Indigenous Lenca leader shot dead in Honduras, police say

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Police in Honduras say a local leader of the indigenous Lenca group has been shot to death. Officials say Pablo Isabel Hernández was shot to death Sunday on a dirt road near the town of San Marcos de Caiquín as he headed to a local church. Police spokesman Cristian Manuel Nolasco says the ambush may have been related to personal or political disputes. Hernández was a member of the same indigenous community as Berta Cáceres, a prize-winning environmental and Indigenous rights defender who was murdered in 2016. Hernández was the second Lenca leader killed in less than a year. In March 2020, Lenca activist Juan Carlos Cerros Escalante was shot death.