Berta Cáceres murder: Honduras blocks sole witness from leaving country
Last edited Wed Mar 9, 2016, 05:57 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Guardian
Berta Cáceres murder: Honduras blocks sole witness from leaving country
David Agren in Mexico City
Tuesday 8 March 2016 18.19 EST
Officials in Honduras have refused to allow the only witness to the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres to leave the country and return to his native Mexico.
Gustavo Castro Soto, coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mexico and director of the NGO Otros Mundos, was shot twice during the attack on Cáceres on Thursday morning, and only survived by playing dead. Officials are treating him as a protected witness, according to the Associated Press, but activists say that the Honduran attorney generals office has issued a 30-day immigration alert against him, preventing him from leaving the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, Otros Mundos and Friends of the Earth Mexico said the order was unjust and unnecessary as Castro has provided sufficient information to prosecutors to clarify the facts of the case and has not been informed what procedures remain outstanding.
Gustavo Castro is not being treated as a victim of an assassination attempt, instead his life is being put at risk, along with his right to free movement. The statement said that when Castro attempted to catch a flight out of the country on Sunday, he was stopped at the immigration desk of the Tegucigalpa airport and refused permission to proceed to his gate.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/08/berta-caceres-honduras-blocks-sole-witness-from-leaving-country
DLnyc
(2,479 posts)Hillary's State Department did nothing to stop the coup in 2009 and now is surprised at the flood of Hondurans trying seeking refuge here!
And what does this mean:
President Juan Orlando Hernández has said the investigation into the attack was proceeding with US assistance. The Honduras prosecutors office did not respond to an interview request.
So we are now helping to cover up the assassination of Cáseras?
A criminal foreign policy continues it's sordid dance with evil!
muriel_volestrangler
(101,272 posts)which story this is about.
Judi Lynn
(160,483 posts)as it should have been "Berta Cáceres murder: Honduras blocks sole witness from leaving country"
Really appreciate your comment. Thanks.
a la izquierda
(11,791 posts)I don't follow Honduras particularly closely, but I do pay attention to activism in Guatemala. Both countries are rife with corruption and are headed by right-wing governments. Environmental activists often protest the activities of foreign corporations (Canadian mining is pretty common).
Judi Lynn
(160,483 posts)Nephew of murdered Honduran activist Cáceres: 'The atmosphere is terrifying'
Silvio Carrillo grew up alongside Berta Cáceres, a leading campaigner for human rights. After the deaths of hundreds of campaigners in Honduras in the span of a few years, he believes his aunt was targeted for her efforts
David Smith in Washington
Wednesday 9 March 2016 06.30 EST
Silvio Carrillo holds a creased black and white photo of a three-year-old girl, frowning at the camera and clutching a doll, and fights back the tears. The girl grew up to be his aunt, Berta Cáceres, a fearless human rights activist and heroine to indigenous people in Honduras. Last week, she was shot dead in her home, a day shy of her 45th birthday.
Cáceres had long complained of death threats from police, the army and landowners groups over her opposition to one of Central Americas biggest hydropower projects. She won the 2015 Goldman environmental prize, regarded as the worlds top award for grassroots environmental activism.
Carrillo, 43, told the Guardian he believed she had been targeted for her work. She pissed a lot of people off
She was a major threat to the establishment.
She was a moral leader. She was put on this grand stage and that multiplied when she won the Goldman prize. If you heard her speak, she was powerful. She was near becoming impossible to take down, he said.
Cáceres earned admiration and enemies leading a decade-long fight against a project to build a dam along the Gualcarque river, which is sacred to the Lenca people and could flood large areas of ancestral lands and cut off water supplies to hundreds. A week before her death, she had spoken out against the murder of four indigenous leaders in the Lenca community.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/berta-caceres-honduras-activist-murder-nephew-silvio-carrillo-interview