Nobel laureates demand justice for slain Honduran activist Berta Caceres
BOGOTA, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Twenty months after the killing of Honduran land rights defender Berta Caceres, the masterminds behind the crime have yet to be punished, while other female rights campaigners face growing threats across Central America, Nobel peace laureates said.
Caceres, an award-winning environmental and indigenous rights activist, was fatally shot by gunmen in her home in March 2016 after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam project.
Her killing sparked an international outcry. So far, eight people have been arrested in connection with the murder and are in jail, according to lawyers leading an inquiry into Caceres’ murder at the request of her family.
But during a recent visit to Honduras two Nobel peace prize winners, Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman and Shirin Ebadi of Iran, urged the Honduran government to bring to justice those who ordered the killing.
“The government authorities in Honduras told us that the investigation into the murder of Berta Caceres still continues .. but who is behind them, who ordered the killing and who is benefiting from this, is what the investigation should reveal,” Karman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation following a visit to Guatemala and Honduras.
“The people who kill human rights defenders aren’t held accountable. Justice doesn’t happen.”
Honduras is the deadliest place on earth for environmental activism, according to a January report by UK-based watchdog Global Witness, with at least 120 activists killed since 2010 but most crimes going unpunished.
Indigenous communities battling often big international companies to preserve their ancestral lands from mining, dams, logging, and other megadevelopments, are caught in the firing line and are targets.
“We told government officials in Honduras we met about their responsibility to protect human rights defenders and to fulfill their international obligations and agreements on protecting indigenous rights and the environment,” Karman said.