Erick Martínez Ávila was found dead this Monday in the Honduran village of Guasculile. He was a journalist, a leader of the lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual community, and a candidate for the Freedom and Refoundation Party.
The body of the journalist, 32, was found with signs of strangulation in manhole near a highway. His disappearance was reported last weekend.
Ávila was in charge of communication at the Association of Kukulcán, an organisation that defends the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT).
The murdered journalist was also the leader of the leftist political organisation called Los Necios and the founder of the Diversity and Resistance Movement.
He represented the department of Francisco Morzán for the current Refoundation Popular Force (RPF), which belongs to the Freedom Refoundation Party.
Following the murder, the National Commissioner for Human Rights, Ramón Custodio, informed that at least 21 journalists have been murdered in Honduras over the last three years.
Previously, the National Commission of Human Rights announced that in 2011, the Honduran homicide rate was recorded at 86 people per 100 thousand.
This committee also pointed out that a violent death occurs every 74 minutes in Central America.
Before Ávila, the most recent journalist murdered was Fausto Elio Hernández in the Honduran department of Colón.
Translated from Púlsar.
