Blanca Saraí Izaguirre Lozano
National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH)
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
August 13, 2025
Dear Commissioner Izaguirre Lozano:
We are deeply distressed by the assassination of Douglas Alexander Pereira on the El Tumbador farm in the campesino community of Guadalupe Carney, Trujillo, Colón Department. He was shot and killed on May 13 by two armed men while carrying out his security duties for the cooperative’s small convenience store. He was likely targeted for his leadership and security role, placing him in direct opposition to the control Dinant—a mass producer of food products that has historically usurped campesino land for palm oil tree plantations—hopes to maintain.
El Tumbador has been a central area of dispute between campesinos and the Dinant corporation, and the farming families have been victims of violence for many years. Most notably, on November 15, 2010, private security guards, together with agents from the military and National Police, ambushed five farmers as they were preparing to work the land as they did every day; they were massacred. The assassination of Douglas Alexander Pereira, sadly, is just one more tragedy in the broader system of violence against small rural farmers (campesinos).
In 2021, the global palm oil industry was valued at $50.6 billion in 2021 with projections that it will rise to $65.5 billion in 2027. Although hailed by the World Bank as an engine of development for the Global South, palm oil production often comes at the cost of environmental waste, labor abuse, and repression against those who oppose its expansion. Dinant is the largest land-holder of palm plantations in Honduras and has faced significant pushback from campesino cooperatives who seek to reclaim their land and autonomy. In the past decade, there have been more than 200 victims of armed conflicts arising from movements to reclaim campesino land. Dinant has long been implicated in this chronic violence, often supported by the Honduran government security forces. In 2017, victims presented evidence to the World Bank to support allegations of ties between Dinant and illegally armed death squads used to maintain control of the land, but no action was taken to hold responsible individuals accountable. Agricultural regions in Honduras have been plagued by land wars for decades, resulting in the death of hundreds of innocent farmers without progress towards justice.
In response to this blatant and violent injustice, we urge the Honduran government to:
- conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to discover the material and intellectual authors of the assassination of Douglas Alexander Pereira, publish the results, and bring them to justice
- work with campesino organizations in the Bajo Aguán Valley to devise and implement a protection mechanism for the campesino families and leaders who face extreme violence for defending land promised to them under the Agrarian Reform
- conduct a complete and unbiased investigation into the criminal ties between agroindustrial companies (like Dinant) and illegally armed groups
Sincerely,
Brian J Stefan-Szittai and Christine L. Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
Javier Efraín Bú Soto, Ambassador of Honduras in Washington, DC ~ via email and US mail
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR): Andrea Pochak (Rapporteur for Honduras) ~ via email
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH): Isabel Albaladejo Escribano (Representative to Honduras), Alice Shackelford (UN Resident Coordinator in Honduras) ~ via email
US State Department: Honduras Desk Officer (Washington, DC) and US Embassy in Tegucigalpa: Roy Perrin (Chargé d’Affaires ad interim) and Human Rights Officer ~ via email
US Congress: Senators from Ohio (Husted and Moreno)
US Representatives from Ohio (Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Rulli, Sykes) ~ via email
14 MAY 2025_CalanInstitute_Honduras
