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Gunmen kill Honduran indigenous, environmentalist leader A killing in Honduras shows that it may be the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists
(about 5 hours later)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduran indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in fighting a dam project, was murdered Thursday. Prominent indigenous activist Berta Caceres was killed in rural Honduras early Thursday, marking a new low point for a country already ranked as the world's most dangerous for environmental activism.
Caceres, a Lenca Indian activist, had previously complained of receiving death threats from police, soldiers and local landowners because of her work. Caceres, a winner of the prestigious 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize, was killed in her home about 1 a.m. by unknown assailants who forced their way inside, then fled, Honduran security officials said. Fellow rights activists said she was shot by two attackers.
Tomas Membreno, a member of her group, the Indian Council of People’s Organizations of Honduras, group said at least two assailants broke into a home and shot Caceres to death early Thursday in the town of La Esperanza. The watchdog group Global Witness ranked Honduras, which has one of the world's highest homicide rates, as the most deadly for environmental activism last year. Caceres had held a news conference last week to denounce the killing of four fellow activists who, like her, opposed the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.
“Honduras has lost a brave and committed social activist,” Membreno said in a statement. [Harrowing images of police battling gang violence in crime-stricken Honduras]
The killing appeared to be targeted: A Mexican rights activist at the house was only slightly wounded in the attack, but Caceres’s body had four gunshot wounds. Police said they had detained a suspect, but did not identify the person. In awarding her the $175,000 Goldman prize — the award is given to activists from six regions — the organization cited her efforts to rally the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and wage "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world's largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam."
Caceres, a mother of four, led opposition to a proposed dam on the Gualcarque river, considered sacred by the Lencas. China's state-owned firm Sinohydro, the world’s largest dam developer, had partnered with the Honduran company to carry out the project, but fierce protests led by Caceres blocked it.
Many of the project’s backers have largely abandoned building plans. "Let us come together and remain hopeful as we defend and care for the blood of this Earth and its spirits," she said last year during her Goldman Prize acceptance speech. She continued her activism as an indigenous leader and was a fierce critic of the right-wing government of President Juan Orlando Hernández.
President Juan Orlando Hernandez wrote in his Twitter account that “this act has caused mourning among all Hondurans.” Caceres received frequent death threats and was assigned police protection, Honduran officials said. Security Minister Julian Pacheco said Caceres had recently moved to a different residence and had not notified local authorities.
His chief of staff, Jorge Alcerro, “The president has instructed all government security forces to use all means to find the killers.” A security guard assigned to her home has been taken into custody, Pacheco added, speaking at a news conference in the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Alcerro said Caceres was supposed to be receiving special protection because of the death threats, but did not explain why there were no police protecting her when she was killed. Photographs in Honduran media showed Caceres's body shrouded in plastic and loaded onto the back of a pickup truck this morning en route to a morgue.
The U.S. ambassador in Honduras, James D. Nealon, issued a statement saying, “We strongly condemn this despicable crime. The United States of America calls for a prompt and thorough investigation into this crime and for the full force of the law to be brought to bear against those found responsible.” Caceres, 45, had four children, said her nephew, Silvio Carrillo, a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. “We are devastated by the loss of our fearless Bertita," he said in a statement on behalf of the family.
The United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, wrote that “it is highly probable that her assassination is linked with her work in protecting the human rights of the Lenca indigenous peoples to their lands and territories.” "We ask the international community and human rights organizations around the world to put pressure on their leaders to bring about justice," the statement said. "Her murder is an act of cowardice that will only amplify Bertita’s message to bring about change in Honduras and make this a better, more humane world.”
The website of the Goldman Environmental Prize said Caceres “waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam,” which the site said “would cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of Lenca people and violate their right to sustainably manage and live off their land.” Carrillo, 43, said he was raised in Washington because his mother — Caceres's sister — and his father, a lawyer, were forced to flee Honduras in the 1970s in the face of death threats.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director for Amnesty International, said in a statement that “the cowardly killing of Berta is a tragedy that was waiting to happen.” "This kind of violence is the reason they had to leave," Carrillo said. "Nothing's changed."
“For years, she had been the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment and threats to stop her from defending the rights of indigenous communities,” said Guevara-Rosas. “Berta’s death will have a devastating impact for many human rights activists and organizations.” Plagued by drug violence, gang warfare and extreme economic inequality, Honduras is also one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, LGBT activists and practically anyone who challenges powerful interests.
Human Rights Minister Karla Cueva said “this crime cannot go unpunished.” Read more:
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