Berta Zúñiga has returned to Honduras with a firm mission. The daughter of environmentalist Berta Cáceres – murdered in March 2016 for her work in favor of environmental rights and Honduran indigenous populations – hopes to pressure judicial authorities to impose firm sentences on those convicted of this crime that shocked the world, but that also persecute those who she considers the intellectual actors. “We are very concerned because, although we had two important sentences that break the impunity that has normally been customary in our country, those sentences have not been reaffirmed by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court and more than five have already passed. years. This is the last step that the justice system must take to close the procedure with regard to the material authors,” explains Zúñiga.
In November 2018, a Honduran court convicted seven people related to the murder of Cáceres. Among those convicted are the three hitmen who shot the environmentalist, two former soldiers and two workers linked to the company Desarrollos Energético SA (DESA), which would build the hydroelectric dam that the environmentalist opposed. In 2021, David Castillo was also convicted, accused of being one of the intellectual actors in the murder. Cáceres had publicly denounced Castillo for death threats. The Prosecutor’s Office stated in its indictment that Castillo, then executive president of DESA, asked the company’s security chief, retired military officer Douglas Bustillo, to organize the homicide. Bustillo went to an old friend from the Army, Major Mariano Díaz Chávez, a Military Police instructor and member of the Special Forces, to hire hitmen. They were paid up to $2,200 to commit the crime.
“This is one of the first cases in which people linked to a hydroelectric energy generating company are convicted,” says Zúñiga in a telephone interview days before flying to Honduras. “Since last year we have maintained communications with the Supreme Court of Justice, because the time that the country has to reaffirm the sentences is exceeding,” explains the activist. She is also concerned that what she calls a media campaign by David Castillo’s lawyers has been reactivated to dismiss the judicial proceedings, because they allege that they were “arbitrary trials” and that the sentences are due to “political interests.” “This, along with other types of improper actions, aims to pressure the three magistrates of the Criminal Chamber to go back on these sentences, exonerate people who have been sentenced and, of course, hinder the judicial persecution of the perpetrators. intellectuals,” warns Zúñiga.
His fight, he adds, is not limited to the judicial system fulfilling its role with the sentences already established, but to expanding the investigation to other people he considers the intellectual authors of the crime. She points to members of the powerful Atala family, majority shareholders of the DESA company, to whom the Government granted the concession for the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, which Cáceres opposed. Zúñiga remembers that last December an arrest warrant was issued against Daniel Atala, the company’s financial manager, but it was ineffective because the man fled Honduras. “He would fall into the category of mastermind of the crime, but since the arrest warrant was not effective, he is a fugitive from justice,” says Zúñiga. “We don’t know where he is, there was news that he left through the Salvadoran border, but we can’t verify it,” she adds.
Among those found guilty in 2018 was Sergio Rodríguez, DESA communications manager, who confessed that the “Berta Cáceres problem” was discussed at the level of the company’s board of directors. “All these people participated in the communications in which they basically talked about attacking and neutralizing the actions in the defense of the Gualcarque River,” says Zúñiga. DESA sent a message to this newspaper in 2017 in which it stated that it was “completely disassociated from the unfortunate events that ended the life of Berta Cáceres.”
Zúñiga hopes that the new Government of President Xiomara Castro and justice can fulfill its role to prevent crimes against environmentalists from going unpunished in one of the most lethal countries for activists. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report in mid-May revealing that in 2022, 17 environmentalists were murdered in that small nation. The document recalls that at least eight defenders died in violent conditions in the first four months of 2023, some of whom had state protection measures. The report also shows that in 2022, an 87% rate of impunity was recorded in homicides that occurred that year. “The rate of impunity would be even higher when it comes to the murder of women, defenders and LGBTI people,” the organization warns. The IACHR affirms that access to justice “continues to be an important challenge in Honduras.”
Zúñiga concedes that there have been “some commitments” on the part of the Castro Government to continue with the investigations related to the murder of his mother, but he is aware that responsibility remains in the hands of the justice system. “There has been an openness to dialogue, but that must be translated into concrete actions that give certainty that there will be progress,” he says.
The young activist is not going to give up the fight against impunity in this case. She is part of a lineage of committed women, who have fought for indigenous and environmental rights. Her grandmother, María Berta Flores, is a recognized figure in Honduras for her arduous activism. “She has been a political leader and she was my mother’s example. She has done extensive political work, which has to do with the participation of women in political life,” explains Zúñiga. Flores was the first mayor of Honduras, in the department of Intibucá, in the west of the country. She led the mayor of the city of La Esperanza, the local capital, for three terms. “She organized many women’s groups, encouraged her political participation and promoted, when she was a substitute deputy, the ILO agreement for indigenous peoples,” recalls Zúñiga. That strong combative branch is the driving force that drives Zúñiga to continue her fight against impunity, although she knows the dangers she faces in her country. “We try not to let this impede the exercise of our work,” she states bluntly.
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