MEXICO CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the slaying of an environmental activist in Honduras, adding to a growing number of international voices that have raised concern over the killing. The environmental leader, Juan López, was gunned down earlier this month in the municipality of Tocoa in rural northern Honduras after spending years combating mining companies to . “I stand with those who see their basic rights trampled and with those who act for the common good in response to the cries from the poor of the earth,” Francis said at the end of his Angelus message at the Vatican.
The rural Caribbean region of Colón has seen a wave of slayings of environmentalists in recent years, and three activists from López’s organization . The religious leader joined a number of global leaders to condemn the killing. Last week, Brian A.
Nichols, assistant U.S. secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, demanded justice for López.
The United Nations called for “competent authorities to carry out an immediate, exhaustive and impartial investigation to identify and punish the people responsible, both material and intellectual, for this murder.” called López’s death a “vile murder” and promised to meet mounting demands to investigate his slaying. Latin America is the deadliest region in the world to be an environmental defender, according to the nongovernmental organization Global Witness, which tracks killings of environmentalists.
Last year, Hondur.