LGBT Human Rights Defender Walter Trochez Assassinated in Tegucigalpa

On December 4, 2009, human rights defender Walter Trochez, member of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans community and active member of the National Resistance Front was kidnapped and brutally beaten in front of the Obelisco Park of Comayaguela by four hooded men in a grey pick-up truck without plates.  Months before, Trochez had denounced that a vehicle matching this description was monitoring his home and he had changed residence as a result.

On Dec. 4th, the kidnappers told him that they knew him very well and that they would kill him. They put a hook over his head, insulted him and questioned him regarding the resistance, asking questions about the leaders and their movements. That day, Trochez escaped with his life. The next day he denounced the incident before national and international bodies.

Today we received a report that Trochez was assassinated by two bullets in front of Larach and Cia in the center of Tegucigalpa.

We denounce this deplorable act before the Honduran people and the international community. This death is one more in a list of ten, suffered by the gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans community of Honduras and part of a pattern of persecution, harassment and threats directed at organizations and human rights defenders under the coup regime.

We demand that an investigation into this crime be conducted to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.

We demand that the Honduran State guarantee the physical integrity of those who defend human rights and that it respect and comply with international treaties and conventions that protect human rights defenders and the general population.

We demand that the persecution, threats and harassment of individuals, leaders and organizations that have ideological differences with the de fact regime cease.  

CIPRODEH (Centre of Investigation & Promotion of Human Rights), Honduras