Honduran authorities have arrested a suspect in the murder of environmentalist Nelson García, the Indigenous activist and father of five who was killed on March 15, less than two weeks after the assassination of his colleague Berta Cáceres.
Reuters reports that Didier Enrique “Electric” Ramirez was apprehended for his alleged role in the murder of García, “who was shot dead earlier this month by at least two assailants following a dispute with local landowners,” Honduran officials said in a statement on Sunday.
Both Cáceres and García were members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous organizations of Honduras, known as COPINH.
As Common Dreams reported at the time, news outlets said García’s death occurred shortly after the Honduran government dispatched riot police and bulldozers to evict 150 Indigenous people from their homes in Rio Chiquito, where they had occupied ancestral land for two years in protest of the Agua Zarca megadam project.
According to the statement by the Honduran Public Prosecutor, “Ramirez was waiting for Garcia’s arrival before ambushing him as he parked his car,” TeleSUR reports.
Meanwhile, a lawyer representing activist Gustavo Castro, the sole witness to Cáceres’ murder—who was wounded in the attack and survived only because he pretended to be dead—”is appealing to the Mexican government to help secure his release amid mounting concern he could be framed for the killing,” the Guardian reported Monday.
Castro, coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mexico and director of the Chiapas-based NGO Otros Mundos, has been forbidden from leaving Honduras for 30 days, or until April 6. He has been forced to take refuge in the Mexican embassy in Tegucigalpa.
In an interview with the Guardian, attorney Miguel Ángel de los Santos said he was concerned for Castro’s safety and called on Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto to intervene.