aAlmost exactly 11 years ago, Berta Cáceres led a group of local activists to block roads and stop trucks carrying construction materials for Rio Branco’s Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam. This was the beginning of a fierce backlash by the indigenous Lenca people against the Honduran energy company Desarolos Energeticos (Desa).
More than a decade later, only rusted razor wire and rotten fencing remain at the original construction site. The shipping container that served as Desa’s central office is now used by farmers to store corn. The company was forced to suspend operations indefinitely in 2018 after international funding was withdrawn.
However, the activists’ victory left a bad taste. In La Esperanza and the capital Tegucigalpa, people plan to gather on April 1 to mark the anniversary of the struggle and remember Cáceres, who was killed in 2016 at the age of 44. The demonstration will be in memory of all the victims of the atrocities committed against environmental activists in Honduras. , the world’s most dangerous country for conservationists.
Since the conviction of three Desa employees (including former president Roberto David Castillo) for Caceres’ murder, 70 environmental activists killed. According to Global Witness, Honduras is proportionally World’s highest number of murdered environmental defenders For the past 5 years. “Impunity is widespread in Honduras, but the country has significant systemic weaknesses due to a variety of factors that prevent the justice system from operating fairly,” said Global Witness investigator Toby Hill.
Cáceres’ daughter, Berta Zuniga Cáceres, 33, experienced the violence firsthand. As the coordinator of Council of People’s Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Kopin), she has faced threats and been subjected to campaigns aimed at delegitimizing the movement.
“My life consists of various precautions. No matter where I go, I still have to protect myself when driving around in an armored vehicle,” says Zuniga.
Estimated 90% Incidents of violence against human rights defenders in Honduras go unpunished, and stories of intimidation and harassment are common among the Lenca people.
Community leader Maria Santos Dominguez, 48, was attacked. “One day, as I was walking home alone, a group of people surrounded me, beat me with machetes, cut off her fingers and threatened me, preventing me from participating in the protest,” she says.
City council leader Lucio Sánchez, 78, says the Lenca area of Rio Branco, southwest of Intibuca, was once relatively peaceful. Families worked together to grow crops and care for cattle. Things have changed since 2013, he says. The cancellation of the Agua Zarca project was seen by many as a victory, although others believed it would bring much-needed developments such as electricity, roads, and jobs.
“The company may have left, but our biggest challenge is the extreme fragmentation of our community. It will take a long time to recover from what happened here,” Sanchez said. “During this conflict, families were torn apart and no longer spoke to each other.”
Amos Sanchez, 20, has been witnessing these conflicts since he was a child. He and his younger cousins are determined to see off the revival of the Agua Zarca project.
He and his father, Santos Sanchez, 60, harvest corn in a field once owned by the company. “We learned to stand our ground and fight. Even when our parents get too old, we plan to keep going,” he says. “We’re taking back what’s ours and being ready in case they come back and try to take it away.”
DDespite all the threats still hanging over the community, Caceres’ case brought some justice to Lenca. Honduran prosecutors say there is evidence of harassment. Cars with tinted windows and no license plates chase people. and paid information providers.
According to an independent study by Advisory Group of International Experts (GAIPE)Cáceres’ assassination would have been planned and supported by the Desa leadership. Tracking WhatsApp conversations and calls They were able to track the group’s movements toward Cáceres’ home on the night she was brutally murdered and fellow activist Gustavo Castro injured.
Investigators found a series of messages and phone calls made from a cellphone tower near Caceres’ home shortly before the shooting, implicating Desa’s former chief financial officer, Daniel Atala Midens. It turned out that it was something. He is a member of the powerful Atala Zabra family, who sit on the company’s board of directors, but there is no suggestion from prosecutors that they were involved in the assassination.
The Atala family is considered one of Honduras’ most powerful families, owning two of Honduras’ three largest banks, the Motagua soccer club, and vast amounts of wealth. Domestic import/export market Through various businesses.
The suspect, Atala Midens, pour in development funds Funding for the dam was provided by the Finnish Industrial Cooperation Fund (FinnFund) and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, through an account belonging to a non-existent shell company to contract the hit team.
Atala Midens is on the run after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in December 2023, but he is most likely to avoid the type of prison sentence handed down to Castillo. In 2022, Castillo was found guilty of orchestrating the assassination and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
The case cannot move forward until Atala Midens is found. But his arrest warrant is already a step forward for Honduras.
“This is the first case in which we have so much evidence that the state judicial system cannot ignore it,” said Camilo Bermudez, a spokesman for the city of Copin. “We are currently starting formal legal proceedings against Daniel Atala. We believe he is hiding from the authorities somewhere in El Salvador.”
Raúl Zepeda Gil, a lecturer in development studies at the University of Oxford, believes that the consistent violence surrounding land disputes stems from a lack of state capacity.
“While central governments should play a leading role, they typically take sides. As a result, companies with disputed development projects often turn to informal governance methods to de-escalate disputes. “We’re looking into it,” Zepeda said. “Unless the central government takes action, these violent clashes will continue.”
Zuniga, who is fighting for justice for her mother, is facing a new wave of digital harassment. “Some people online claim, for example, that I benefited from my mother’s death or that I am only trying to blackmail the Atala family for financial gain,” she says. “I still receive constant threats.”
