SÃO PAULO, Brazil – After a year and a half, one of the masterminds behind the tragic killing of Catholic environmental activist Juan López – which occurred in Sept. 2024 in Honduras – was finally charged and detained by authorities, giving the local Church hope that justice will be served.

Adán Fúnez, formerly the mayor of the municipality of Tocoa, was arrested on May 12 for allegedly being involved in López’s murder. His temporary arrest was converted to preventive detention, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 12.

He was arrested alongside Juan Ramos and Héctor Méndez, who were also accused of planning López’s killing.

López, a leader of the Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa – an organization that works to protect the local environment – had denounced Fúnez to prosecutors for allegedly issuing fraudulent operating licenses to a mining group.

With the assistance of municipal officials, Fúnez allegedly provided falsified public documents to the group Emco Holdings, Los Pinares, and Ecotek, which is responsible for a megaproject located in Carlos Escaleras National Park (also known as Montaña de Botaderos).

The project involved not only iron oxide mining, but also a pellet production plant, a power plant, and other facilities.

López argued that these megaprojects would devastate protected areas within the national park and affect local rivers. He reported this to prosecutors in June 2021 during a meeting at the parish of San Isidro Labrador, which he frequently attended.

López was killed by hitmen on Sept. 14, 2024, after leaving another Catholic community where he had attended a celebration.

“On the following day, which was a Sunday, the parish priest of San Isidro Labrador, Father Carlos Orellana, said during Mass that the Church blamed the mayor for the crime,” Leonel George, a friend of López and a member of the parish council, told Crux Now.

However, Fúnez’s connections with powerful politicians apparently hindered the progress of the investigation. Days before López’s murder, the mayor appeared in a video allegedly negotiating bribes with drug dealers. Congressman Carlos Zelaya, brother-in-law of then-President Xiomara Castro, also appeared in the video.

This is why justice took so long to finally detain Fúnez. While Catholics who knew López have celebrated his arrest, they expect the investigation to advance and reach others involved in the crime.

Father Noel Ortiz, executive secretary of the Mesoamerican Ecological Ecclesial Network (REMAM), said there are three different criminal structures that must be dismantled.

“It is necessary to dismantle the corruption scheme that exists in Tocoa, involving officials who are still in office,” Ortiz told Crux Now.

“There is also a criminal organization formed by contract killers of the type that murdered López,” the priest added.

“And there is a criminal business structure corresponding to the group in charge of the megaproject in the national park,” Ortiz said.

After Fúnez’s arrest, the Municipal Committee in Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa publicly asked the judiciary to issue a formal indictment with pretrial detention against businessman Lenir Pérez.

Pérez heads the group in charge of the megaproject and is already facing criminal proceedings for environmental damage – but not for alleged involvement in López’s killing.

Pérez was photographed in Florida in the same week as Fúnez’s detention. He met with figures such as Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar and former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

The megaproject is currently halted. According to Leonel George, there has been severe damage to the vegetation in the area occupied by the mining operation. Water sources have also been affected.

“It’s almost irrecoverable. The damage is visible. But if the government cooperates, the environment may recover,” he said.

A decree reinstating the area previously granted to the mining project has already been issued, but the government has not yet implemented it.

López’s killing shocked the Latin American Church and was one of the reasons behind the creation of the campaign “Life hangs by a thread” (La vida pende de un hilo) by the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM).

“The Church has been very important in our struggle for justice. Our local bishops are committed to the defense of our common home. Father Ortiz has accompanied the entire process,” George said.

He now waits for further developments in his friend’s case.

“Fúnez’s detention was an important step forward, but it is not the end of the investigation nor the conclusion of the case,” he said.