Who killed Berta Cáceres and what should the US do?

[Judi Lynn]

Who killed Berta Cáceres and what should the US do?

A culture of impunity, misguided U.S. policy that has pursued expediency above principle, and an unwillingness of Honduras' political elites to reform their institutions of justice and governance are all to blame.

By Robin Broad, John Cavanagh and Joe Eldridge, March 10, 2016.




(Image: Flickr / SOA Watch)

On March 2, in the dark of the night, armed assailants broke into the Honduran home of Berta Cáceres and shot her four times, killing her. The assailants also wounded a Mexican colleague, Gustavo Castro, who survived only by playing dead.

Cáceres was in Washington just last year to receive the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize, the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prizes. She was a leader of the indigenous Lenca people in Honduras and had incited the wrath of the Honduran government, which seized power in a 2009 coup, with her leadership against a massive dam project that would have destroyed communities and the environment in areas near the Gualcarque River.

Castro is the coordinator of Friends of the Earth-Mexico and coordinator of a Central America-wide network against environmentally destructive dams. Despite being wounded and traumatized, he is not being allowed to leave Honduras.

So who killed Berta Cáceres?

At the eulogy for a slain civil rights worker in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked rhetorically “Who killed James Reeb?” In his remarks, Dr. King concluded that “we must be concerned not merely about who murdered him, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murder.”

More:
http://www.ips-dc.org/killed-berta-caceres-us/

Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016146844

[monicaangela]

1. Thank you for continuing to bring attention to this

and there is more:

[Judi Lynn]

2. So many people are holding their breath, hoping somehow the Honduran government won't murder him.

The fact they already shot him twice in his first assassination attempt doesn't give everyone much to hold on to, does it?

They know the eyes of the world are on him. They are so deadly it may not matter, any more than it did when the world was demanding they allow Mel Zelaya to leave the Brazilian Embassy after they violently kidnapped him from his home, flew him out of the country and dropped him on an airstrip in his pajamas, from where he made his way back into Honduras on foot.

These people are no heroes. They are simply wealthy, dirty criminals who control the country's military again, and they are running it with the support of the U.S., unfortunately.

Thanks for your video from Democracy Now, monica angela. We're all watching this together.

[monicaangela]

3. You're welcome Judi Lynn

I have friends that live in La Ceiba, on Guanaja and on Roatan, I hear horrific stories of things that happen In Tegucigalpa and other parts of Honduras. When the coup took place they were all in the streets protesting to no avail. They know that the U.S. had a lot to do with the coup, but don't really have the info to put everything together. It is sad what is happening in Honduras, there has been so much tragedy there before and after Hurricane Mitch, the explosion of drugs in the culture and the constant struggle for leadership with the people vs. the wealthy people usually, of course this is happening throughout Latin America and the world. I'm really happy with the genocide trials in Guatemala, I sure hope other Latin American countries start to do the same.