Locals attend murdered indigenous activist Berta Caceres' funeral in La Esperanza, 200 km northwest of Tegucigalpa, on March 5, 2016. Orlando Sierra/Getty Images. All rights reserved.
Berta Cáceres could be seen raising
many flags. She was a defender of human rights, of women rights,
and the co-founder and coordinator of
the Indigenous Council of Popular
Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
Her spirited fight in defense of the right of
peoples to land and natural
resources, and against the construction of hydroelectric
projects awarded by the Honduran
government to national and
transnational corporations, crossed borders. In 2015,
her work was recognized internationally
when she won the Goldman Environmental
Prize.
Indigenous and social movement leaders from
around the world, artists, politicians and regional and international organizations
have expressed their rejection and condemned the crime. Among them, the recently award-winning actor, Leonardo Di
Caprio, and the
Nobel Peace Prize, Rigoberta Menchú, have expressed their condemnation
and distress at the assassination of the
Lenca people’s leader. The Lenca are
one of the most impoverished, exploited and
excluded indigenous people in Honduras.
But the persecution and threats on Berta’s life were
not recent. She was one of the
women leaders of the indigenous
resistance against the coup
in 2009. Because of her struggle for the rights of peoples and her strong
opposition to the civilian-military
power that ousted Manuel Zelaya
Rosales, she was targeted with serious
threats, including rape and
murder. This is why, from that year on, given the military harassment
around her home, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) granted precautionary measures
to protect her life and integrity.
Unfortunately, in Honduras, such measures were not taken seriously by the state. Berta is
not the first person enjoying
such protection to be killed.
Her case not only reflects the lack
of political will to protect human rights defenders, but is also the result of the impunity in which
the murders of dozens of indigenous people, peasants and social
movement leaders remain in Honduras.
It would be frivolous to hastily attribute Berta’s crime to the government. The government, however, must show a public
commitment to carry out serious investigations leading to find
out those responsible for the crime, and prosecute them. Since Berta enjoyed precautionary
measures, though, it is clear that even if the state
investigates and convicts the
murderers, it will not be able to elude its international responsibility as a state, for not having effectively guaranteed the
right to life of the indigenous
leader.
Although they managed to extinguish
her life, Berta’s light will keep on shining. Although they killed the human being, her example as a courageous woman, her example of struggle and consistency, will
live on.
This article was previously published by Asuntos del Sur.