Video still from UN Geneva, June 19, 2026.
On June 6, 2026, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that Bertha Zúniga Cáceres met with human rights rapporteurs at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the situation of Indigenous people in Honduras.
That article highlights: “Zuniga’s trip to Geneva, part of a tour of several European countries, is supported by Peace Brigades International, an NGO that sends international volunteers to conflict zones to protect activists from trade unionists, peasant leaders and others threatened by political violence.”
It adds that Zúniga laments [that the main actors in her mother’s death have not been brought to justice], citing among them the largest shareholders of DESA, ‘linked to one of the most powerful families in Honduras, the Atala Zablahs.’”
EFE explains: “[Her mother] Bertha Cáceres, an activist of the Lenca people and co-founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was murdered on March 2, 2016 after years of defending the rights of her community that included protests against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, promoted by the company Desarrollos Energéticos Sociedad Anónima (DESA).”
The Dutch bank FMO
The EFE article quotes Zúniga who says: “We have filed a complaint in the Netherlands against [the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO] and we hope that its responsibility will be determined.”
El Pais has previously reported: “[The report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI)] indicates without a doubt that at least part of the money used to pay the hitmen, 25,000 dollars, ‘originated in funds drawn by the [Dutch development credit bank] FMO and [the Central American bank] CABEI, in accordance with a payment order issued within the framework of the loan extended by those institutions.’”
Video still from UN Geneva, June 19, 2026.
EFE also reports: “COPINH, an organization of which Zúniga is currently general coordinator, is pushing for the inclusion of human rights and anti-corruption clauses in European Union strategies such as the Global Gateway, with extensive investments in Honduras, ‘so that the policies they implement are not left to the will of European banks or companies.’”
On June 15, 2026, Insight EU Monitoring reported: “The EU Council today adopted conclusions on Global Gateway, reaffirming it as the European Union’s worldwide investment strategy for building mutually beneficial partnerships and mobilising public and private resources to bridge the global investment gap. …The strategy represents the EU’s positive and comprehensive offer to partner countries, combining development cooperation, trade and investment policy.”
The European Council/Council of the European Union has explained: “The Global Gateway is an umbrella term for the EU strategy created to boost smart, clean and secure connections in the digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world. The EU’s original aim was to mobilise up to €300 billion in investments worldwide between 2021 and 2027. In October 2025 the Commission announced that this target had been met, and set a new objective of mobilising €400 billion in investments by 2027.”
Accompaniment
The coordinators of COPINH have been accompanied by Peace Brigades International since May 2016.
