Two men shot Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo to death in his home in Tocoa, Honduras, one night in October 2020. Morazán was an environmental activist and one of 32 people criminalized by the Honduran government for defending the Guapinol River against the environmental impacts of a new iron oxide mine in the Carlos Escaleras National Park.
So far, at least eight people who have opposed the mine have been killed, putting its owner, Inversiones Los Pinares, at the centre of a deadly environmental conflict in the mineral-rich Bajo Aguán region. Local communities are concerned about the mine’s potential ecological damage. In their attempts to defend their territories, local leaders have been surveilled, threatened, injured and imprisoned, and some, like Morazán, have been killed.
Extractive industry is another reason migrants leave home
Hondurans kept their national flag at the front of the migrant caravan in Vado Hondo, Guatemala. | Photos by Sandra Cuffe
Francisco could have left his home in northeastern Honduras for any number of reasons. The coronavirus pandemic and related lockdown measures had put an end to his work as a bricklayer s assistant, which had earned him $8 a day. Two hurricanes then swept through the region late last year, destroying homes, crops, and infrastructure.
But the main reason Francisco fled Honduras was because of a mining project. An iron oxide mine under construction inside a national park just south of the city of Tocoa has sparked years of opposition, conflict, and violence in the area. Community residents have been protesting the mine to protect their river. Some are in jail. Others face threats. People have been killed.