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Colleague of slain Honduran Indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres shot dead

by Reuters
Wednesday, 16 March 2016 23:24 GMT

An indigenous woman holds a poster with a photograph of slain environmental rights activist Berta Caceres during a march to demand justice in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

Image Caption and Rights Information

Activist Nelson Garcia shot dead following dispute with local landowners, Indigenous rights group and police say

TEGUCIGALPA, March 16 (Reuters) - A colleague of Berta Caceres, the award-winning Honduran environmental rights activist murdered earlier this month, has also been killed, an indigenous rights group and police said on Wednesday.

Nelson Garcia, 39, was shot dead on Tuesday by at least two unknown assailants near his house in the region of San Francisco de Yojoa, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the capital Tegucigalpa, a police spokesman said.

Garcia was a member of the Consejo de Organizaciones Populares e Indigenas de Honduras (COPINH), the same organization that Caceres used to lead.

Tomas Gomez, the coordinator of COPINH, said Garcia was killed following a dispute with local landowners.

Berta Caceres, a 43-year-old teacher, was shot and killed earlier this month by two men at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras, 112 miles (180 kilometers) west of Tegucigalpa.

Caceres, who had received death threats, won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for her effort to prevent the construction of a $50 million dam that threatened to displace hundreds of indigenous people.

Honduras, a poor, Central American country, has one of the world's highest murder rates.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Editing by Diane Craft)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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