Environmentalist's murder a criminal plot, new report says
Berta
Cáceres is pictured on the banks of the Gualcarque River in western
Honduras where she led the indigenous Lenca people in opposition to the
Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.
(CNN)It
was a little before midnight on March 2, 2016, when at least two men
kicked in the back door of the home of award-winning environmentalist
and activist Berta Cáceres in La Esperanza, western Honduras.
Moments
later, 44-year-old Cáceres was shot dead. Her friend, Mexican
environmentalist Gustavo Castro Soto was wounded, but survived the
attack.
A
report made public this week concluded that a plan to assassinate
Cáceres had been months in the making, was not an "isolated incident,"
and was the result of a conspiracy involving financial institutions,
current and former power company executives and employees and members of
the Honduran state security agency.
The
report is the result of months of investigation by a panel of
international legal experts. The group formed at the request of the
Cáceres' family and the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations
of Honduras (COPINH) -- after both raised concerns about the legitimacy
of the investigation being conducted by the Honduran government.
In
response to that call, five specialists in international human rights
law agreed to investigate the killing. They formed a group called the
International Advisory Group of Experts (GAIPE).
The
GAIPE experts, alongside Cáceres' daughters, made a presentation of the
report and its recommendations in Washington on Thursday.
A
high-profile environmental activist, Cáceres had been leading the
indigenous Lenca community in a campaign against the multimillion-dollar
Agua Zarca project.
She
was co-founder and coordinator of COPINH and a key figure in the fight
against planned construction on the Gualcarque River, home to the Lenca
people. Power company Desarrollos Energéticos Sociedad Anónima (DESA),
owns and operates the Agua Zarca project -- which has now been put on
hold.
As a result of her
killing and the violence that ensued, FMO and Finnfund, two of the
financial institutions, exited from the Agua Zarca project in July.
Eight arrested in investigation
Thousands attend the funeral of Cáceres in La Esperanza, Honduras, on March 5, 2016.
Eight suspects have so far been arrested in connection with Cáceres' death, according to the Honduran attorney general's office.
They
include a former employee of DESA who worked as its chief of security, a
manager for DESA's social and environmental issues department, a former
Honduran military general and a major in the country's armed forces who
was still an active military member at the time of his arrest.
But
Cáceres' family and supporters have always maintained that there were
many more individuals involved in her slaying. GAIPE's report alleges
that company executives from DESA, state agents and officials were
involved in planning, executing and attempting to cover up her murder.
Cáceres' daughter, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, told CNN they are happy with the report's findings.
"One
year since the investigation began and 20 months after the
assassination -- to have a lead on the plotters of the crime -- a demand
that has been a priority, a fundamental priority. There is so much
satisfaction," she said.
The
report states that strategies used by DESA's, "shareholders,
executives, managers and employees," included "surveillance, threats,
contract killing, sabotage of COPINH's communication equipment;
cooptation of justice officials and security forces, and strengthening
of parallel structures to State security forces."
These methods, the report says, were, "to control, neutralize and eliminate any opposition."
Power company DESA has denied any involvement in Cáceres' death.
In
an email to CNN, a spokesman for the Agua Zarca project said GAIPE's
report was "taken out of context and does not reflect the reality, but
has been built with the intention of doing damage to the Agua Zarca
project and generating instability in the country 26 days before the
(November 26) elections in Honduras."
Agua
Zarca had proposed "a Dialogue for Peace Table, aimed at solving the
conflict, which GAIPE rejected stating that this is not part of its
mission," according to the Agua Zarca statement. The statement also said
GAIPE members had confirmed the group was being financed by COPINH, "an
organization in Honduras that is promoting certain candidacies in the
country," ahead of the elections.
After
this article initially published, Agua Zarca issued a new statement to
CNN, completely rejecting GAIPE's accusations as false, after, the
company says they took "a deeper analysis of what GAIPE has published."
"We
have not identified a single new fact. WhatsApp and text messages
referred to in the report were made available to all interested parties
by the Honduran justice in January 2017," the company wrote.
Roxanna
Marie Altholz, a GAIPE member who is also associate director of the
International Human Rights Legal Clinic at the University of California,
Berkeley's law school, told CNN in a phone call that COPINH in no way
financed the report.
Agua
Zarca, "publishes irresponsible statements and falsehoods," she said,
directing CNN to the last page of the 92-page report where the names of
funders and acknowledgments are listed. COPINH is mentioned in gratitude
for their support, not under the funders.
As for the release of the report being political, Altholz said it was released a year from when the investigation started.
"We
decided to release it now because the report was ready now. I don't
know if there is ever a good time to release a report about a criminal
structure responsible for a murder and a host of other crimes," she
said, adding, "this has nothing to do with the election."
'A fraction of the evidence'
Hundreds
of indigenous Hondurans protest the murder of environementalist Berta
Cáceres at a march in Tegucigalpa in August 2017.
GAIPE
began investigating in November 2016, analyzing texts, GPS information
and call logs released by the Honduran attorney general's office.
But the group said it only received a fraction of the existing evidence.
Altholz
told CNN that investigators were handed three cellphones, but didn't
have access to the phone of active military member Mariano Díaz Chávez.
Chávez,
according to a release from the attorney general's office, was among
those arrested and is charged with murder. CNN tried to reach out to
legal representatives for Chávez and all of those charged, but they
could not be reached. No pleas or comments have been publicized.
The
attorney general's office has not provided CNN with any details on
whether Chávez or any of the other accused have entered pleas in the
case.
CNN reached out to
the attorney general's spokesman, Yuri Mora, the day before the report
was released and he said he was unaware of the report. Mora asked CNN to
call him after the report released, but he has not answered multiple
calls or social media messages.
"We're concerned with what is happening with the rest of the data," Altholz said.
"It's
very important that that data be safeguarded because if we were able to
come to the very disturbing conclusions based on the small amount of
information we were given, we can just imagine what kind of additional
information is in the possession of the public ministry."
GAIPE's
report also alleges that more people were involved in what it calls a
"criminal network" that included members of the Honduran Secretariat of
Security -- the country's security agency.
The
Secretariat played two roles, the report states: "Failing to protect
Berta Cáceres," despite threats to her life, and "deploying personnel
and resources for the protection of Agua Zarca project facilities,
influenced by its relations with DESA's shareholders and executives."
CNN has reached out for comment from the Secretariat of Security, but again has received no response.
The
report also claims that financial institutions backing Agua Zarca,
including the Netherlands Development Finance Institution (FMO) and
Finnfund, were found to have been "willfully negligent," in failing to
respect indigenous communities and their human rights as well as
protecting Cáceres.
Cáceres was a tireless campaigner on behalf of the indigenous Lerca people.
A joint statement from FMO and Finnfund
in reaction to the GAIPE report says they "strongly reject any claim of
illegality regarding our role in any project. At all times, we operate
within the applicable legal framework," adding, "we regret that we were
never consulted for the Gaipe report and we do not recognise the
allegations we have come across. We will now study the report in more
detail and consider our next steps."
Altholz,
of GAIPE, said she believes these institutions were fully aware of the
conflicts and bloodshed the project generated. "We know that the
international banks had hired on-the-ground consultants to evaluate the
conflict and security systems being implemented by the company," she
said.
"And this
information needs to be made public because they could reveal
information about the criminal structure or the criminal network
responsible for Berta's murder."
Castro
Soto, the friend and environmentalist who was shot and wounded the
night of Berta's murder, told CNN he sees positive things in the report
which highlight the deficiencies in the investigation.
"The process, and unconstitutional events that happened, it is clear the Attorney General's office was involved," said Soto.
What's next?
While
the report's conclusions are seen as a victory by the Cáceres' family
and COPINH, Cáceres' daughter, Berthita, said the fight is far from
over.
Berthita was
elected head of COPINH in June. She said she is satisfied with the
report's findings, but will continue to go after whoever was involved in
plotting her mother's death. There are leads to those responsible, she
told CNN.
"The plotters
are powerful people and it's not going to be easy -- not only to have
them captured, but to have them stand trial and be punished for having
participated in this crime," she said.
Having completed its report, GAIPE has offered its recommendations to the Honduran government and other organizations.
"We
recommend that the current prosecutors and agents responsible for the
investigation be removed, that a new team be put into place that is
independent and impartial, that an exhaustive investigation be conducted
that identifies, prosecutes and punishes the intellectual authors and
the material authors of the crime," Altholz said.
"GAIPE's
existence and the struggle for truth and justice in this case really
reflects the bravery of the family members, COPINH, and other
organizations. COPINH has really suffered unimaginable attacks over the
last five years," Altholz said.
"We
found evidence of smear campaigns to discredit the organization,
through paid informants, hitmen, by sabotaging their communication
systems. I have to admire their bravery and determination."
'Deadliest place to defend the planet'
Meanwhile, a watchdog group has warned of growing insecurity in Honduras, especially for environmentalists.
Just this year, the nonprofit Global Witness released a report calling the country the "deadliest place to defend the planet."
Less
than a month after Berthita was elected to head COPINH, she and two
other members of the group were in a car pursued by a vehicle carrying
men with machetes, Silvio Carrillo, Berta Cáceres' nephew, told CNN.
"After
the report is divulged, what is going to happen to COPINH? What is
going to happen to my family? The level of threat goes up," Carrillo
said.
"Just because we
presented this report doesn't mean all is fine. They're just making
themselves a target because they must. That's what Berta did. She risked
her life."
Berthita said COPINH will not give up.
"We
will continue to fight for the truth, for justice, for ensuring this
doesn't happen again and for the reparation and fight for Berta
Cáceres."
After this article was published, Agua Zarca issued a new statement to CNN and the story was updated to reflect that.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/02/americas/honduras-cceres-killling-report/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/02/americas/honduras-cceres-killling-report/index.html
