Revelations on Berta Cáceres’Assassination

Berta Cáceres, 45 year-old, an internationally renowned figure for her defense of the environment and the protection of the lenca ethnic group

By: Mariela Pérez Valenzuela

After a year and a half of the assassination of Honduran leader Berta Cáceres, new elements come to light involving businessmen, public officials and the homeland security apparatus in the perpetration of the crime.

Berta Cáceres, 45 year-old, an internationally renowned figure for her defense of the environment and the protection of the lenca ethnic group, was shot six times to death while she was sleeping at home, the crime was carried out by assassins hired by Empresa de Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA) in partnership with the Police which was suppose to protect her from death threats received.

The Human Rights Inter-American Commission (CIDH) requested protection from the Honduran government for the valuable fighter, but it reneged on its commitment.

Over 120 environmental activists were killed in Honduras in 2016 with absolute impunity and cover-up of criminals.

At the moment of her assassination in La Esperanza, in the Southeastern department Intibucá where she resided, as a co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (CONIPH) she was involved in a legal battle against DESA, which was trying to divert the Zarca river to build a hydroelectric plant, ignoring the lands and waters where the indigenous lived.

For her valuable life the United Nations awarded her post-mortem the Champions of Earth prize, the most important of that institutions for environmentalist. “Berta Cáceres refused to allow powerful interests to violate the rights of the poor and marginalized and destroy the ecosystems on which they depend”, said UN Environment director general Erik Solheim in her tribute.

New elements revealing the connections of various bodies to kill Cáceres were presented last Tuesday in the report “Represa de Violencia, the plan to murder Berta Cáceres”, result of investigations carried out by the Independent Advisory Group of Experts (GAIPE) .

In a public conference, specialists gathering in Tegucigalpa, determined the use of political influences within the national government by the company DESA -one of the 140 concessionaries handed over to private companies since the military coup against President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

The report showed that the aforementioned firm planned Cáceres’ persecution and the death threats.

One of the revelations of the document confirmed that the state security bodies in charge of the leader’s protection -which she had requested in the face of constant intimidation- never fulfilled their obligations, which is in contrast with the coverage given to DESA officials.       

The result of the report is based on the revision of over 40 thousand pages of telephone records, chats, text messages, GPS and e-mails extracted from some of the cell phones seized in the criminal investigation.  

Hence, the experts concluded that the Honduran state not only left Cáceres unprotected the night of her death, but also that her agents tipped off the company about her movements.

The murder of the prestigious leader was planned back in November 2015 and an aborted attempt was made on February 5 and 6, 2016.

The GAIPE investigation, which brings together experts from various nationalities, was achieved thanks to the support of national and international organizations to the COPINH and the victim’s relatives, who demanded from the government, without response, the creation of an international group to monitor the investigation, conducted until then by the Public Ministry.

Before dealing with the case, the judicial file of the homicide was stolen from the Mission of Support against corruption and impunity in Honduras of the Organization of American States (OAS), which demanded without success the restitution of the stationery.

In the closing report, GAIPE determined that there was an exhaustive and independent search on the operation that led to the murder, the connections behind the crime, the responsibilities of the accused and other individuals at large also involved.

The conclusions indicated the existence of a criminal network made up by managers and employees of DESA company, state agents and assassins, as well as illicit association, concealment, obstruction of justice and other crimes.

GAIPE revealed that the official investigators did not follow the procedures to prosecute, and punish those responsible for the death of the activist.

Although eight people were accused as perpetrators of the crime – who were paid $ 22,000 in total for their crime, as one of the authors confessed – the Public Ministry has failed to discover the mastermind of the crime, although it has the elements necessary to do it.

In this case, which shocked not only Honduras but all those in the world trying to protect Nature and the environment, GAIPE highlighted the role of international financing companies that knew DESA’s excesses towards the communities, which are hidden to support the concession, in which it has interests.

CONIPH warned that, after the results proposed by GAIPE, they expect a reaction from the Honduran government, discredited before the international community for the impunity of the murderers of those who care for the lives of indigenous peoples, considered third-class citizens in that Central American nation.

Translated by ESTI