On Monday morning, the Honduran authorities arrested 4 men
in relation to the murder of internationally renowned activist Berta Cáceres --
2 are retired or active members of the Honduran Armed Forces and 2 have ties to
DESA, the company building the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project that Berta was
campaigning against. With even the Honduran government investigators now
admitting the assassins have ties to the Honduran Armed Forces, it is time once
and for all for the United States to end financing and training of the Honduran
security forces. Berta's family and COPINH continue to call for
the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to investigate the case.
It is hard to believe that the Honduran government has the political will to
investigate the higher-ups who may have helped plan or known about Berta's
murder; as Berta's daughter Laura Zuniga Cáceres told The
Guardian, “The Honduran state is too closely linked to the murder of my
mother to carry out an independent investigation.”
Early on, there were clear signs that the
Honduran authorities were manipulating the investigation and interrogating
COPINH members. Even with an international outcry demanding investigation into
the years of threats and persecution Berta suffered for her defense of the
Gualcarque River, it took 11 days for the investigators to go to DESA's
installations. 
Even then, the investigation was declared secret and the
lawyers for the family excluded. Berta's daughters and COPINH members took the
demand for justice internationally, speaking out in the US and Europe, calling
for an end to US and European security aid to Honduras given Berta's
assassination and the ongoing persecution of social movements. Last week,
the European Investment Bank canceled a $40 million loan to Honduras, citing
Berta's murder as the reason. Shortly thereafter, the Honduran government
apprehend 4 men with ties to the military and DESA, admitting for the first
time that Berta was assassinated for her activism.
Those arrested include Sergio Rodriguez,
Environmental and Social Manager for DESA, who Berta denounced was threatening
COPINH during a protest against the Agua Zarca project on February 20, as well
as Geovanny Douglas Bustillo, retired Honduran leuitenent, who previously
served as head of security for the Agua Zarca project. The other two arrested
include Mariano Díaz Chávez, reported to be an active Major in the Honduran
military, and Edilson Atilio Duarte Meza, reported as a retired captain in the
Honduran Military. It seems doubtful they would have acted solely on
their own.
Berta took on extremely powerful
interests in Honduras and the persecution of her while she was alive was done
with the knowledge of very powerful people, with the Public Ministry
prosecuting Berta in 2013 and the Secretary of Security, trained at the School
of the Americas (SOA) in Psychological Operations, failing to ensure her
protection.
Now we are asked to trust the same Public Ministry with the investigation into
her death. Without transparency in the investigation and the Honduran
government's refusal to accept the offer of the IAHCR independent commission,
one must ask if higher ups in the Honduran Armed Forces and government have
been investigated in relation to Berta's murder? Has David Castillo, head of
DESA with a background in military intelligence for the Honduran Armed Forces,
been investigated? Have the directors of DESA, including those who belong to
the powerful Atala family, one of the families many believe was behind the 2009
military coup in Honduras, been investigated? Has Julian Pacheco, Secretary of
Security, been investigated? Did the US Embassy or US military officials know
of the plans to murder Berta?
Those may be very dangerous questions to ask.
Honduran opposition journalist Felix Molina, well-known throughout the country
for his resistance radio show that was one of the clearest voices against the
military coup in Honduras for years, posted very similar questions on Monday
after the arrests. Hours later there was an attempt to attack him but he got
away, only to be shot four times in the legs Monday night. Luckily the bullets
missed arteries and veins, and Felix is still alive, though in the hospital.
Felix is renowned for his journalism and radio programs critical of the powers
at be.
Whether or not all the intellectual
authors of Berta's murder are ever brought to justice, one thing is clear: the
United States must stop financing and training the Honduran Armed Forces and
other security forces.
The US-trained and supported TIGRES, with the stated goal of addressing drug
trafficking, have spent significant time stationed at DESA's installations,
guarding the Agua Zarca Project. Were any of the Honduran military (current or
former) involved in Berta's murder trained by the US? Has the United States
ensured it does not fund the First Battalion of Engineers, which was stationed
at DESA's installations and murdered Indigenous leader Tomas Garcia in 2013?
When will US funding, training, and equipping of the Honduran security forces
end? How many more people have to die?
The United States is
not the only one with responsibility for what is occurring in Honduras; earlier
this month I accompanied Berta's daughter Bertha Zuniga Cáceres, COPINH leader
Asencion Martinez, and Rosalina Dominguez and Francisco Sanchez of the Rio
Blanco Indigenous Council to call on the Dutch Development Bank FMO and the
Finn Fund, both majority owned by the Dutch and Finnish governments
respectively, to definitively cancel their financing of the Agua Zarca Project.
FMO
had seemingly ignored Berta's first attempt to inform them of the violence and
human rights violations surrounding the Agua Zarca Project before they
finalized the loan. Now, these banks share responsibility for the violence in
the zone.
Francisco and other COPINH members in Rio
Blanco have also been threatened for their opposition to the Agua Zarca
Project. As Rosalina stated, "we do not want any more
deaths." Yet, despite Monday's arrests, the project continues
forward and the banks have yet to definitively withdraw. The US keeps
financing and training the Honduran security forces, all too many of whom are
deployed in the zone. Even worse, the US increased the number of Honduran
military trained at the SOA-WHINSEC this past year and is giving an extra $750
million to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, for the ill-named
"Alliance for Prosperity," known also as the Plan Colombia for
Central America. This money only serves to further embolen the repressive
Honduran regime.
How many more people have to die before the
financing of repression is halted?
Leticia
shares, “I’m a farm worker in the California San Joaquin Valley. I’m the
one who picks the harvest so the agriculture products such as fruits and
vegetables arrive at the consumer's table. Field work is very hard, this is
the reason many don’t want to do it. We work under high temperatures above
100°F and even when there’s ice and it’s cold we have to enter to work and
the fields are contaminated with the different pesticides that are applied. …
I am thankful with the United Farm Workers because they are fighting so that
farm workers are paid overtime after 8 hours worked. It is time that we get
justice."
Gonzalo has
been laboring in in the fields of California’s Salinas Valley for 14 years.
He tells us, “In California, equality doesn’t exist
between farm workers and workers in other industries. The
field work is very hard work. The body has to endure low temperatures and the
heat of the sun to harvest the crops … I leave my house at 4:30 a.m. while my
children are still sleeping and I don’t return until 7 p.m. If it were
possible to pass a state law that would have overtime pay after 8 hours and
that way farm workers would have more time with their family and pick up
their children from school, who are the future of this country.”
