Alleged mastermind & financier of assassination

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December 4, 2023


** Capture Order Issued for Alleged Mastermind & Financier of
Assassination of Berta Caceres
Legacy of U.S. & Canadian-backed Narco-Dictatorship in Honduras
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By Grahame Russell
[link removed]

Authorities in Honduras have issued an arrest warrant for Daniel Atala, one of the alleged masterminds and financiers of the killing of Indigenous rights, anti-imperialist, feminist, environmental defender Berta Cáceres who was shot and killed in her home in La Esperanza, late on March 2, 2016, by a team of paid assassins.

Daniel is a member of the oligarchic Atala Zablah family that have immense economic and political power in Honduras. They control FICOHSA Bank and are heavily invested in construction, finance, and sports. They are part of the traditional oligarchic elites that orchestrated the June28, 2009 military coup ousting the government of President Zelaya, resulting in 12 years and 7 months of repressive, corrupt rule by the military-backed, drug-trafficking regime of President Juan Orlando Hernandez (“JOH”) and the National Party.

Not only did the U.S. and Canada legitimize the 2009 coup, but – together with countless global companies, banks and investors – they maintained full economic, military and political relations with the JOH / National Party regimes throughout this time period, referring to them, the entire time, as “democratic allies”.

Every year on March 2nd, I republish a reflection on Berta Caceres: Who She Is & What She Lived For ([link removed]) .

I met Berta in 1998. From 1998-2016, Rights Action funded and coordinated work and activism with COPINH ([link removed]) (Council of Popular & Indigenous Organizations of Honduras/ Consejo de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras)), co-founded by Berta and her then partner Salvador Zuniga. She was a dear friend and companera.

Find below a report by Nina Lakhani (published by The Guardian) about the arrest ordered issued for Daniel Atala. Lakhani is the author of Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet ([link removed]) .

Recommended reading: A major article by Jared Olson (published by The Intercept): THE CASH BEFORE THE KILLING: Newly Released Documents Reveal International Funding Trail Preceding the Murder of Berta Cáceres ([link removed]) .

Stay tuned. The struggle for justice against the masterminds and financiers of the assassination of Berta just took a major step forward - the stakes and risks get higher.

Narco Trial of former U.S. / Canadian-backed “democratic allie”

Meanwhile, the new Honduran government of President Xiomara Castro forges ahead, working to dig the country out of the deep pit of institutional corruption and impunity left behind by over 12 years of U.S. and Canadian-backed Narco-Dictatorships.

On February 5, 2024, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez goes on trial in New York City for overseeing a massive government and military-backed cocaine trafficking cartel. I recommend folks follow the work of Karen Spring (Honduras Now) who will attend and report on the trial in New York, as part of a education/ activist campaign to put the U.S., Canada & international community ‘on trial’ for 13 years of support for the Honduran Narco-Dictatorship.

Honduras: arrest warrant issued over murder of activist Berta Cáceres
Indigenous and environmental leader was shot in 2016 after campaigning to stop construction of an internationally financed dam
By Nina Lakhani ([link removed]) , The Guardian, 2 Dec 2023
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Authorities in Honduras ([link removed]) have issued an arrest warrant for the alleged mastermind in the case of the murdered Indigenous environmental leader Berta Cáceres. Cáceres ([link removed]) was gunned down in her home in March 2016 in retaliation for leading a campaign to stop construction of an internationally financed hydroelectric dam.

On Friday, a court issued an arrest warrant for Daniel Atala Midence ([link removed]) after prosecutors formally accused the former financial manager of the dam company, Desa, with masterminding the murder. Atala Midence, who is part of one of the most powerful economic and political families in the country, ran Desa along with the company president, David Castillo. Castillo, a US-trained former intelligence officer, was last year sentenced to 22 years ([link removed]) and six months for his role in ordering and planning the assassination.

Atala Midence was summoned to give evidence in Castillo’s 2021 trial due to his role in running operations – which included authorising payments to informants used to monitor Cáceres. But Atala Midence was excused at the last minute after state prosecutors revealed that he was under investigation for the murder.

Atala Midence’s father and two uncles, the Atala Zablah brothers, are the majority shareholders in the dam company. There is no suggestion from prosecutors that they were involved in the assassination.

Cáceres’s children welcomed the news of the charges and arrest warrant. Her oldest daughter, Olivia Zúniga Cáceres, who is the Honduran ambassador to Cuba, said the family was “praying for justice”.

“We hope for justice and an end to the impunity,” said lawyer Victor Fernández ([link removed]) , who represents the family.

Cáceres, the coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras ([link removed]) (Copinh), was best known for defending indigenous Lenca territory and natural resources, but she was also a respected political analyst, women’s rights defender and anti-capitalist campaigner.

She was shot dead by hired hitmen on 2 March 2016, two days before her 45th birthday ([link removed]) , after years of threats linked to her opposition of the 22-megawatt Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river, which is considered sacred by the Lenca people. In addition to Castillo, seven others – including two other US-trained former military officers – have already been convicted for their role in the murder.

The dam project on the Gualcarque river was sanctioned after the 2009 coup ushered in a pro-business authoritarian government, even though it had not complied with national and international environmental and community requirements.

President Xiomara Castro, who is in Dubai for the UN climate talks, refused to comment on the case.

Nina Lakhani is author of Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet ([link removed])

More information

COPINH: To support efforts for justice in this case, and for all that Berta was working for in Honduras and on this planet: www.copinh.org / [link removed] ([link removed]) / copinhonduras.blogspot.com ([link removed]) / [link removed] ([link removed]) / @COPINHHONDURAS

Honduras Now: [link removed]; [link removed]. Karen Spring: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

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To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
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* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

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