Berta Cáceres

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Berta Cáceres

Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (born March 4, 1973 in La Esperanza , Intibucá , Honduras ; † March 3, 2016 there ) was a Honduran human rights and environmental activist. She was murdered by several gunmen in her home on the morning of March 3, 2016.

Life

Cáceres was one of the co-founders of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (Council of Popular and Indigenious Organization of Honduras) (COPINH), an organization that campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples and the preservation of their natural rights Environment in Honduras, especially the Lenca , an ethnic group from which they themselves came. In 2012 she received the Shalom Prize . In 2015 she was honored with the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work. Berta Càceres was also posthumously named Champion of Earth 2016 by the United Nations Environment Program .

After Cáceres was repeatedly the target of sexual assault, kidnapping and death threats because of her various campaigns, which were directed against illegal building projects, plantation owners, and most recently the construction of the Agua-Zarca dam on the Río Gualcarque in the Intibucá department she was murdered by several gunmen in her home on the morning of March 3, 2016. Back in 2013, Cáceres said in an interview with Al Jazeera :

“The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top. I want to live, there are many things I still want to do in this world but I have never once considered giving-up fighting for our territory, for a life with dignity, because our fight is legitimate. I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable ... when they want to kill me, they will do it. "

“The [Honduran] army has a death list with the names of 18 human rights activists - my name is at the top. I want to live and still want to do a lot of things in this world, but I haven't even considered giving up the fight for our [Lenca] territory, for a life in dignity, because we are fighting a legitimate fight. I take a lot of precautions but in the end I am vulnerable in this land of total impunity / lawlessness ... If they want to kill me, then they will. "

- Berta Cáceres

In addition to Berta Cáceres, 13 other environmental and land rights activists were murdered in Honduras in 2016.

After the murder

At a rally on April 5, 2016 during the meeting Berta Cáceres lives

About a month after the death of Berta Cáceres, the international meeting Berta Cáceres Lives took place from April 13th to 15th, 2016 in Tegucigalpa . Around 1,500 people from 22 countries took part. They advised on the development of strategies for social movements after the murder of Berta Cáceres.

Berta Cáceres' family and the COPINH commissioned an independent commission to investigate the murderers and the background to the murder, consisting of five lawyers from Guatemala, Colombia and the USA who are experienced in such investigations. This International Group of Advisory Experts (GAIPE) (Spanish: Grupo Asesor Internacional de Personas Expertas) presented its final report at the beginning of November 2017. At the time of publication, the Honduras prosecutor had arrested eight people who were not believed to be behind it. According to the commission, the murder was planned jointly by entrepreneurs and state security forces. At the same time, GAIPE uncovered a large number of criminal offenses and irregularities in the investigation. On November 20, 2017, two police investigators were arrested. They are said to have manipulated and falsified evidence in the murder case, which should have steered the investigation in the wrong direction. On March 9, 2018, the Honduras public prosecutor brought charges against former Honduran military intelligence officer David Castillo Mejía , today u. a. President and managing director of Desarrollo Energético SA (Desa) , as one of the alleged backers and the alleged main logistician. Desa is one of the companies involved in the Agua Zarca dam project, against whose illegal construction Berta Cáceres had campaigned.

Web links

Commons : Berta Cáceres  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ COPINH - Home (Blog)
  2. ↑ COPINH - Who we are
  3. ↑ Award of the Shalom Prize 2012 to Bertha Cáceres Flores
  4. ^ The Goldman Environmental Prize: Berta Cáceres: 2015 Goldman Prize Recipient
  5. ^ The Goldman Environmental Prize: Goldman Environmental Foundation mourns the loss of Berta Cáceres
  6. ↑ [1]
  7. ↑ International Rivers March 3, 2016: Berta Cáceres Murdered
  8. ↑ Huffington Post March 4, 2016: Who Killed Berta Cáceres?
  9. ↑ Honduras Indigenous Leader Berta Caceres assassinated in Home on telesurtv.net
  10. ^ AK Mellmann, ARD Mexico City: Mourning for the environmental activist who was shot. In: tagesschau.de. ARD, March 6, 2016, accessed on March 8, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Al Jazeera December 24, 2013: Honduras dam project shadowed by violence
  12. ↑ Global Witness: Defenders of the earth report 2016 ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.globalwitness.org
  13. ↑ Daniela Drei 30 and Kathrin Zeiske (Amerika21): International meeting "Berta Cáceres lives" in Honduras on April 18, 2016, accessed on April 12, 2018
  14. ↑ a b Roxanna Altholz, Jorge E. Molano Rodríguez, Dan Saxon, Miguel Ángel Urbina Martínez, y Liliana María Uribe Tirado: Represa de Violencia: El plan que asesinó a Berta Cáceres , November 2017, accessed on April 12, 2018, in short German Summary: Honduras delegation blog of November 11, 2017, accessed April 12, 2018
  15. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ): Experts suspect a plot behind the murder of an Indian leader in Honduras , from November 1, 2017, according to a dpa report, accessed on April 12, 2018
  16. ↑ Melanie Schnipper (Amerika21): Police investigators arrested in the Cáceres murder case in Honduras , November 23, 2017, accessed on April 12, 2018
  17. ↑ Daniela Drei 30 (Amerika21): Progress in Honduras in the investigation into the murder of Berta Cáceres , March 17, 2018, accessed April 17, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Cáceres, Berta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cáceres Flores, Berta Isabel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Honduran human rights and environmental activist
DATE OF BIRTH March 4th 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH La Esperanza , Intibucá , Honduras
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2016
Place of death La Esperanza , Intibucá , Honduras