Blanca Saraí Izaguirre Lozano
National Commissioner for Human Rights (CONADEH)
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
August 14, 2025
Dear Commissioner Izaguirre Lozano:
We are deeply distressed by the assassination of Josué Esaú Aguilar Cárcamo, the 22-year-old son of Guadalupe Cárcamo, one of the leaders of the Gregorio Chávez Campesino Enterprise in the community of Panamá, Colón Department. On May 31, at about 6:30pm, the young man was riddled with bullets as he rode his motorcycle in the nearby community of Rigores.
The families of the Gregorio Chávez Campesino Enterprise—like many farming families in the Bajo Aguán Valley—have experienced violence for many years. The cooperative farm is named for Gregorio Chávez, who was brutally murdered while going about his daily farming activities in July 2012. Violent conflicts between campesinos and the palm oil giant Dinant Corporation have plagued the farm since then. In late January of this year, two members of the Gregorio Chávez Cooperative were murdered. The campesino coalition Agrarian Platform (Plataforma Agraria) has accused Dinant of bankrolling Los Cachos, a criminal organization often described as a “death squad,” to provide private security for Dinant.
Dinant is the largest land-holder of palm corporations 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 over 200 victims of armed conflicts arising from movements to reclaim campesino lands. Dinant has long been implicated in this chronic violence perpetrated against campesino movements, often supported by the Honduran military.
We urge that your government:
(1) conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to discover the material and intellectual authors of the assassination of Josué Esaú Aguilar Cárcamo, publish the results, and bring them to justice
(2) implement the agreement signed on April 23 with the United Nations, which awarded Honduras $2 million dollars toward “preventing and managing social conflict in Bajo Aguán through the protection of human rights and access to justice”
(3) fully install and activate the Bajo Aguán Truth Commission (also known as the “Tripartite Commission”) to investigate the causes of and those responsible for unpunished violence
(4) install a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission and guarantee its independence.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai Christine 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) ~ via email
US Representatives from Ohio (Beatty, Brown, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Rulli, Sykes) ~ via email
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