On November 14, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on social media:
“This week, we accompanied Copinh Honduras during the closing arguments in the trial against two former members of the Honduran National Police who, according to the prosecution, altered and tampered with key evidence in the murder of Lenca indigenous defender Berta Cáceres. PBI will be closely monitoring the verdict, which is due to be handed down on 9 December.”
On October 30, Criterio.hn further explained: “Regarding the judicial process that began on October 20 and lasted until this week, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) demanded that not only the material authors and those who coordinated the crime be tried, but also those who sought to cover up and protect the intellectual authors, who still remain in impunity.”
That article also commented: “Despite the progress in the convictions of the material authors and one of the middle managers, impunity persists for the intellectual authors of the crime. Daniel Atala Midence, former financial manager of DESA, has been a fugitive from justice since December 2023, when he was wanted after being linked to the murder of Berta Cáceres.”
In a feature interview published by Mongabay on November 10, Berta Zúñiga, 35, Berta’s daughter and the coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), notes that a report by a special group of independent experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
Zúñiga tells Mongabay: “There is no doubt that the report they are preparing will be presented in early January next year, shortly before the tenth anniversary of my mother’s burial, as it will be presented in Honduras and hopefully we will be able to present it in other places as well.”
And commenting on the threats to environmental defenders in Honduras, notes: “There are strong interests on the part of people, for example, Canadians, in Garifuna territory, or other nationalities who are appropriating the territories that ancestrally belong to the native peoples. We have also seen these criminal groups at the service of other large interests. It becomes a very complex climate and if there is no exercise of justice, it will be really difficult for the situation in our country to change.”
Accompaniment
COPINH co-founder Berta Cáceres was murdered on March 2, 2016, for her opposition to the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River. COPINH’s coordinators have been accompanied by PBI Honduras since May 2016.
