Today, the United States of America is outraged and saddened by the murder of Honduran attorney and human rights defender Antonio Trejo Cabrera.
Reports say the prominent Honduran human rights lawyer Antonio Trejo Cabrera has been shot to death while attending a wedding.
In her remarks at Washington DC, Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland urges the Honduran government to conduct a full and transparent investigation of his death immediately.
She says to strengthen measures meant to protect human rights defenders such as Mr. Trejo Cabrera, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Maria Otero led a U.S. delegation to the first Bilateral Human Rights Working Group with the Government of Honduras on September 13, 2012.
She cites that during the working group meetings, the United States and Honduras committed to work together to combat impunity, reform the Honduran security and justice sectors, and enhance the capacity of Honduran human rights institutions to operate effectively.
According to Ms. Nuland, the United States is dedicated to working with the Government of Honduras to ensure that those responsible for this reprehensible act are brought to justice, and through the Special Victims Task Force, is assisting the Honduran investigation.
Ms. Nuland adds that Mr. Trejo Cabrera worked tirelessly to resolve the tragic and complex land conflict in Honduras’s Bajo Aguan.
“We urge all parties to continue his efforts to bring peace to the Bajo Aguan.” -Ms. Nuland
Reports say Trejo was shot five times Sunday.
Prior to his killing, Trejo had represented three lands rights groups in disputes between agrarian organizations and landowners.
Reports say more than 60 people have been killed in such land disputes over the past two years.
In April this year, with the nine lawyers have been assasinated in recents months in Honduras, two United Nations independent experts today called on the government of Honduras to adopt concrete measures to stop the killing of lawyers in the country.
Reports say of the nine lawyers killed, six of them were killed in the country’s capital, Tegucigalpa. In addition, 17 journalists have been killed since 2010.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), 74 lawyers have been killed in Honduras in the past three years without the Government responding adequately to the crimes.
The UN experts also stressed that lawyers should be able to carry out their functions without risking their lives.
The most recent murder occurred in January, when Ricardo Rosales, a lawyer who revealed a newspaper source that police were torturing detainees was killed three days after the story was published.
Mr. Jose Ricardo Rosales was shot dead on 17th in the coastal city of Tela, a city located in northern Honduras.
In June 2011, Honduras was reinstated into the Organization of American States (OAS).
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon welcomed the reinstatement of Honduras into(OAS), which had expelled the Central American nation two years ago after a military coup d’etat ousted former president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.
