'Am I Next?' Deadly Waiting Game for Honduras Land Activists

June 26, 2017 8:29 PM
Reuters




LA PAZ, HONDURAS —

Every night, land rights activist Felipe Benitez and his wife wedge shut the doors and windows of their home and pray gunmen do not break in to kill the entire family - and with due reason.

Honduras has been named the world's most dangerous place for environmental activists like Benitez - local people battling big business to preserve their ancestral lands from mining, damns, logging, tourism and other mega-developments.

"In Honduras, one of the ways to get you out of the way is murder," said Benitez from his home in the Honduran mountain top village of Santa Elena in western La Paz province.

The area of lush mountains and sweeping valleys has become a focal point in a nation on the front line of land activism, with scores of active disputes - and murders - along the way.

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