you cannot deny that his work with the
turtles had something to do with it it
was pretty unbelievable to everyone in
the courtroom that they could just
misplace like a huge chunk of evidence
like that because it's a business we are
talking about
money okay be
careful oh yeah yeah
since 2002 over a thousand
conservationists and activists have been
killed while protecting environmental
and land rights Central and South
America have emerged as the most
dangerous regions in the world for
conservationists but in a more
disturbing pattern the perpetrators of
these crimes have gone largely
unpunished as of last year only six
killings of environmentalists ended up
in convictions the murder of hyro morand
Deval a local conservationist in Costa
Rica is not one of those
six in 2013 hyra was killed on moing
beach a popular nesting site for
leatherback turtles on the Caribbean
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coasta harer was killed while on patrol
for sea turtle eggs with four female
volunteers three were students from the
United States after rescuing a nest of
turtle eggs their car was sabotaged and
the conservationists were captured by a
gang of young
men the girls were assaulted and tied up
in a wooden Hut in the jungle while hyro
was taken separately the volunteers
managed to escape the HUD but hyo's body
was found the next morning having been
brutally murdered and dragged behind a
car his violent murder shocked the
nation it sparked protests locally and
abroad and was a wakeup call for many
who viewed Costa Rica as an eco-friendly
tourist destination in Central America
amongst neighboring countries with
Skyhigh murder rates and notorious gang
and drug
problems hyo's former Mentor Didier
shakon is the director of the
conservation group Latin American sea
turtles who was hyro and what was your
relationship with him he was trained
with our group and he was helping to
charm Moine from a poet Beach to a good
beach for conservation MO is an
exception is not the rule in the country
and we are working to change that
exception to be like like another
beaches in the country safe for
volunteers and tourism how has the
relationship between poachers and
conservationist changed in the last few
years when you work in a community you
know everyone but now we have poas from
places away because it's a
business historically a cultural Pastime
the harvesting and sale of endangered
Turtle products has grown into organized
criminal operations in some
areas it's not that problem when you are
a local family in isolate Beach and you
take some X daily right the thing is
when you are link you link activity with
markets because people collect too much
because that means Market will return an
income in cash one of the n in in the
black market now oness is a $100 it's
one $100 in one night and for some
people this is all all in going in one
month we are talking about
money did here brings us to Mo Beach
where hyra was in direct competition
with poachers and ultimately killed on
patrol hyo's body was found right right
over here well in a place like the here
because the ocean and two years ago was
over there yeah yeah but it was just at
this location in this location
yes so you can see right here in Moen um
this is a leatherback turtle that came
up uh laid its nest right over here and
then went back down but you can see
right here this ATV track uh this was
poached as almost all Nest on this beach
R um and you know the poaches are using
ATVs they're running around very quickly
and uh this one clearly was
taken all of these number was uh were
painted by hro by hand he painted all
these numbers every 100 m so we could
keep track it's to to cross the number
of nest and location so he was just
supremely dedicated like this was his
life was saving these sea turtles
exactly Lindsay Fen is a journalist with
the Tio times who extensively covered
hyo's death and the subsequent murder
trial what was the impression you got um
of hyro and the work that he was doing
it's complicated because a lot of people
have painted different pictures of hyro
in the trial the prosecution made him
out to be this hero crusading for
protecting the turtles of Moen but at
the same time time he was also an
outsider in that regard he's from the
Caribbean but that's how he was viewed
by a lot of these poachers as sort of
this Outsider coming in and telling them
how they had to live their lives he was
a bit aggressive though in his methods
well he was proactive yeah if I can say
proactive yes proactive yes those who
spent time on Molen Beach they really
think that that was a big factor in why
he ended up being
murdered whether or not hyo's Dad was
related to his work with Turtle
conservation is still
debated many media makes a relationship
between uh the crime was an and an act
against Turtle people and that is not
true you don't think Hiro's death his
murder had to do with Turtle poaching I
don't think that gang their business was
assault was crime you cannot deny that
his work with the turtles had something
to do with it because that's the reason
he was out on the beach and all of the
investigation documents indicate that
these men were poachers and that they
were in competition with hyro for eggs
the owner of the car that dragged hyro
to death was Felipe arz a Nicaraguan
immigrant who allegedly helped escalate
turle poaching from a small side
business to a criminal
Enterprise his prior arrests include
kidnapping and drug
trafficking testimony from the kidnapped
women who were with hyro the night of
his murder say they overheard the gang
mention a drug boat and say they had to
get to the
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beach some of these uh night Walkers you
know looking for egg for trade are
people EA
drugs there's so much crime on Moen it's
incredibly
dangerous Costa Rica has become a major
Trend shipment point for drug
trafficking which brings with it an
array of gangs and guns the violence
that pervades the drug trade has
recently spilled onto the shores of
Costa Rica drug addicts have also made
Moine their stomping grounds making the
beach one of the most dangerous places
in the
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country okay be
careful oh yeah yeah do we know who
these people are I yeah well do you
remember I said uh the ATV's poach X
yeah okay so these right here these
people coming up PO possible yeah
sometimes you bring you you see people
they they comes to practice with guns
you know
okay yeah yeah so you've got to be
careful when you're on this beach when
people roll off mhm so this right here
this was the the the place that the the
gang take the girls and put in inside
how there were four girls with hro when
he was caught and they weren't Costa
Ricans right they were they are
volunteers from the rescue center mhm
and they basic tied them up and lock
them in over here uh they take and put
it there and uh we think they have plans
to to hear them M but the plans change
and um the next week after the case the
police burn the house by mistake they
burn the house by mistake with all the
evidence of what was happening by
mistake by mistake yes really yes that's
what they say yes okay it's a pretty big
mistake yeah
the trial was marred by significant
missteps with some alleging corruption
played a
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role were there a lot of mistakes made
in the initial investigation a lot of
people viewed it as a pretty big
miscarriage of
Justice when that kind of stuff happens
especially in such a high-profile case
the first thing you do as a reporter is
think okay who's behind this
but really I mean we all looked into it
if there was any kind of corruption in
the case and it doesn't seem like it it
seems like it was honestly just
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incompetence do you think corruption
played a role do you think drug
trafficking played a role well I don't
want believe that yeah I don't want to
to say uh
the black hand is in inside of our
court uh but I can't believe the kind of
mistakes that they do the police
recovered the phones of the alleged
suspects which had text messages linking
them to the
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murder but due to a filing error this
evidence was not permitted for use in
the trial
they just lost a disc of a lot of the
recordings it was pretty unbelievable to
everyone in the courtroom that they
could just misplace like a huge chunk of
evidence like that
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it was just a trial that was ruled by
incompetence that it was just mistake
after mistake and it just never stopped
until the very
end the suspects of 's murder were
acquitted of all charges 2 years after
his death the crime remains
unsolved as of June 2015 the court
decision is currently being appealed
police in the area continue to patrol Mo
Beach to the best of their ability but
as long as the Caribbean coast continues
to be a magnet for drug rated crime
their focus is on a different sort of
illegal tradear
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people like him know who works for the
country who protects the nature here are
you know falling because of those
criminals it's like old cowboy weapons