After almost 10 years of struggle, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts for the Berta Cáceres case (GIEI Honduras) has brought clarity to the murder of our compañera and sister defender Berta Cáceres, and the circumstances surrounding the event.

The investigation that made this possible was conducted under the auspices of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and it has made it possible to establish the facts, reconstruct the planning and execution of the crime, and determine responsibilities within the corporate, financial and State sectors for the murder of the then coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

The report published on 12 January confirmed what has been denounced by COPINH, her family, compañeras and sister organizations; it has allowed the naming of many more people responsible for Berta’s murder beyond those who were already convicted for the crime. It determined that hitmen, military personnel, corporate executives, company employees, and members of the Atala Zablah family formed a criminal structure that not only carried out the operation that ended our sister’s life, but also engaged in acts of violence and repression against the Rio Blanco community and COPINH before and after the operation, obstructing access to justice, all with the aim of protecting the economic interests of the Atala Zablah family, particularly in relation to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.

The GIEI’s work made it possible to document that funds from international development banks (FMO and CABEI) were systematically diverted to finance illegal surveillance, armed structures, intimidation activities, smear campaigns, criminalization processes, and finally, the murder of Berta Cáceres.

The investigation revealed that this pattern of corporate and financial crime was facilitated by a network of companies linked to the Atala Zablah family. Specifically, Jacobo and Daniel Atala were identified as individuals with operational control and responsibility for business decisions related to the Agua Zarca project, which ultimately led to the murder of our sister.  

The GIEI addresses the direct involvement of public officials in various criminal acts noted in the report. It highlights the involvement of members of the Army in the murder and the role of other public officials in ensuring impunity, and it emphasizes the active or passive complicity of the public institutions that are responsible for preventing, investigating and punishing acts of violence. The report even reveals that several public officials were aware of the plan to assassinate Berta months before she was killed, and nothing was done to protect her life.

Almost ten years since the murder of Berta, the structural causes that made it possible continue to persist. This is why the GIEI states that fulfilling the obligations of truth, justice and non-repetition requires equally structural changes in Honduras. To this end, the GIEI proposes a concrete and specific roadmap for the State of Honduras to provide reparations to the victims of the murder of our sister and of the violence against COPINH and the Río Blanco community.

Berta’s murder also exemplifies the patterns of violence perpetrated against women who defend rights related to land, territory and the environment. Following her murder and up until December 2024, we lost 22 Mesoamerican women defenders who were fighting to protect life in territories coveted by extractive industries, 9 of whom were Honduran. That is why, for us, as for many other compañeras, the GIEI report is a crucial milestone towards truth and justice, not only for Berta, but also for COPINH, her family, her compañeras and sister organizations.

The violence analyzed in this report is a clear example of the harassment and repression exercised against communities and organizations that resist the pressures of capital and that confront the risk of death that those who voice opposition face. Moreover, the analysis provided by the GIEI serves as a reference point that reflects the reality experienced by women defenders throughout Abya Yala and makes a connection between the events under investigation and the racist, patriarchal and institutional violence that the corporate sector, the oligarchy and the State have used and continue to use to get rid of those who legitimately inhabit territories and who are inconvenient for their interests.

IM-Defensoras and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras demand, after ten years of struggle and calls for justice, that those responsible for the murder of our sister Berta Cáceres be imprisoned, and that full reparation be made to the Río Blanco community and the Lenca indigenous communities violently affected by the Agua Zarca project of death. 

The struggle continues, until the Atala Zablah are punished for the execution and planning of this crime, until the extractive projects financed by development banks are expelled from our territories.  

We join our sisters from COPINH in their call:

For Berta, full truth and full justice!

 

National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras (RNDDHH)

Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras)