Berta Cáceres Lives On, and So Does Violence by Honduran Government and Dam Company

Berta Cáceres Lives On, and So Does Violence by Honduran Government and Dam Company
Wednesday, 20 April 2016 00:00
By Beverly Bell, Other Worlds | Op-Ed

Fifteen hundred people from at least 22 countries convened in Honduras from April 13-15, 2016 for the "Peoples of ¡Berta Vive!" International Gathering. They came to honor slain global movement leader Berta Cáceres and to commit themselves to keeping her legacy alive.

Members of the international gathering also experienced the violence of the Honduran government and Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. -- DESA, the foreign-backed company illegally constructing a dam on the indigenous ancestral Gualcarque River -- which shadowed Berta throughout her final years and ended her life this past March 2.

Berta Cáceres' "Emancipatory Vision"

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the group Berta founded in 1993 and ran until her assassination, and two other Honduran organizations hosted the gathering. The final declaration gave the context of the meeting.

In this land which has struggled for more than 500 years, with the sound of the free-running rivers, the strength of the mountains, the neighborhoods and communities; with the fury and tenderness of the beings of nature; with the spirit of the ancestors, and the hope and pain of men, children, and women (who are) all people of Berta... We are convened here for her memory and her rebellious life.