Seven months after a colleague in human rights’ work in Honduras was murdered, Fr Ismael Moreno is pragmatic about the possibility that he will meet the same fate.
Fr Moreno, director of the Jesuits’ Radio Progreso in northern Honduras, told the American Catholic News Service that the April murder of the station’s marketing director, Carlos Mejia Orellana, remains unsolved. Mejia was stabbed to death in his home in El Progreso, near the crime-ridden city of San Pedro Sula.
Gunshots heard regularly around the country “we say are normal”, Fr Moreno said. “That’s probably how I’ll die, not from natural causes. I am prepared for that. If something happens, people are prepared to run things. They know where my papers are.”
The murder of Mejia came after another unsolved killing of a Radio Progreso worker three years ago. Nery Jeremias Orellana, a correspondent for the station, was shot dead in 2011.
Fr Moreno said authorities have refused to release any information about the investigation into Mejia’s death, beyond saying that there was an arrest warrant on the books.
“They wouldn’t show it to us or give us a name,” he said. Then, about a month ago, the prosecutor in charge of the case was killed, Fr Moreno said. The prosecutor was also investigating the recent murder of Margarita Murillo, a prominent advocate for peasant landowners.
The priest said that on a day-to-day basis, his relatives and friends in Honduras face more risk of death than he does, because everyone’s life is rife with danger from out-of-control crime…Read More
Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald