Asís Castellanos and Adrienne Pine Berta Cáceres, photo provided by Silvio Carrillo and used with permission of COPINH. Much of what has been written about Lenca/Honduran activist Berta Cáceres has focused on her identifications as an Indigenous woman and as an environmentalist. While neither is false, those two facts alone paint an anemic picture of…
Category: HONDURAS
Honduras: Five “Disappeared” in Triunfo and the Expulsion of the Garifuna People
With the disappearance of five young people from the community of Triunfo de la Cruz, taken from their homes in the early hours of Saturday, July 19, by alleged agents of the Police Department of Investigation (DPI), the aggressions against leaders and members of the Garifuna communities have been repeated once again, and have intensified…
For Berta Cáceres, “Any Injustice Was Her Battle”
Hilary Goodfriend The March 2, 2016 assassination of venerated Honduran social movement leader Berta Cáceres sent shockwaves around the world. In her new book from Verso, Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet, journalist Nina Lakhani describes the fraught process that led, two years later, to the…
Honduras During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Why We Shouldn’t Go Back to “Normal”
Karen SpringOn May 5, a group of Afro-indigenous Garifuna men stood guard at the entrance of La Travesía community in the department of Cortes in northern Honduras. The men were fumigating vehicles, documenting the traffic transiting through their community, and implementing other bio security measures as part of community-led prevention efforts to stop the spread…
Resistance in Times of Coronavirus in Honduras
Ricardo Arturo Salgado Bonilla The consequences of the planetary contagion with COVID 19 are, at this point, incalculable. Specialists are forced to change their forecasts every day, and they sound increasingly apocalyptic. Saving the economy is the focus of attention of the world’s elites, while the media debates the lethality of the virus, as if…
Bertha Zuñiga: “My Mother’s Dream Has Not Faded Away”
Ezequiel Sanchez From Tegucigalpa. Today marks four years since the assassination of Honduran indigenous leader and environmentalist Berta Cáceres. To commemorate the occasion and reaffirm that Cáceres continues to live in the memory and actions of her people, in the “imaginary of resistance”, Página12 interviewed her daughter and successor. Bertha Zúñiga, the current General Coordinator…
Manuel Zelaya Rosales: “Lawfare is a Weapon Against the People”
Ricardo Arturo Salgado Bonilla Last week, a meeting of prominent figures was held at the European Parliament in Brussels to discuss the issue of Lawfare (the use of the judicial system for political persecution). This issue has become increasingly relevant in recent years as a result of the legal persecution of progressive leaders, especially in…
The Assassination of Berta Cáceres and the Imposition of the “Consultation” Law Developed by UNDP
On March 3rd, it will be four years since Berta Cáceres was murdered. An indigenous leader who constantly fought for the defence of indigenous peoples’ territories and the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consultation as a mechanism for the recognition and respect of indigenous peoples’ rights. Everything indicates that the bloody murder was a…
Targeted Killings and Racism in Honduras: Another Land Defender Dies
On January 11th our colleague, Ignacia Lopez Martinez, died. She was shot on December 28th in the Garifuna community of Masca. Doña Coty -a name she was known by- was 70 years old and was shot seven times at 8 pm on December 28th. She survived until January 11th. Apparently there is a strategy to…
Racism in Honduras: New Attack on Garifuna Leader in Masca
On the evening of Saturday, December 28, Mrs. Ignacia Piota Martinez, a Garifuna from the community of Masca, was attacked by a mestizo and sustained seven gunshot wounds. She was immediately taken to Puerto Cortés and later to San Pedro Sula where she is in stable condition. Ignacia, 70 years old, was the sister of…
Bertha Zúniga: “It is the Poorest Sentence the State of Honduras Could Have Delivered”
Albinson Linares From a very young age, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres knew the dangers faced by people who defend rivers, jungles, forests and territories. She saw how many of her parents’ friends disappeared, how they were killed, tortured and threatened for defending the environment. But nothing could prepare her for midnight on March 2, 2016, when…
COPINH Communiqué on the Reading of the Sentence in the Case of Berta Cáceres
After the reading of the sentence of the first trial against the perpetrators of the murder of our colleague Berta Cáceres, the daughters and son of Berta Cáceres, together with COPINH, make the following known: 1. Impunity does not end with the sentencing of the perpetrators. There is sufficient evidence to prosecute and punish members…
