Dismay and repudiation in Honduras after murder of former opposition congresswoman

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The murder of former Honduran parliamentarian Carolina Echeverría, running again for a position in parliament, has been condemned on Monday (26) and adds to the escalation of crimes against lawyers in Honduras, where 165 professionals have died violently in the last decade.

The crime has shocked Honduran society, which has once again demanded an end to the violence that claims the lives of between 10 and 11 people a day in a country of 9.5 million inhabitants.

Echeverría, a lawyer by profession and parliamentarian between 2006-2010 during the government of Manuel Zelaya, was murdered Sunday by at least four armed men and a woman who entered her residence in the capital Tegucigalpa, when her husband, former police commander Wilfredo Urtecho was shot and wounded.

Several Honduran government representatives and the United Nations System in Honduras condemned the crime against Echeverría; the wake is at the headquarters of the Liberal Party in Tegucigalpa.

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The president of the Honduran Bar Association, Fredis Cerrato, condemned the violent death of Echeverría and demanded that justice be brought to those responsible for the crime.

IMPOTENCE

Cerrato expressed his “impotence” for the death of the former deputy for the Liberal Party, the second largest opposition force in the country, and pointed out that the practice of law carries many risks in Honduras.

With Echeverría, 165 lawyers have been murdered in the last ten years, according to figures released by the head of the Honduran Bar Association.

“It is a chilling statistic, it makes my body shiver just to feel the danger in which our guild finds itself in the exercise of the profession, it has become a high-risk profession, and we have no protection,” Cerrato said at a press conference.

He regretted that the Honduran authorities “do not go deeply into the investigation (of these crimes), everything remains in a cloak of impunity and darkness, the motives are never clearly known and the murderers are not brought to justice.”

CLARIFICATION OF THE CRIME

In Honduras, the resident coordinator of the United Nations System, Alice Shackelford, lamented through Twitter the murder of Echeverría, whose mortal remains will be transferred to the department of Gracias a Dios, bordering Nicaragua, where the former deputy will be buried this Tuesday.

“Very regrettable news of the murder of Carolina Echeverria Haylock. My condolences, and those of all @ONUHonduras, to her family and friends. We urge the competent authorities to clarify the facts promptly,” Shackelford said.

The Secretariat for Human Rights of Honduras also lamented the violent death of the former parliamentarian and called on state bodies “to expedite the investigation to clarify the facts and identify those responsible for ensuring the right to justice.”

Presidential candidate, Xiomara Castro, of the Libertad y Refundación Party said she felt “dismayed and saddened.”