The Sacrifice of Berta Cáceres

Abstract

From the 1980s and especially the 1990s, the lands of Honduran indigenous communities and small-scale farmers have been under increasing pressure from illegal logging, hydroelectric dams, mining operations, palm oil plantations, and luxury tourist resorts. Berta Cáceres devoted most of her energy to help indigenous communities in protecting their lands, livelihoods, and environments. Her campaigns managed to stop illegal logging operations. Cáceres started to organise demonstrations against a series of four hydroelectric dams planned on the Gualcarque River, a river that is regarded as sacred by the local Lenca indigenous group. The hydroelectric company and its allies, including the military and the political elite, were determined to push forward with the dam, even if this meant the complete elimination of the opposition. On March the 2nd, 2016, just before midnight, gunmen broke into the home of Berta Cáceres and shot her dead…