June 19, 2021
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- Please read & sign letters
- Please share & e-post this info
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UNITED STATES
In the next days, the trial of David Castillo, hydroelectric company CEO and former military intelligence officer, is expected to conclude.
It is essential that the judges in Castillo’s case be able to make their decision without pressure from powerful actors hoping to sway the verdict and obscure the truth about the intellectual authors of this crime.
Despite lobbying and public relations efforts intended to conceal the facts, the evidence indicating that Castillo directly participated in the assassination of Berta is conclusive. Given the emblematic nature of, and international focus on this crime, holding both material and intellectual authors accountable is essential for progress in addressing impunity in Honduras.
The hope with this public statement is to demonstrate that the international community is watching. Progress in achieving accountability for Berta Caceres’ murder is fundamentally important for progress toward justice and protection for human rights defenders and other activists in Honduras.
Friends,
The trial in Honduras against David Castillo for the murder of Indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres is set to wrap up soon.
The trial has lasted months and shown clearly the pivotal role of Castillo in her murder by a paid assassination hit squad, on March 2, 2021. Castillo is a former military intelligence officer and general manager of the DESA hydroelectric company that Berta was fighting to stop.
The trial has has also shown that the root of Berta’s assassination goes back to 2010 when the DESA Company – owned and controlled by the Atala Zablah family - began illegally implementing a dam project on the sacred Gualcarque River in Lenca territory without the free, prior and informed consent of the affected communities.
The trial has shown the role of Castillo and DESA company employees and executives to coordinate attacks, defamation campaigns and acts of criminalization against Berta, COPINH (the organization she led) and local resistance.
The evidence presented by prosecutors show how Castillo coordinated with an assassination hit squad (the members of which were found guilty in 2018 of Berta’s death) and DESA company executives to plan and carry out the murder.
The Atlantic Region Solidarity Network (ARSN) has drafted this sign on letter that will be sent to Canadian and Honduran authorities next week.
We are also working with other organizations to promote on a sign on letter for Canadian MPs to sign to express their concern for the case. If you live in a riding with an MP that might be open to signing a letter to express concern and a call for justice, please let me know.
Many thanks for your support!
Atlantic Region Solidarity Network (ARSN)
Jackie McVicar, [email protected]
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Archives – COPINH & Berta Caceres
Over 20 years of Rights Action archives related to work in support of COPINH: https://rightsaction.org/archcopinh
A Rot in Honduras That Goes All the Way to the Top, By Hilary Goodfriend, May 27, 2020
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/05/berta-caceres-murder-honduras-nina-lakhani
BOOK: Who killed Berta Cáceres? Behind the brutal murder of an environment crusader, By Nina Lakhani, 2 June, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/02/who-killed-berta-caceres-behind-the-brutal-of-an-environment-crusader
Inside The Plot To Murder Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres, By Danielle Mackey, Chiara Eisner, December 21, 2019, The Intercept, https://theintercept.com/2019/12/21/berta-caceres-murder-plot-honduras/
Films & videos: Berta Caceres
The Life and Death of Berta Cáceres (2020)
In 2016, environmental activist Berta Cáceres was shot dead in her home in Honduras. This film by Trocaire features interviews with Bérta's daughter, sister and mother.
https://vimeo.com/390771524
Berta Cáceres: In Her Own Words / En sus proprias palabras
Based on a 2012 interview we did with the Honduran environmental activist and co-founder of the Council of Indigenous People’s Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
https://skylight.is/2016/03/berta-caceres-in-her-own-words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjM81tYBew4
Berta Cáceres, Goldman Environmental Prize (April 19, 2015)
In a country with growing socioeconomic inequality and human rights violations, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam. She is the South & Central America winner of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest award for grassroots environmental activists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh9Sn9oJR94&feature=youtu.be
Berta Caceres acceptance speech, 2015 Goldman Prize ceremony (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR1kwx8b0ms&feature=youtu.be%C2%A0
Berta's Daughters Speak (2019)
Berta Cáceres was killed for defending the river on which Indigenous communities depend. Her daughters continue that struggle, despite the risks – as witnessed in this Amnesty International interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMdXkXR7U6k&feature=youtu.be
Austra Berta Flores, mother of Berta Caceres, speaks
Calling on international community to demand the full truth, so that those who paid and ordered the murder of her daughter be prosecuted.
https://oxfam.app.box.com/s/ygf6fvlpl9fg08znt7irav78jjp44lz1
Assassination of Berta Caceres: repression, impunity, corruption & profitable businesses in Honduras (April 4, 2017)
Wide Angle interview with Grahame Russell about assassination of Berta Caceres; the U.S. and Canadian backed 2009 military coup; U.S. and Canadian business interests with the post-military coup regimes; why so many Hondurans flee to the U.S., year after year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVMsJyMIlRw&t=83s&list=PLztbi9KA9roUoj_SKm_cehOB_LWo9uTFW&index=25
Dos años después de su asesinato, Berta Cáceres no se murió, se multiplicó (Febrero 2018)
https://www.franceameriquelatine.org/6370-2/
Honduras: Blood and the Water (September 2016)
AlJazeera Faultlines 25 minute report on assassination of Indigenous, anti-imperialist, feminist, environmental activist Berta Caceres.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/2016/09/honduras-blood-water-160920064355648.html
Berta Vive (2016)
On March 2016, the assasination of Berta Cáceres shook the world. Gustavo Castro, Mexican environmental activist witnessed the crime and survived the horror of that night but was then trapped in Honduras. The defense against the construction of a dam at the Gualcarque River is the preface to this story. We follow Miriam Miranda, leader of the Garífuna people as well as a friend and comrade of Berta. Both women share the struggle for decolonization in a country that is being sold to transnational capital and where death is delivered in so many different ways.
https://vimeo.com/229310580
4 Years Seeking Justice (January 17, 2020)
Democracy Now interview with a daughter of assassinated Indigenous leader Berta Cáceres
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/17/berta_caceres_laura_caceres_interview
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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land, human rights and environmental defender groups in Honduras and Guatemala, and COVID and hurricane relief work, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
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