Tegucigalpa.- March 2, 2023 marked 7 years since the murder of environmental and Lenca leader, Berta Cáceres, in her home in La Esperanza, Intibucá.
There is still no justice in the case of this leader who was murdered for protecting the rivers and the environment from extractivist projects that bring only more poverty and death to the communities.
“Today on the seventh anniversary of the murder of Berta, I feel that the enormous loss for the planet, continent, her country and community continues to be the same as is was 7 years ago” stated the general coordinator of the Committee of the Families of the Detained Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), Berta Oliva.
“When you reflect on it, it is a loss filled with legacy, hope, dreams and challenges which show us that Berta has not stopped struggling for what she believed in. She has not allowed us to forget. This is a call that she makes to us so that we take up her legacy and not only by holding an event every year on the anniversary. Her legacy is her militancy, her permanence, her accompaniment of the people for whom she decided to be a guide, a light, a hope, especially for the Gualcarque River.”
The historic human rights defender stated that what Berta initiated was so necessary “and you understand why they killed her. Those with rapacious greed do not care about the land, don’t care about the people. They care about their finances and they decided, they ordered it and then tried to hide their participation in this project of death against the life of Berta
“It is true that they took her from us. But it is also true that she unmasked them. They no longer have masks; she left them with nowhere to hide. She exposed them. Wherever they go, once they are identified, they are known as the intellectual or material authors of the murder of a woman who forged a path, who struggled with her people and who left a clear message about the importance of rebellions,” expressed Oliva.
“If we don’t understand what Berta was telling us there is no way to advance. Right now in Honduras we can plainly see that if they had not taken Berta from us, the Gualcarque project never would have continued or the other projects being implemented in Honduran territory that dispossess and bring death and suffering. This can happen in the Botaderos mountain. It is totally clear that she was right. What we have to do now is carry on the territorial struggle for the river that she so dearly loved.”
We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the struggle for justice for Berta, so that all those involved in the crime against her be tried and punished.
Berta Cáceres struggled tirelessly against extraction projects, primarily confronting the Agua Zarca hydro-electric project.