Berta Caceres

=<div><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">M<a href="http://www.soaw.org/material-authors-sentenced-but-impunity-continues-for-those-who-ordered-murder-of-berta-caceres/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">aterial Authors Sentenced But Impunity Continues For Those Who Ordered Murder of Berta Cáceres</a></h1><img class="alignright wp-image-4466" src="http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="233" srcset="http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-300x300.jpg 300w, http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-150x150.jpg 150w, http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-768x768.jpg 768w, http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2-200x200.jpg 200w, http://www.soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JusticiaparaBERTA-2.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; display: inline; float: right; margin-left: 1.5em;" />On December 2, 2019, a Honduran court sentenced seven men for the murder of visionary Honduran social movement leader Berta Cáceres — over a full year after finding them guilty<a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=4&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2019%2Fdec%2F02%2Fberta-caceres-murder-sentencing" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">.</a>  This includes Douglas Bustillo, an SOA graduate and former head of security for the hydroelectric dam company DESA, and fellow SOA graduate Army Major Mariano Díaz. Díaz was trained by the United States not only at Ft. Benning, but also in counter-terrorism at the Inter American Air Force Academy in Texas, and was part of the the US-led war in Iraq. He was as an Army Major, instructor for Honduras’ Military Police, and head of military intelligence for Honduras’ First Battalion.<a href="http://www.soaw.org/material-authors-sentenced-but-impunity-continues-for-those-who-ordered-murder-of-berta-caceres/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Read more here</a></div><div>
<div><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQFjAFegQIChAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQFjAFegQIChAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQFjAFegQIChAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQFjAFegQIChAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQFjAFegQIChAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Honduras: the deadliest country in the world for environmental ...</a></h3>
<div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 1px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.5;">https://www.globalwitness.org › campaigns › environmental-activists › hon...</cite></div><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=indigenous+activist+green+envirinment+kill+attack+murder&oq=indigenous+activist+green+envirinment+kill+attack+murder&aqs=chrome..69i57.34576j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b5" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQ7B0wBXoECAoQAw" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQqR8wBXoECAoQBA" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; white-space: nowrap; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQIDAFegQIChAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.57; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQIDAFegQIChAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">Countless others have been threatened, attacked or imprisoned. ... Following a two-year investigation into who's behind these murders we can reveal how ... Three indigenous activists who opposed the project have been killed – their bodies ... the consent of indigenous communities before projects are given the green light.</a></div></div><div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQIDAFegQIChAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">
</a><div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dT0HgTHlZFwJ:https://www.globalwitness.org/it/campaigns/environmental-activists/honduras-deadliest-country-world-environmental-activism/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjU36yCorPmAhVOLK0KHWOkB6wQIDAFegQIChAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres" style="%22opacity:1%3Bfill:%2315a5ea%3B%22" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" background-position="background-position" right="right" center="center" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" repeat="repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">Bertal Cáceres </a>(Lenca) was a Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, for "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam" at the Río Gualcarque. She was assassinated in her home by armed intruders, after years of threats against her life. A former soldier with the US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military asserted that Caceres' name was on their hitlist months before her assassination. As of February 2017, three of the eight arrested people were linked to the US-trained elite military troops of which two had been trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, the former School of the Americas (SOA).</div><div>
<div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/6/berta_caceress_daughter_survives_attempted_attack">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/6/berta_caceress_daughter_survives_attempted_attack</a></div><div>
<div>UpR 7/12/16  100 activists KIA, another COPIN woman  dump; mil relatuionship since 1954 ; 9 bases in 80's stuill 3; trianed CONTRAS  FBI trains very corrupt cops</div><div>
ucsc dana frank

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/for-latin-american-environmentalists-death-is-a-constant-companion/2016/03/25/85920f96-ec69-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/for-latin-american-environmentalists-death-is-a-constant-companion/2016/03/25/85920f96-ec69-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html</a>

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/17/honduras-murder-nelson-garcia/">http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/17/honduras-murder-nelson-garcia/</a>


Another member of <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/03/berta-caceres-murdered/">Berta Cáceres’</a> Indigenous rights group was brutally murdered by unidentified assailants on Tuesday, following a violent eviction of Indigenous people from their land.Nelson Garcia, a father of five and community leader, was shot four times in the face—”gunned down in his home,” the Nation <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/as-the-united-states-votes-honduras-kills/" target="blank">reported</a>. His assassination occurred less than two weeks after <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/04/activists-demand-justice-following-assassination-berta-caceres" target="blank">Cáceres’</a>, and only days following her funeral.<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/caceres750-1.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-379748">
</a>Local <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Another-Member-of-Berta-Caceres-Group-Assassinated-in-Honduras-20160315-0049.html" target="blank">reports</a> say that his death occurred shortly after the Honduran government’s dispatching of riot police and bulldozers to evict 150 Indigenous people from their homes in Rio Chiquito, where they had occupied ancestral land for two years in protest of the Agua Zarca <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/14/indigenous-peoples-megadams-are-worse-colonization" target="blank">megadam</a> project.TeleSUR <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Another-Member-of-Berta-Caceres-Group-Assassinated-in-Honduras-20160315-0049.html" target="blank">reported</a>:“They said that they would be peaceful and they were not going to throw anyone out of their houses, but at midday they started to tear down the houses, they destroyed the maize, the banana trees and the yuca plantations,” said Tomas Gomez, a COPINH coordinator.“When they finished the eviction, our companion Nelson Garcia went to eat in his house, they were waiting in the zone that the commission of COPINH pass, but it was diverted. Garcia arrived first and they killed him,” he added.Garcia was a leader in the Rio Chiquito community, all of whom were members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Indigenous rights group formed by Cáceres. COPINH has been instrumental in preventing the construction of the <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/24/carl-pope-tpp/">Agua Zarca megadam</a>.<div class="rve" data-content-width=""><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">Drugs, dams, and power: the death of Honduran activist Berta Caceres. <a href="https://t.co/6ibPtjMKLs">https://t.co/6ibPtjMKLs</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qa2gHlevMe">pic.twitter.com/Qa2gHlevMe</a>— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) <a href="https://twitter.com/Greenpeace/status/710299646006931457">March 17, 2016</a></blockquote></div>The megadam is to be built on the Gualcarque River, ancestral territory of the Lenca tribe—of which Cáceres was a member—and a critical water source for the Indigenous people.Cáceres’ daughter, Bertha Cáceres, only yesterday <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/16/berta-caceres-bertha-honduras-not-first-human-rights-defender-assassinated" target="blank">told</a> the Guardian in an interview that her mother’s death “is not the first assassination, but one of a series of assassinations of human rights defenders.”“I don’t want another human rights defender to be assassinated,” Bertha said.Garcia’s death “brings to 14 the number of COPINH members who have been murdered since the group was founded in 1993,” <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/16/why-was-berta-caceres-assassinated" target="blank">observed</a> fellow activist Beverly Bell.A witness to Cáceres’ murder and fellow Indigenous activist Gustavo Castro was blocked by the Honduran government from returning to Mexico last week and he is currently still being held by the Mexican Embassy in Tegucigalpa despite international pleas for the government to allow him to safely leave the country, DemocracyNow <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/8/honduran_activist_berta_caceres_died_in" target="blank">reported</a>.Honduras is suffering under a brutal regime put in place by a <a href="http://commondreams.org/views/2016/03/10/honduras-killing-field" target="blank">U.S.-backed</a> coup <a href="http://commondreams.org/views/2016/03/15/us-role-honduras-coup-and-subsequent-violence" target="blank">supported</a> by <a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> during her tenure as secretary of state. Since the coup, the country has maintained the highest murder rate in the world and many environmental and Indigenous rights activists have been <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/10/ongoing-crime-against-environmentalists-honduras-must-end" target="blank">killed</a> under the military junta’s rule.<div class="rve" data-content-width=""><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">As <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton">@HillaryClinton</a> celebrates, another politically motivated murder goes down in Honduras, a country she helped ruin <a href="https://t.co/R4Faa0RE8z">https://t.co/R4Faa0RE8z</a>— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaniaKhalek/status/709914373633007616">March 16, 2016</a></blockquote></div>After news of Garcia’s murder broke, the Europe-based development banks <a href="https://www.fmo.nl/k/n1771/news/view/28133/20819/fmo-suspends-all-activities-in-honduras-effective-immediately.html" target="blank">FMO</a> and <a href="http://www.development-today.com/magazine/Frontpage/finnfund_suspends_disbursements_to_honduran_dam_project" target="blank">Finnfund</a> announced that because of the violence and killings they would end their operations in Honduras entirely, which will mean pulling their funding for the Agua Zarca megadam.TeleSUR <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Another-Member-of-Berta-Caceres-Group-Assassinated-in-Honduras-20160315-0049.html" target="blank">reported</a> that the U.S. Agency for International Development, on the other hand, is continuing to fund Agua Zarca in defiance of <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/14/bertas-death-must-be-last-oxfam-demands-megadam-funders-withdraw" target="blank">activists’ protests</a> at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC earlier this week and despite the continued violence and murders of environmentalists and Indigenous activists in Honduras.--
<a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/03/11/drugs-dams-and-power-the-murder-of-honduran-activist-berta-caceres/">https://theintercept.com/2016/03/11/drugs-dams-and-power-the-murder-of-honduran-activist-berta-caceres/</a>


EARLY IN THE MORNING on March 3, in La Esperanza, Honduras, unidentified men broke into the home of the environmental activist Berta Cáceres and murdered her. Cáceres was the cofounder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Movements of Honduras (COPINH) and the 2015 winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and her murder has prompted an international outcry as well as investigations supported by the United Nations and the FBI. The Mexican environmental activist Gustavo Castro, who was staying in Cáceres’s home in hopes of deterring violence against her, witnessed the murder and was subsequently detained by Honduran authorities. Amnesty International has <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/uaa05016_0.pdf">warned </a>that Castro, who was shot twice in the attack, is in “grave danger.”Cáceres’s activism spanned several issues, including indigenous rights, feminism, LGBT rights, and environmentalism, but recently, “more than anything,” her sister Agustina Flores told me, “it was Agua Zarca,” a proposed hydroelectric dam project, which was to be built on the territory of the indigenous Lenca people. Flores, a retired teacher, says that Cáceres had received repeated death threats related to her work. The threats were so serious in recent months that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights repeatedly <a href="https://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2016/024.asp">called on</a> the Honduran government to provide her with protection. Her sister said that protection was never provided.“We have feared for her life for a long time,” Flores said in a telephone interview, adding that in November, Cáceres told her she was being “seriously harassed” by three local politicians who she believed were acting at the behest of Desarrollos Energéticos, SA (DESA), the private energy company behind the Agua Zarca dam.DESA is partially controlled by the controversial Honduran Atala family, whose members are involved in a variety of business ventures and suspected by many of having backed the 2009 coup. Best known among them is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-21/central-american-billionaires-discovered-amid-citi-asset-sales">billionaire</a> Camilo Atala, president of Banco Ficohsa, a regional bank that in 2014 acquired most of Citibank’s assets in the region, making it the largest bank in Honduras.The Intercept requested comment from DESA, Agua Zarca, and the Atala family. DESA provided the following statement:<blockquote>The board of directors of the company that is carrying out the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project has not given any declaration nor does it plan to do so until the authorities in charge of the investigation determine the causes and perpetrators of this regrettable incident that ended the life of the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres. This, as is logical, is in order to not provoke any more speculation than what already exists and which is spreading among public opinion around what happened.</blockquote>Agua Zarca also received financing from the <a href="http://www.bcie.org/?prj=56&title=Desarrollos%20Energ%E9ticos%20%28DESA%29.%20Agua%20Zarca%20Hydroelectric%20Project&lang=en">Central American Bank for Economic Integration</a>. The original contractor hired to build the dam, supported in part by the World Bank, was one of the largest hydropower engineering companies in the world, Sinohydro Group. For more than a year, in 2012 and 2013, community members formed a human barricade to block construction of the dam, while COPINH led a national and international advocacy campaign to highlight the environmental and cultural destruction the dam would cause. DESA’s private security guards and the Honduran military responded with a campaign of violence and intimidation.<blockquote>“The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top,” Cáceres told <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/12/honduras-dam-project-shadowed-violence-201312211490337166.html">Al Jazeera</a> in December 2013. “I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable,” she continued. “When they want to kill me, they will do it.”Eventually, both Sinohydro and the World Bank pulled out of the dam project and it is currently on hold.</blockquote>Cáceres’s family strongly believes that someone involved with Agua Zarca ordered her execution. Her children have circulated a <a href="http://www.univision.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/no-solo-asesinaron-a-nuestra-madre-asesinaron-a-la-madre-de-todo-un-pueblo">press release</a> in which they name DESA, the various Agua Zarca funders, and the Honduran government for its failure to protect their mother. On March 3, Agua Zarca felt compelled to issue a <a href="http://www.hidroelectricaaguazarca.hn/assets/documentos/PRONUNCIAMIENTO_ANTE_ASESINATO_BERTA_CACERES.pdf">statement </a>denying that it was involved in the murder. “Agua Zarca roundly affirms that there is no direct nor indirect connection between the project and the regrettable event that ended the life of the indigenous leader.”Last year, the group Global Witness <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/how-many-more/">named</a> Honduras as the world’s deadliest country for environmental activists. “There is a straight line between environmentalist activism and assassination in Honduras,” said Dr. David Wrathall, a United Nations University geographer who <a href="http://migration.unu.edu/about/researchers/wrathall#overview">studies</a> Honduras. Over the last decade, Central America has become awash in drug money, Wrathall says, which frequently ends up entangled in large-scale agriculture and development projects such as dams.“Big public infrastructure works are the most corrupt sector in the global economy, even more than oil or the arms trade,” said Peter Bosshard, an <a href="https://issuu.com/transparencyinternational/docs/2005_gcr_construction_en?e=2496456/2140734">expert</a> in dams and corruption at International Rivers. Although Honduras does have laws on the books that require environmental impact analyses (EIA) to be performed before a dam project can go forward, practically speaking, these reports never recommend against a project. “You will never see an EIA that says, well, the impacts of this project are so severe that we recommend not going forward,” said Bosshard. “Even though that’s the point of the EIA.”Marco Tulio Carrillo, a spokesperson for the Honduran Ministry of the Environment, which awards dam permits, said that he had “no knowledge with respect to the subject” and that “it should be under investigation.”“Whereas powerful landowners, businesses, and politicians have resorted to violence against activists in the past, now these actors have more illicit enterprises and transactions to hide, coupled with unrestrained capital and a reserve army of hit men,” Wrathall said. “So it’s anti-environmentalism (literally) on drugs.”</div></div></div></div></div>