Berta Cceres was murdered in Honduras, the deadliest country in the world to be an environmental de

Irish News deputy digital editor Maeve Connolly travelled to Honduras with Trócaire in March to learn about the dangers facing environmental and human rights defenders in the Central American country. In the first part of a special report, she spoke to some of the inspirational women standing up for justice and human rights



Berta Cáceres sits on the bank of the Gualcarque River in the Río Blanco region of western Honduras where she, COPINH (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) and the people of Río Blanco, protested against the construction on the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project. Picture from the Goldman Environmental Prize

MAEVE CONNOLLY
25 May, 2020 01:00

Bruno the dog and Miguel the cat sprawl in the sunshine while a little boy clutching a small plastic toy potters about, making his own fun, as his grandmother gets on with her work at the Copinh headquarters on the outskirts of the Honduran city of La Esperanza.

It’s a rural setting and on the day we visit with Trócaire the air is warm. The headquarters are called Utopia and you could get carried away with whimsy… but there are security cameras plus a high fence around the perimeter. Global Witness describes Honduras as the “deadliest country in the world” to be an environmental defender.

In 2012 a UN special rapporteur warned that Honduran authorities were branding them “members of the resistance, guerrillas, terrorists, political opponents or criminals”.

According to Global Witness, 14 environmental activists were killed in Honduras in 2016. Among them was Berta Cáceres who had campaigned extensively against land grabs and exploitative projects such as the proposed Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam on land sacred to the indigenous Lenca people.

Berta belonged to the Lenca community and was co-founder of The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Hondura (Copinh), which is a partner of Trócaire.

The dam was one of four planned for the Gualcarque river basin in the Río Blanco region. The river provides local communities with a source of food, drinking water and irrigation for farm land and damming it to leave a dry river bed would have life-changing consequences.

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