Honduran authorities have arrested former Tocoa mayor Adán Fúnez and two other men accused of masterminding the 2024 assassination of environmental and anticorruption activist Juan López, a killing that drew international condemnation and renewed attention to the dangers facing land defenders in Honduras.
Fúnez was detained at his home on Tuesday, prosecutors said. Businessman Héctor Eduardo Méndez and Juan Ángel Ramos Gallegos were also arrested in connection with the case. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said the three are suspected of being intellectual authors of López’s killing and face accusations including criminal association.
López, a prominent environmental and human rights defender in the city of Tocoa, was shot dead in September 2024 after leaving a church event. He had led community opposition to an iron oxide mining project in Colón, a region of northern Honduras where activists said mining threatened forests, rivers and protected areas.
Before his death, López had publicly criticised Fúnez and called for him to resign amid corruption allegations. Religious and environmental leaders later accused the former mayor of bearing responsibility for the climate of hostility surrounding the activist.
The arrests come more than a year after López’s murder and follow earlier detentions of alleged direct participants in the attack. Prosecutors said the case remains active, with proceedings expected to move forward in the coming weeks.
For environmental groups, the case recalls the 2016 murder of Berta Cáceres, the Indigenous Lenca leader whose killing became a global symbol of impunity and violence against land defenders. Honduras has remained one of the world’s most dangerous countries for environmental activists. Global Witness documented at least 155 killings of land and environmental defenders in Honduras between 2012 and 2024, with most cases unresolved.
Local campaigners welcomed Fúnez’s arrest but said justice must go beyond the immediate suspects. Dalila Santiago, a close friend of López and leader in his movement, said authorities must pursue all those who ordered, financed or benefited from the killing.
“We’ve been calling for justice for so long,” she said. “And we need the masterminds behind this to be caught and punished.”
The arrests mark a significant step in a case that has tested Honduras’s willingness to protect environmental defenders and confront political power linked to resource conflicts.
