Case History: Berta Cáceres

On 30 November 2018, the Honduran National Criminal Court convicted seven men of the murder of woman human rights defender Berta Caceres. The Court found that the men had been hired by executives within Desa, a company constructing a dam in indigenous Lenca territory, to carry out her killing on 3 March 2016.

Berta Cáceres was one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Honduras and a Lenca indigenous woman who, for the past 20 years, had been defending the territory and rights of the Lenca people. In 1993, she co-founded the Consejo Civico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras – COPINH (Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras), which led campaigns against illegal logging and mega-projects because of their detrimental effects on the rights of indigenous peoples in the country. The human rights defender was a finalist for the 2014 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, and in 2015 she received the world’s leading environmental award, the 2015 Goldman Prize.

On 30 November 2018, the Honduran National Criminal Court found the following individuals guilty of the murder of Berta Caceres: former Desa security chief and former US trained army lieutenant Douglas Geovanny Bustillo; former special forces sergeant Henry Hernández; US-trained special forces major Mariano Díaz Chávez; Óscar Torres; Desa environment manager Sergio Ramón Rodríguez Orellana; Edwin Rapalo; and Edilson Duarte Meza. On 29 November 2018, Edilson Duarte Meza’s brother, Emerson Duarte Meza, was found innocent of the charges of trying to conceal the crime.

The National Criminal Court’s ruling was issued unanimously by three judges, who concluded that the convicted group acted as hitmen hired by Desa dam executives due to financial losses resulting from Berta Caceres’s human rights-based activism in the region. The guilty parties will be sentenced on 10 January 2019, and they face up to 30 years of imprisonment.

However, the trial of the only person charged as the intellectual author of the murder is still pending. Roberto David Castillo Mejía, a former military intelligence officer and the president of Desa, is accused of hiring the murderers. He was detained at San Pedro Sula airport on 3 March 2018, as he attempted to leave the country. Since his initial hearing on 9 March 2018, he has been held in pre-trial detention at the Tamara National Penitentiary Center.

The criminal process against the eight defendants was marked by controversies, especially regarding the Court’s decision to expel Berta Caceres’s family and their lawyers from the case – leaving the defence to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has received complaints from the defender’s family for overlooking their rights.

Front Line Defenders welcomes the Court’s verdict, however, it remains concerned at the possibility that not all of those involved in planning the murder will be held accountable. Front Line Defenders remains deeply concerned at the increasingly extreme levels of violence faced by human rights defenders in Honduras.

Front Line Defenders expresses strong concern over the continuing attacks, threats and intimidation against COPINH members and its supporters, which have intensified following the murder of Berta Cáceres on the night of 2 March 2016.

On 25 October 2016, immigration authorities at Tegucigalpa airport prevented international observer Luis Díaz de Terán López, who has been accompanying COPINH for the past two years, from entering Honduras and deported him.

According to reports, Honduran authorities held Luis Díaz at the airport for eight hours, before forcing him to fly first to El Salvador and then to Colombia. His documents and luggage were confiscated and returned to him only after he landed in Bogotá. When Luis got his belongings back, he realised authorities had taken away his hard-disk and digital camera.

The security officers declared the international observer, who is a Spanish national, had been deported because of some problems with his immigration status. However, while waiting to board on his flight to Colombia, Luis Díaz was told by the security guards who were with him that they were deporting him because “he was damaging the reputation of Honduras speaking to international media”.

This is not the first time international observers are under attack in Honduras. Shortly after Berta’s murder, on 15 April 2016, during the closing march of a three-day international meeting organised to commemorate the life and work of Berta Cáceres, demonstrators were violently attacked. Front Line Defenders was also part of this event along with many other international organizations. The following month, on 13 May 2016, Giulia Fellin was the target of a smear campaign on social media. An anonymous YouTube account called "Nos Queda Claro" (It Is Clear to Us) published a video, demanding the deportation of Fellin, falsely alleging the observer incited violence. As a result of the smear campaign, Giulia decided to leave the country early, rather than potentially face violence against her or against COPINH members.

On 20 October 2016, riot police attacked a group of people participating in a peaceful march organised by COPINH and supported by OFRANEH and other organizations in Tegucigalpa (“Marcha de la Resistencia por la Tierra, los Ríos y la Vida”).

When the demonstrators arrived in front of the Public Ministry and were preparing to hold the ceremony, the riot police started throwing stones at them and attacked them with tear gas and water cannons. According to COPINH, the people attacked were mainly unarmed women and children. Several of them were seriously injured.

Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, Berta's daughter, wrote on her Facebook page after the attack:

“It took us hours before we could find all our friends and colleagues who had run away after the attack, and help the wounded ones. Children were shocked and in panic because of the tear gas, and all the violence they witnessed. We are outraged because of the excessive use of force by the police, during a peaceful action. They didn't start any dialogue with us, and they didn't care about all the children and elderly people who were there".

They keep killing us and stigmatizing us, but we will keep defending our right to protest and to speak out.

Only ten days earlier, on the evening of 10 October, COPINH General Coordinator Tomás Gómez Membreño was driving to his house from the organisation's office in La Esperanza, Intibucá, when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle. In a separate attack on the same day, COPINH local leader Alexander García Sorto was awaken by shots fired through the door and window of his house in Llano Grande, Colomoncagua. Both human rights defenders survived the assassination attempts.

Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for the Americas, Ivi Oliveira, says: “Following the international outcry over the assassinations of Berta Caceres, Nelson Garcia and Lesbia Urquia we had hoped that the government of Honduras would finally bring perpetrators of violence to account. Instead, while the government talks a lot and does little, Honduras remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders, and members of COPINH and their supporters remain the targets of this relentless violence".

The government of Honduras must take urgent action to reverse this tide of violence and impunity.

As of November, Front Line Defenders has recorded at least 12 killings of human rights defenders in the country in 2016. In connection with Berta Cáceres’ murder, six suspects have been arrested. However, authorities have not identified the people behind the crime and the investigation has been marred with irregularities. Additionally, the authorities have refused to keep Berta Cáceres’ family updated on developments in the investigation.

On 29 September, two unknown individuals attacked María Luisa Ramos, Honduran Supreme Court of Justice Magistrate, who was travelling with documents, including key evidence, related to the investigation. The attackers forced the magistrate out of her car and took off in the vehicle, with the case file inside.

Berta's family and COPINH have called for an independent international investigation into her murder, led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as there are credible and serious doubts about the ability of the Honduran police to investigate, as well as questions about the government's prior knowledge of and potential involvement in the assassination.

Front Line Defenders supports Berta's family and COPINH members in that call, and reminds the Honduran government that any investigation into the murder of Berta has to take into consideration her human rights work, as well as at least 33 known threats she had received while conducting that work. Front Line Defenders also urges the authorities in Honduras to implement effective measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Berta Cáceres’ family and all COPINH members.

On 6 March 2016 more than fifty international organisations signed a joint letter to urge the Honduran authorities to open an investigation into Berta Cáceres's killing.

Dear President Juan Orlando Hernández,

We, a group of 50+ international organisations, write to express our shock and concern over the recent killing of Berta Cáceres, environmental activist and head of the indigenous rights group COPINH.

As you will know, Mrs Cáceres was shot dead by gunmen in the late hours of 2 March 2016. Over the years she had received multiple death threats and attempted kidnappings because of her work defending indigenous Lenca land against the Agua Zarca dam project in Río Blanco. These threats had escalated in recent weeks since construction of the dam had restarted.

We demand an independent international investigation into the circumstances around Mrs Cáceres’ death, and guaranteed protection for her family and colleagues. Mrs Cáceres was granted emergency protection measures by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because of her acute vulnerability, but she claimed the Honduran state did not fully implement them.

We also demand urgent action to protect Gustavo Castro Soto, a Mexican activist who witnessed her assassination, and to ensure his safe passage back to Mexico.

Mrs Cáceres’ case is the most high-profile killing within a growing trend in the murder, violence and intimidation of people defending their indigenous land rights in Honduras. Honduras is the world’s most dangerous country per capita to be an environmental or land defender, with at least 109 people killed between 2010 and 2015.

Mrs Cáceres’ case has not escaped international attention. In a statement issued in response to her death U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy called on you to find and punish those responsible for “this despicable crime.” Last year, US Senator Barbara Boxer wrote a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry urging for better protection of environmental defenders in Honduras. This was in direct response to Mrs Cáceres winning the 2015 Goldman Environment Prize – a prestigious award recognizing grassroots environmental activists from around the world. News of her death has generated substantial international media attention.

The 50+ international organisations listed below call on the Honduran state to ensure indigenous peoples’ right to their land is respected and that they are able to carry out their legitimate work without fear for their safety.

For a full list of the signatories, please go to: Public joint letter to the President of Honduras
 

On 10 February 2014, the trial of human rights defender Ms Berta Cáceres was dismissed at the Court of First Instance in Santa Barbara. She had been facing charges of “illegal possession of a firearm endangering the security of the Honduran state” since 24 May 2013.

As a consequence of the judgement of 10 February 2014, the criminal case has been suspended and the precautionary measures which had been pending against the human rights defender have been revoked. The precautionary measures meant that Berta Cáceres was forced to sign in every week at the Juzgado de Paz de la Esperanza and was prohibited from leaving the country.

While Front Line Defenders welcomes the dismissal of the case against Berta Cáceres, it remains concerned that the case taken by the company DESA against Berta Cáceres, and Messrs Aureliano Molina and Tomas Gómez Membreño continues. For more information on the case please see Berta Cáceres' page on the Front Line Defenders website.

On 9 January 2014, the Appeals Court of Comayagua provisionally suspended the case against human rights defenders Ms Berta Cáceres and Messrs Tomás Gómezand Aureliano Molina. They had been facing charges of usurpation of land, coercion, and causing more than $3 million in damages to DESA, a hydroelectric dam company.

The Court further reversed a decision to displace the indigenous Lenca community from their ancestral lands, and revoked the arrest warrant which had been in place against the human rights defenders. No court date has been set for the final decision in the case.

The case comes in the context of serious concerns in Honduras, and the region in general, that large-scale development projects are impinging on environmental rights and the rights of indigenous people, and that the principle of free, prior and informed consent is not being fully respected.

On 12 September 2013 human rights defenders Berta Cáceres, Tomás Gomezand Aureliano Molina will appear in court charged with usurpation of land, coercion, and causing more than $3 million in damages to DESA, a hydroelectric dam company. Berta Cáceres is also facing separate charges of illegally carrying arms“endangering the internal security of Honduras.”

On 25 May 2013, just after 1pm, Ms Berta Cáceres, general co-ordinator of Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Indígenas Populares – COPINH (Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organisations) was conditionally released from her detention by Judge José Francisco Pineda Ayala del Juzgado in Santa Barbara, Western Honduras.

The human rights defender had been arrested the previous day along with Mr Tomás Gómez Membreño, who is also a member of COPINH. COPINH is currently involved in a campaign for the defence of the Gualcarque river which is the site of a proposed dam to be built by the Honduran company FICOHSA and the multinational SINOHYDRO.

On 24 May 2013, Berta Cáceres and Tomás Gómez Membreño were arrested in a military operation in the Agua Caliente sector of Santa Barbara. Twenty members of the engineering battalion based in the town of Siguatepeque stopped their car and conducted a search in a violent and aggressive manner, before requesting police backup. The police backup arrived in cars belonging to the companies responsible for the project which COPINH is currently opposing. The human rights defenders were informed that they were being arrested for possession of a weapon, supposedly found in the boot of their car. Whilst Tomás Gómez Membreño was released at 11pm that night, Berta Cáceres was placed in a cell and treated as a highly dangerous person.

Before her release, the Honduran Attorney General, Mr Nery Betancourt, directed the judge in the case to order Berta Cáceres to sign in at the court every Friday of the month, to ban her from leaving the country, and set a trial date for 13 June 2013. The organisation's car remains out of service.