PBI-Honduras at IACHR GIEI ceremony as it begins investigation of the murder of Berta Cáceres

Published by Brent Patterson on February 16, 2025February 16, 2025

Photo by CIDH-IACHR.

PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Today [February 14] we were at the presentation and installation of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), who will work to investigate intellectual authority and related crimes following the murder of Berta Cáceres and will propose a comprehensive reparation plan to the affected communities.

This group is the fourth to settle in Latin America and its function is to carry out an international technical investigation in the case of the murder of the defender Berta Cáceres. The GIEI installation sets a precedent for the investigation of crimes against people defending land and territory in Honduras.

From PBI we will follow with great attention the development of research and highlight the work of the GIEI to guarantee a remedial result to communities affected by extractivism.”

GIEI to provide technical assistance to investigation

Página 12 further explains:

“The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has appointed a group of experts to provide technical assistance to Honduras to investigate the mastermind of the murder of environmentalist Berta Cáceres, which occurred on March 2, 2016, in the west of the country.

The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) for the case of Berta Cáceres was installed in Tegucigalpa by the president of the IACHR, Andrea Pochak, in an event that was attended by senior Honduran officials, Austra Berta Flores, mother of the environmentalist, as well as her daughters Laura and Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, and members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).”

A mandate of six months

Proceso Digital adds:

“The Interdisciplinary Group is composed of Ricardo Guzmán Loyo [from Guatemala], Roxanna Altholz [United States] and Pedro Biscay [Argentina]. Likewise, Mr. Jaime Vidal will serve as its Executive Secretary. The experts who make up the GIEI Honduras were selected by the IACHR based on criteria of technical suitability, autonomy, independence, and impartiality, within the framework of an ongoing dialogue with the State and the representative party. The GIEI Honduras will have its own technical team on the ground and guarantees of autonomy to ensure the right to truth and justice.

Its mandate will be six months from its installation. Throughout its work, the GIEI Honduras will present partial reports and a final report, which will be publicly accessible.”

The country’s economic and political powers

Criterio.hn further notes:

“When asked by Radio Progreso about how they will maintain their independence in a case involving the country’s economic and political powers, Pedro Biscay stated that there are fundamental guarantees established within the document signed between the State of Honduras and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to guarantee unrestricted access to documentation of all the elements of interest to deepen the ongoing investigation and reach the most important aspects of the country. high spheres of responsibility linked to crime.”

Convictions and confirmation of sentencing so far

Another article in Criterio.hn notes:

“Last Friday, February 7, the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) ratified the sentence of 30 years in prison against Sergio Rodríguez, changing his role to “inducer” in the murder of Berta Cáceres. Rodríguez was the last of the material authors and middle managers linked to the crime pending confirmation of sentence.

In November of last year, the Criminal Chamber confirmed the conviction of the other seven people sentenced for the murder of Cáceres. The names of the people whose sentence in the degree of material authorship was final are: Douglas Geovanny Bustillo (ex-military); Mariano Díaz Chávez (army major); Edilson Atilio Duarte; Elvin Rápalo Orellana; Henry Javier Hernández Rodríguez; and Óscar Torres Velásquez.

The sentence against Roberto David Castillo was also final, in the degree of intermediate material authorship, although its aggravating circumstances were modified, which resulted in the reduction of the sentence from 22 and a half years to 20 years.”

Those who defend rivers, forests and community lands

Photo: COPINH coordinator Bertha Zúniga. Photo by Horacio Lorca/Criterio.hn.

Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and daughter of Berta Cáceres, says:

“Today an agreement is signed to heed the call of Berta Cáceres, which is the call of the Gualcarque River and the call of the peoples who defend rivers, forests and community lands at a time when the communities defending the territories continue to be threatened, attacked and unfortunately attacked by the same economic powers. politicians and military who wanted to silence the voice of Berta Cáceres, COPINH and the Lenca people.”

The voice of Berta Caceres

Berta Cáceres gave this speech in San Francisco on April 20, 2015: “We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction. Our Mother Earth – militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated – demands that we take action.”

Less than a year later,  Caceres was shot dead in her home on March 2, 2016.

On March 8, 2016, we gathered on the sidewalk outside the Embassy of Honduras in Ottawa to demand justice.

PBI-Honduras began accompanying COPINH in May 2016.

Along with PBI-Honduras, we will continue to monitor all the processes seeking justice for Caceres and the defence of Lenca territory.