Honduras police arrested former Tocoa Mayor Adán Fúnez Martínez on Tuesday along with two other men accused of ordering the 2024 murder of environmental activist and councilman Juan Antonio López. López was shot dead on the night of September 14, 2024, as he left a church in the northeastern town of Tocoa in Colón department.
Fúnez, who served as mayor at the time of the killing, faces charges as an alleged intellectual author of the crime, along with businessman Héctor Eduardo Méndez and Juan Ángel Ramos Gallegos, according to the Public Ministry. The arrests followed a raid on Fúnez’s residence in Tocoa carried out by the National Police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigation and other units early Tuesday morning. Public Ministry spokesperson Yuri Mora said investigators gathered technical evidence, witness statements and phone records linking the men to the case.
López, a regidor on the Tocoa city council for the Libertad y Refundación party, had led opposition to an open-pit iron ore mining project inside the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mejía National Park. He argued the operation polluted rivers including the Guapinol and San Pedro and damaged the protected reserve in the Bajo Aguán region.
Days before his death, López publicly called for Fúnez to resign after the release of a 2013 video that appeared to show the then-mayor negotiating bribes with drug traffickers. The video also implicated other officials and sparked a political scandal. López had received death threats for his work defending rivers and the national park against the mining concession held by companies including Los Pinares and Ecotek. In a 2021 interview with AFP, he described the constant risks faced by activists in Honduras.
“If you start defending common interests in this country, you clash with major interests,” he said. “If you leave home, you always have in mind that you do not know what might happen, if you are going to return.” The killing drew swift condemnation from the United Nations and Pope Francis. Human rights groups highlighted the case as part of a pattern of violence against environmental defenders in Honduras.
Three men accused of carrying out the shooting—Alexis Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía—were arrested within weeks of the murder and remain in custody. Their case has moved toward trial, with preliminary hearings held last year.
Fúnez has denied any involvement. Upon his transfer to authorities in La Ceiba after the arrest, he told reporters he was innocent of the accusations. The Public Ministry described the operation as part of a broader investigation into both the material and intellectual authors of the crime. Officials said they continue to examine possible links to local corruption and the disputed mining project.
López also served as coordinator of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods. The group had organized protests and legal challenges against the mine for more than a decade, arguing it threatened community water sources and local livelihoods.
Global Witness, which tracks killings of land and environmental defenders worldwide, has repeatedly listed Honduras among the deadliest countries for such activists. The organization has documented dozens of cases in recent years, many tied to mining, logging and agricultural interests.
Tuesday’s arrests came nearly 20 months after López’s death. Investigators had earlier seized security camera footage and cellphones from suspects, but progress on identifying intellectual authors had been slow until recent advances in phone data analysis. The case remains under active investigation. Prosecutors said they expect to present formal charges against Fúnez and the other two men in the coming days. A court will then decide on pretrial detention and set a timeline for the next hearings.
The developments have renewed calls from community leaders and human rights organizations for a full accounting of the forces behind López’s murder. Residents in Tocoa gathered Tuesday to demand swift justice and continued protection for those defending the region’s natural resources.
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