Environmentalist was killed near his house just days after colleague Berta Cáceres was fatally shot but critics are accusing government of a cover-up

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Honduras has arrested a suspect in the murder of an environmental rights activist who was colleagues with a recently slain indigenous leader, officials said on Sunday.

Didier Enrique “Electric” Ramirez was apprehended for his alleged role in the killing of Nelson García, 39, who was shot dead earlier this month by at least two assailants following a dispute with local landowners, authorities said in a statement.

Nephew of murdered Honduran activist Cáceres: 'The atmosphere is terrifying' Read more

García was killed near his house in the San Francisco de Yoyoa region, 75 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

He was colleagues with the award-winning environmental activist Berta Cáceres, a 43-year-old teacher who was shot and killed earlier this month by two men at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras.

García was a member of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (Copinh), the same organization that Cáceres led until her death.

Cáceres, who had received death threats for her work, won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for her efforts to prevent the construction of a $50m dam that threatened to displace hundreds of indigenous people. Her murder sparked violent clashes between students and riot police, who fired teargas into the crowds at the University of Honduras.

Honduran police reportedly apprehended a suspect in the murder, but Cáceres’ supporters have accused the government of helping cover-up an assassination, and have suggested the people behind the dam project arranged the killing.

The impoverished Central American nation has one of the world’s highest murder rates. Environmental activists are more likely to be killed in Honduras than anywhere else in the world, according to a study by Global Witness, a nongovernmental organization.