Justice Is Sought in Killing of Berta Caceres

Justice Is Sought in Killing of Berta Caceres, Honduran activist, by Joyce Rothermel. Getty Images

Following the assassination of indigenous activist Berta Caceres in Honduras in March (see article in April issue of The NewPeople), two actions occurred in Washington, DC to expose her murder. In one, two large banners were unfurled in front of the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). They read: Berta Caceres, Presente! And USAID: Stop Funding Murder in Honduras.

In the other, activists disrupted an event at the Council of the Americas by denouncing the U.S. government’s support of the criminal coup governments of Honduras over the last six years. Peter Bolton and Jose Spade of the Latin America and Caribbean Action Network told James Nealon, the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, that he had blood on his hands due to the recent assassination of Berta Caceres and the destructive role that the U.S. has played in Honduras during the 2009 School of the Americas-led military coup and its disastrous aftermath.

Amy Goodman interviewed Berta Ziniga Caceres, Berta’s daughter on Democracy Now in which she discusses her mother's assassination. She also stated that U.S. military aid to Honduras has resulted in an "increase in insecurity, violence and repression, very much directed against the Honduran social movement."

Many people answered the “Action Alert” of the School of the America Watch and wrote and/or called their members of Congress to demand justice for Berta and a suspension of U.S. military aid to the Honduran government. Sixty-two Representatives heard the demands and sent a strong message to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Honduran officials! The pressure on the funders and enablers of the violence in Honduras is working, as Dutch and Finnish banks announced that they were suspending their involvement in the DESA-Agua Zarca dam project that Berta lost her life opposing, although they did leave the door open to releasing the funds in the future.

To join with others in efforts for justice for Berta and ending the murders in Honduras, contact the School of the America’s Watch of Western PA at the Merton Center or go to www.soaw.org.

(Honduras, which has the highest murder rate in the world, has been reported to have had over 10,000 human rights violations by state security forces, which for the most part have impunity. Most murders go unpunished. Yet U.S. military training and aid for the Honduran security forces continue.)

Joyce Rothermel is a member of the School of the Americas Watch of Western Pennsylvania.

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