Rapid Response Network

threats, and online harassment that have intensified during the past several weeks against journalists Bessy Ríos and Karen Fernández and Mariana Belioso. Each has expressed concerns about adverse human rights impacts of the government’s new “plan de control territorial” which will increase police and military presence in certain regions.

destruction of crops that occurred on July 15 at the sites of La Vege del Culatón and El Achotal in the Río Blanco community in Intibucá Department. The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) announced that during the night members of the Madrid family, associates of the Atala Zablah family, destroyed with machetes more than 15 manzanas of the Lenca indigenous community's corn harvest. At least 25 families have lost their principal food and main livelihood.

murder of Mario Moreno Jiménez, a member of the National Front for Socialism (FNLS), in Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, on June 18.

death threats directed at ​Edwin Espinal, Raul Alvarez​, and ​Romel Portillo, human rights defenders imprisoned in the maximum security, military run “La Tolva” military prison, where they and other political prisoners have been detained​ since 2018 (cf our letters of February 11 and March 21, 2018).

continuing attacks against the Nuevo Día Ch’orti Indigenous Association (CCCND) in Olopa municipality in Chiquimula Department. CCCND provides legal support and visibility to indigenous Ch’ortí communities. They face repeated human rights violations and threats to their land, environmental, and cultural rights because of hydroelectric and mining projects in their territories

another death threat against a prominent human rights leader, Yirley Velasco, in El Salado Village, Carmen de Bolívar municipality, in Bolívar Department.

continued killings occurring at an increasing rate in Colombia. Recently, four former members of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) were murdered in one week. They are: Rafael Polindara, Anderson Pérez Osorio,Daniel Esterilla, and Servio Delio Cuasaluzan Guanga. Also murdered was Manuel Gregorio González Segura, a beneficiary of the National Comprehensive Plan to Replace Crops for illicit use (PNIS), the government’s program to replace coca plantations with legal crops.

colombian peoples’ outcry of national outrage and sorrow at the assassination of María del Pilar Hurtado, age 34, in Tierralta, Córdoba Department.

recent killings by paramilitary groups—as well as government security forces—of four persons in Colombia. They are: Jader Pertuz, age 24, Jader Polo, age 24, Jeferson Trochez Escue, age 16, and Luis Fernándo Velásquez.

assassinations of three social leaders of the Awa indigenous community in Nariño Department: Leidy Jacqueline Burgos Pai, Rocío García Pai, and Robert Dionisio García Bisbicús.