A 16-Year-Old Activist Murdered in Honduras
Published: Feb 28, 2018 Reading time: 1 minute
The 16-year-old Luis Fernando Ayala, an active human rights defender who also focused on bringing attention to environmental issues in Honduras, was murdered on February 20. His body was found mutilated, without arms and with signs of torture. Honduras is enduring a political crisis after the manipulated presidential elections that took place in November of last year.
Luis was a member of an environmental movement in Santa Barbara. Together with his family and neighbours, they strived for a better environmental protection of their native village, Gualala. Luis was repeatedly intimidated and criminalized by the Honduran military police in the past due to his participation in peaceful protests against election results.
It has been suggested that in Honduras, there might exist so-called “extermination groups” connected to the police that target young people and leaders of protests against election frauds.
People in Need expresses a deep concern about the situation and sends their condolences to the family and friends of the young activist. We also strongly appeal for a proper criminal investigation. Threatening and prosecuting people who oppose the current government and violating human rights only on the basis of a political opinion is inadmissible.
See a report from the Coalición Contra la Impunidad platform, which monitors human rights abuses in Honduras after the presidential elections. (The report is in Spanish.)
