Councillor, pensioner, farmers reported killed in Honduras

A municipal councillor of the district of Cucuyagua in western Honduras was shot dead in his car there early on 18 May, as he was about to drive to work. His assassins may have been three individuals said later to have burned and abandoned a car nearby, El Heraldo reported, citing declarations by the police and witnesses. A day before gunmen shot dead a retired company director in the northern city of San Pedro Sula; César Aguilar was killed in his car at a crossing, when a gunman approached from a motorcycle and fired before he could set his car in motion, La Prensa reported. His wife told police Aguilar must have been shot by mistake, as he was in "no trouble" with anyone. In the northern department of Cortés, two peasants were shot dead by security guards on 17 May, as local farmers sought to invade a private estate in the district of San Manuel. The guards were said to have opened fire when a crowd armed with machetes, sticks and stones sought to enter a sugar-cane plantation, La Prensa reported. At least six others were reported killed on 16 and 17 May, including two youngsters shot dead in the capital Tegucicalpa and a 25-year-old policeman shot in his house, also in Tegucicalpa. Witnesses were cited as saying that the three assassins were seen "calmly" leaving the house after shooting the victim while he ate, La Prensa reported. A man's body was left on the street in Comayagüela next to the capital early on 18 May; he was bound with tape and a message stuck to him suggested he had been an extortionist, El Heraldo reported. "For the famous tax," it read, likely referring to the "tax" he may have forced people to pay him.