Honduran Environment Minister Mayra Mejía was removed from her post following heavy pressure from sectors of the mining industry, in the wake of the Ministry’s decision against issuing new environmental licenses for mining exploration and open pit mining operations. Mejía, who will now serve as minister of Labor, “established environmental policies that affected big interests, especially in mining and in renewable energy. Everything indicates that the government caved to pressure and opted to compensate her with a different post,” Dolores Valenzuela, of the Association of Environmental Journalists, told Tierramérica.

Mejía herself told Tierramérica that she does not rule out the possibility that that was the motive behind the move, which comes just as Parliament is getting ready to vote on controversial reforms to the Mining Law.