September 2024, unidentified assailants assassinated rights defender Juan Antonio López, founding member of the Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods in Tocoa, Colón. On 9 September of this year, almost a year after this unfortunate event and given the lack of progress in the judicial process seeking to shed light on his death, the Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods – alongside other organizations such as COPINH, OFRANEH, and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras – set up the Justice for Juan López Camp in the city of Tocoa’s Central Park, to honor the memory of Juan López and demand justice for those who defend life and the commons.

In response to these protests and demonstrations, a smear campaign has been unleashed through various media outlets against the people who are peacefully demonstrating at the camp. Messages broadcast by Tocoa local media outlets seeking to defame and discredit the legitimate demonstration and protest by the Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods and the communities fighting in Bajo Aguán; messages that incite violence and can be used as an excuse for the criminalization and judicial persecution to which the defenders belonging to the Committee and the affected communities have already been subjected.

Additionally, women defenders at the Camp have denounced acts of intimidation and surveillance by unknown persons on motorcycles near this space of struggle.

The National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras and IM-Defensoras denounce and condemn these acts of defamation, intimidation and surveillance against those present at the Justice for Juan López Camp.

We are concerned about the communications media contributing to the spread of this type of defamatory messages that criminalize and delegitimize the struggle of communities in Bajo Aguán.

We call on the State of Honduras to guarantee protection for human rights defenders and to address all situations of risk; implementing all necessary measures to prevent the risks that communities and their leaders face from becoming new acts of violence.

We also call on national and international organizations to remain vigilant regarding what is taking place at the Camp, and to join the public denunciation and the call for justice for Juan López and the Bajo Aguán communities.