PBI-Canada encourages Prime Minister Trudeau to read civil society letter to US Secretary of State Blinken on Honduras

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

On March 5, PBI-USA signed this joint letter sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US Embassy in Honduras seeking justice for Indigenous Lenca leader Berta Caceres and all human rights defenders in Honduras.

The letter was signed by thirteen other organizations including EarthRights International, the Institute for Policy Studies – Global Economy Program, International Rivers, the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), Protection International, Trócaire, the University Network for Human Rights, and the Confederación General del Trabajo.

They call on the State Department and Embassy to “place sustained pressure on the Honduran government to ensure that the masterminds, and not only the gunmen, are held accountable for the murder of Berta Cáceres.”

They also ask the Embassy to “continue monitoring David Castillo’s trial in April 2021 in order to ensure that the trial is in accordance with the rule of law and the rights of the victims” and to “impress upon the Honduran government the importance that the criminal investigations do not stop with David Castillo’s trial, but rather continue until all of those who ordered, facilitated, and financed the assassination be investigated and held accountable.”

Furthermore, they ask the US Government to “press for investigations and accountability for all crimes against human rights defenders in Honduras, including the unsolved murders of more than 140 land rights defenders in the Bajo Aguán region and the ongoing disappearances of Garífuna community members from Triunfo de la Cruz.”

And with the UN COP26 climate summit approaching this November, the fourteen organizations also “urge the Biden Administration to consider the protection of human rights defenders as a central part of its critically important climate change strategy.”

To read the full letter, please click here.

PBI-Canada encourages Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau to also read this letter and to act on this call.

Foreign Affairs Minister Garneau met with Secretary Blinken on February 26, the second meeting they have had since the inauguration of US President Joe Biden.