March 03, 2016

Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize

"Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home. She was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras."

From Democracy Now! March 03, 2016

"In 1993 she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). For years the group faced a series of threats and repression.

According to Global Witness, Honduras has become the deadliest country in the world for environmentalists. Between 2010 and 2014, 101 environmental campaigners were killed in the country.

In 2015 Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s leading environmental award. In awarding the prize, the Goldman Prize committee said, “In a country with growing socioeconomic inequality and human rights violations, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.”

See video interviews and more information

From related support by SOA Watch:

"Since the 2009 military coup, that was carried out by graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas, Honduras has witnessed an explosive growth in environmentally destructive megaprojects that would displace indigenous communities. Almost 30 percent of the country’s land was earmarked for mining concessions, creating a demand for cheap energy to power future mining operations. To meet this need, the government approved hundreds of dam projects around the country, privatizing rivers, land, and uprooting communities. Repression of social movements and targeted assassinations are rampant. Honduras has the world’s highest murder rate. Honduran human rights organizations report there have been over 10,000 human rights violations by state security forces and impunity is the norm–most murders go unpunished. The Associated Press has repeatedly exposed ties between the Honduran police and death squads, while U.S. military training and aid for the Honduran security forces continues."

Background:

Latin America is deadliest place in the world for environmental activists, new documentary shows. by Camilla Capasso | 1st December 2015

“They follow me. They threaten to kill me, to kidnap me, they threaten my family,” recalls Berta Càceres – winner of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize. Berta is one of the many environmental activists in Latin America who have been threatened and harassed for trying to protect their land from the interests of transnational companies.

Since 2013, three of her colleagues have been killed for resisting the Agua Zarca hydro dam, which risks to cut off the water sources for hundreds of indigenous Lenca people.

In 2014 alone, 116 environmental and land defenders were killed worldwide, an average of more than two a week, with 75 percent of those living across Latin America. The highest number of victims per capita is registered in Honduras, followed by Colombia, Brazil, and Peru." ... more