URGENT ALERT: The Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) informs:

URGENT ALERT: The Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ) informs:

Today, June 19, 2015 at 5 am indigenous Tolupan, Erasio Vieda Ponce was murdered in Las Brisas of Locomapa in the mountains of Yoro. Vieda Ponce strongly opposed the use of forests by local business and political figures who for years have exploited natural resources, using all manner of criminal methods against the Tolupan people, in particular the indigenous leaders of this sector. There is clear evidence that the assassins are closely linked to the large land holders and business elites and were contracted to kill Ponce. The same assassins are also responsible for the murders of María Enriqueta Matute, Ricardo Soto and Armando Fúnez in 2013 for defending the forest.

We want to denounce that since 2013, we identified Selvin Matute and Carlos Matute as directly responsible for those murders and warrants have been issued for their arrest. However, the national police have not arrested them despite testimonies from members of the indigenous community assuring that they are also responsible for the murder of Erasio Vieda. The alleged suspects enter and leave the area, carrying out these crimes, threatening and terrorizing the community. They remain in strategic hiding places, with the knowledge and tolerance of members of the police of Yoro who have been assigned in an irregular manner, to provide security and to capture the suspects.

Today, with greater imperative, we hold the State of Honduras and its representatives in the office of the Attorney General of Human Rights, Yoro, Secretary of Justicia, Attorney General for Ethnic Groups, National Police.

and the other institutions responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crime, access to justice and citizen security. We have presented all of the evidence merited in these cases and taken action in international human rights platforms (IACHR) resulting in the issuance of protective measures for the indigenous leaders under threat. State functionaries have not implemented protective measures in a responsible manner, elevating the vulnerability of the indigenous to such a degree that in the month of May,

Luis de Reyes Marcía, husband of Consuelo Soto, was murdered and two weeks after burying her husband, she was the target of an attack on her home by the same assassins forcing her and her entire family to flee the zone.

While the level of conflict intensifies in the zone, evidenced by the number crimes in the last three months, there is neither response nor direct intervention on the part of the Secretary of Justice whose staff has demonstrated complete negligence in response to the requests for security and justice that the Tolupan people demand.

Once again we demand that the State of Honduras fulfill its functions and capture those responsible for these deaths.

¡¡WE ARE FED UP WITH LIES AND THE DEATHS OF OUR INDIGENOUS COMPAÑER@S!!

Tags: Locomapa, MADJ