The conservation community in Guatemala was shocked by news of a double murder last February. Erwin Ochoa López and Julio Vásquez Ramírez, both employees of Guatemala's protected areas council (CONAP in its Spanish acronym) were shot and killed the evening of February 29 as they were leaving a restaurant in the Caribbean coastal community of Puerto Barrios.

Ochoa was known for his aggressive pursuit of illegal loggers, developers, polluters, and other violators of Guatemala's environmental laws. He and other CONAP officials had filed more than 40 complaints against eco-violators in the Puerto Barrios area. Vásquez, who held an administrative position at CONAP, was likely shot to eliminate a witness.

According to Andreas Lehnhoff, director of The Nature Conservancy in Guatemala, many conservationists have seen an increase in the plundering of the area's natural resources in recent months. They believe developers are pressuring the recently elected government to ignore their illegal activities. He adds that conservation groups are particularly worried, because "the retribution against Ochoa may be just the tip of the iceberg."

A CONAP official in Guatemala City who asked not to be identified believes that one of the complaints that Ochoa was investigating "must have threatened someone very powerful." He said CONAP will continue pursuing the pending cases and have a presence in Puerto Barrios, but will move its administrative office to another town nearby "because we don't want to have another martyr."

The crime has not yet been solved, and conservationists fear that the government's promises to investigate are purely rhetorical. They hope the international conservation community will send emails, faxes, and letters to the Guatemalan government, urging officials to solve the crime and enforce environmental laws. @

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