"People of the world: Intensify the struggle" - Declaration of International Summit in Honor of Berta Cáceres

Final Statement of the Berta Cáceres Lives International Peoples' Summit

[Declaración original en español]

In this land of over 500 years of struggle, with the sound of free-flowing rivers, the strength of mountains, barrios and villages, the fury and tenderness of natural life, the spirit of the ancestors, the hopes and pain of men, women and children, the people of Berta gather in memory of her rebellious life.

Photo: Giorgio Trucchi

From April 13-15, 2016, close to 1,500 people from grassroots social movement organizations in Honduras and delegations from 22 countries have come together for the Berta Cáceres Lives International Peoples’ Summit in Tegucigalpa and Rio Blanco, Honduras to debate, share and reflect.

WE DECLARE that we are completely conscious of the fact that Berta Cáceres’s assassination was due to her struggle and the struggle of COPINH against the criminal, neocolonial, femicidal and extractive model imposed by the Honduran and international ultra-right wing. They spread this model through the continent through violent actions such as these assassinations and through other strategies that undermine justice for the people, such as the current attempt to carry out a coup d’état against the Brazilian people. We condemn this coup attempt, which follows in the wake of the nefarious 2009 coup here in Honduras.

WE RECOGNIZE the immense ethical and practical contribution of our compañera Berta and her commitment to popular struggles around the world. She brought her aspirations to life with her radical and honest words, with the depth of her decolonizing thought, the spiritual strength of the indigenous peoples, a profound knowledge of and great confidence in popular struggle, and the international horizons of her vision of emancipation. We assume these elements of her legacy today with joy and strength.

WE COMMIT OURSELVES to the struggle, thought, actions and rebellions of this anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, anti-racist vision so that it may continue nurturing the diversity of struggles around the world that confront the neoliberal logic of death, which are already being built throughout this continent.

During this summit we have sought consensus on ideas, proposals and collective alliances between organizations, countries and political initiatives in order to set in motion the intentions and desires for transformation, starting at the roots.

Following the Honduran Social Movement Platform (PMSH), the Berta Cáceres Honduran Grassroots Alliance, COPINH and the family of Berta Cáceres Flores, we commit ourselves to struggle for:

• Truth and justice in the crime against Berta Cáceres Flores, which means pushing for an investigation led by a team that takes the context of her political practice into account and that identifies all of the perpetrators and plotters of her assassination and others that are part of their project of death.
• The withdrawal of the DESA corporation from Lenca territory, the liberation of the Gualcarque River, struggle for the confluence of collective energies, instruments of communication, territorial actions, formation of a working group backed up by international experiences to expel extractive projects from Honduran territory.
• The definitive withdrawal of military presence from indigenous territory and grassroots communities, both rural and urban.
• The recognition of COPINH as the organization responsible for watching over and protecting its territory along with OFRANEH and other legitimate organizations of the first nations.

Those present at this summit and organized in the Platform of the Honduran Social Movement commit ourselves to continue the process of internal unification and strengthening of our proposals for robust internationalist action, with Berta and her actions as our inspiration and horizon.

To all peoples of the world, men and women, we invite you to intensify the struggle with energy and principled unity. We will never give up hope nor will we wait to bring to life the utopia of justice, freedom and autonomy that is our legitimate vision for life and happiness on this earth.  

Photo: Giorgio Trucchi

"We are going to bring Berta’s legacy to life" - Berta Cáceres Lives Honduran Popular Alliance

Berta Cáceres Lives Honduran Popular Alliance moves towards unity and sets an agenda of struggle 

Tegucigalpa, Honduras April 9th, 2016 Photo by Giorgio Trucchi

Photos and article by G. Trucchi from Lista Informativa Nicaragua y Más - LINyM

In a packed room, grassroots social movements who make up the Berta Cáceres Popular Alliance met this April 9^th to initiate a path towards unity, towards building principles to guide an agenda of struggle by organized sectors of the Honduran people.

See photo gallery.

Bertha Zúniga Cáceres - Photo by Giorgio Trucchi

"We are living through a political, social and economic moment characterized by the decimation of living conditions for the majority of the population amidst persecution, threats, assassination of the women and men of our social movements. In Honduras a repressive and authoritarian model is consolidating, openly attacking popular organizations," states the declaration of the alliance’s first assembly, which was read out by Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, daughter of the indigenous leader assassinated this past March 2^nd.

The document condemns the clear will of the national oligarchy and the transnational corporations to “appropriate our shared natural resources" through the concession of land, rivers and mineral riches.

Faced with this context, the Assembly demanded the truth be brought to light about the "political femicide against compañera Berta Cáceres Flores," as well as the implementation of an independent international commission through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

Likewise, it rejects involvement in the investigation by the MACCIH (Mission of Support against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras), driven by the Organization of American States and agreed to with the Honduran government, and demands the immediate and definitive cancellation of both the concession given to the company Desarrollo Energéticos S.A. (DESA) to build the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, as well as all other extractive concessions “that are plundering our national territory."

For years, Berta Cáceres and COPINH (Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), the organization coordinated by the indigenous leader, have fought arduously against the development of the Agua Zarca project.

According to Cáceres’s family, the main trail that should be followed by the authorities in their investigation should be the struggle the indigenous leader and human rights defender waged against the extractive model in Honduras, in particular against the project carried out by DESA and financed by national and international financial institutions.

Step up the Struggle!

Miriam Miranda of OFRANEH - Photo by Giorgio Trucchi

"The Assembly served to reaffirm the desire and will to join together as a grassroots social movement rooted in our diversity. It is something that we are building bit by bit, but what is important is to continue focusing on unity in action, with real plans, extensive content, making Berta’s words ours when she would say ‘Step up the struggle!" Miriam Miranda, Coordinator of OFRANEH (Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras), told LINyM.

Miranda also highlighted the importance of reaffirming the need to strengthen territorial resistance struggles against the extractive model.

The Final Declaration demanded the immediate cessation of persecution, criminalization, prosecution, violence against and death of the women and men leading popular organizations.

Likewise, it condemned the "ongoing attack against workers fired without justification by the regime” under orders of the IMF and other international financial institutions.

Action plan

The various organizations that make up the Berta Cáceres Popular Alliance began to create an action plan for permanent mobilization.

"It is about bringing the legacy Berta left us to life. To do that we have to come together around what unites us and leave aside what divides us,” explainted the Garífuna leader.

"We re-affirm that for us it is important that this not just be a confluence, an alliance, a unifying around our demand for justice in the assassination of our sister Berta Cáceres, but also about building sustained processes of struggle over the mid- and long-term. It is an opportunity that we cannot fail to seize, which is why the agendas of each sector need to fit within this alliance," added Miranda.

The Final Declaration reaffirmed the struggle against "this system of death and in favor of  life, stepping up our demands in unity and with strength to demand justice for the assassination of our sister Berta Cáceres Flores," the document concludes.

The Berta Cáceres Popular Alliance will meet again at the end of May in COPINH’s "Utopia" center outside La Esperanza, Intibucá.

Final Declaration of the 1^st Assembly of the Berta Cáceres Popular Alliance

[Declaración original en español]

“Berta Cáceres Lives” – I Assembly of Berta Cáceres Popular Alliance

Photo by Giorgio Trucchi

Gathered in the city of Tegucigalpa, capital of the Republic of Honduras, the grassroots movements making up the Berta Cáceres Lives Honduran Popular Alliance agree to to begin working toward UNITY built on PRINCIPLES that will guide an agenda of struggle by all organized sectors of our people for the liberation of our homeland.

We are living through a political, social and economic moment characterized by the decimation of living conditions for the majority of the population amidst persecution, threats, assassination of the women and men of our social movements.

In Honduras a repressive and authoritarian model is consolidating, openly attacking popular organizations.

There is a clear will by the oligarchy’s auctioneers and the transnational corporations to appropriate our shared natural resources through concessions of territory, rivers and mineral riches to a handful of national and foreign capitalists.

These conditions of adversity for our peoples’ struggles come in the midst of a a re-entrenchment of the imperialists’ strategy of militarization and attack on our territories as well as strengthening of the Latin American right wing. Faced with this context, we demand the following:

1. Bring the truth to light about the political femicide against our sister Berta Cáceres Flores; we demand the implementation of an independent international commission through the IACHR endorsed by the complete confidence of COPINH and the Berta Cáceres Lives Popular Alliance. We reject the investigation of her crime by the MACCIH, which we see as an instrument for the manipulation of national and international public opinion.

2. Immediately and definitively cancel the concessions given to the DESA corporation to build the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam and cancel all concessions for extractive projects that are plundering the national territory.

3. We demand the immediate cessation of persecution, criminalization, prosecution, violence against and death of the women and men leading popular organizations.

4. We reject the remilitarization of society and of our territories as an instrument for repression and control.

Photo by Giorgio Trucchi

5. Our sister Berta Cáceres Flores was assassinated with bullets as just like thousands of women killed in femicides and men killed in the name of “social cleansing” carried out by the State in coordination with paramilitary groups. We demand an end to violence and death.

6. We condemn the ongoing attack against workers fired without justification by the regime” in order to follow orders given by the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions, continuing to deepen the application of the neoliberal model.

We re-affirm that we continue in the struggle against this system of death and in favor of life, we will step up our demands in UNITY and with STRENGTH to demand justice for the assassination of our sister Berta Cáceres Flores.

Berta Didn’t Die, She Multiplied!

United we will win!

Wake up humanity, we’re out of time!

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Saturday April 9^th, 2016

A month without Berta. A month with Berta.

A month without Berta. A month with Berta

By Claudia Korol

[Translated to English by Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle - Poema original en español aquí]

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. Women rise up from our different

corners of the planet and say, “We are all Berta.” In our different

languages we all repeat: “Berta’s alive, the struggle survives!” And meanwhile

the powers of injustice keep weaving their webs to obscure

the truth of the crime against the sister from COPINH, daughter of the Lenca people, 

compañera of all people who struggle.

The Lenca women, the women of COPINH, the ones who learned

audacity and rage with her, lose patience and storm the Attorney General’s office.

They paint it red. Red like Berta’s blood,

they say.

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. It’s hard to sleep. Over and over again,

I’m startled awake. It’s the same time the assassins entered her house. It’s the same time

 they fired. Berta asks of us, “Wake up humanity! Time is up!”…

I think of you Berta in the early dawn hours. It’s the same time they

multiplied you. The bullets re-birthed you as the conscience of our continent.

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. We take the streets. We paint your

name. I want to ask you all, sisters and brothers, what do we mean, exactly,

when we say that “We are all Berta”? What does that phrase mean in

our day-to-day life? What changes are we forced to make when we say that we

are all Berta? What changes to our routine and

the way we are in the world are we willing to make?

I’m writing against the ritualization of death. I’m writing against

naturalizing crime. I’m writing against the comfort of thinking of ourselves as

Berta without knowing the risks and fully taking up her struggle. Because

we must say that “Berta’s alive, her struggle thrives,”

but never as a phrase to calm our rage or

our pain.

Those who have walked alongside Berta, we know that nothing could be further from

calm then moving through this world with her. Because if the ritual

doesn’t mean making changes ourselves, revolutions ourselves, beyond the

emotion we put into saying her name, are we really all Berta?

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. I ask myself… if it is true that

Berta is a planted seed as we feel in our lands, who is defending

those lands, who is watering them, who takes care of them?

and I also ask myself, how will we get justice for Berta? Do we think

the criminal Honduran state and its institutions,

the ones responsible for the history of pain amongst the Lenca people,

the indigenous, garífuna, black peoples of Honduras, will make it happen? What will do

 to stop Berta’s memory from being distorted by those to want to see this extraordinary

 figure packed back into the same molds from which she constantly escaped?

How do we ensure that those who clashed with her time and again don’t wrap her in a

 history free of conflicts? Because Berta didn’t just confront companies like DESA and

 SINOHYDRO and their hydroelectric project Agua Zarca,

transnational corporations, the coup government, the military,

the paramilitaries. Berta also confronted those who institutionalize

left politics following the same logic of the powers-that-be, she confronted

the patriarchal family model that sought to suffocate her, she

confronted those who call themselves our brothers but carry out violence against

women, she confronted allies who didn’t respect

COPINH’s autonomy.

Berta had a wild tongue that she used to confront the powers

colonizing our bodies and territories, the capitalist

patriarchal power structure, prejudices… And she paid for it with so much pain and

loss.

I still ask myself if it may be necessary to make ourselves uncomfortable when we say

that we are all Berta, and use that discomfort to take the streets, to

rebel in the face of all injustice, like she did, she who was

guardian of the Gualcarque River, who was also the voice that alerted us

to other oppressions and injustices…

“Hey sister, what are we going to do to support the Kurdish women, look how beautiful

their revolution is… hey sister, what are we going to do about Colombia where they

are killing our sisters… hey sister, I’m calling you from Aguán…

hey sister, we’re headed to Río Blanco… put the word out sister,

those bastards are coming for us”…

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. The wound hurts. It’s not weakness

to say that it hurts a lot. It’s feeling the immense solitude left by

your absence. Because we are missing Berta even if we are all Berta. Because our sister,

our compa, was one of a kind, was special… that’s why the rage

is so boundless, the tears, the voices that multiply around the world.

When we say today that we are all Berta, we are talking – I think –

about a collective body of rebellion… But still, that body

has to keep on re-making itself in revolutions. Because within that collective body

in which we are all Berta, we are missing Berta. It is a hard

battle against adapting, against losing hope, against fear,

against resignation, against the bureaucratization of

revolutionary dreams, against forgetting.

A month without Berta. Let me correct myself. A month with Berta. I repeat myself. A

 month without Berta. I ask myself. Are we really all going to be Berta now? I

answer myself. Berta’s struggle survives and thrives. In the Gualcarque River, which

still runs freely through Río Blanco. In the Lenca people, who cry for her and carry

her forward with them in struggle. In Berta’s daughters and son, where we see

the mark of her teachings, the words of her whole life, her clear gaze,

her warrior spirit. In Mamá Bertha, who stands strong

at her age demanding justice. And in ourselves, sisters on

this path, insurrectionary feminists, autonomists, in solidarity since forever, we

who have the wounded skin of our peoples and hearts that run as

fast as the river.

A month without Berta. A month with Berta. We know that you’re not at rest sister.

That you are demanding that our peoples wake up. Not to play the games of the

powerful, but to carry out the revolutions that await us.

Claudia Korol

April 2016

Women of COPINH: After more than 500 years of resistance we are the legitimate authorities

STATEMENT FROM THE WOMEN OF COPINH

[Versión original en español]

The women of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) are speaking up today about the occupation we are carrying out at the Attorney General’s building in the city of Tegucigalpa.

We are protesting in front of this institution to demand justice for the assassination of our compañera, sister and leader, Berta Cáceres. We want them to stop playing around with us and stop re-victimizing us by denying us the truth and trying to manipulate us.

We demand a clear answer in this case and that is why we demand that the Honduran government let in an international and independent commission to carry out an investigation that really goes after the people who ordered and carried out the assassination of our sister.

We the Lenca indigenous women organized in COPINH demand the immediate and definitive end of the hydroelectric project ¨Agua Zarca¨ by the company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) because it has caused so many deaths, threats and offenses to the community of Río Blanco and the Lenca people.

We the women of COPINH declare that the Honduran state must abide by our decisions within our indigenous territory. The state must be held accountable for After more than 500 years of oppressing us and plundering our territories, the state must take responsibility for its actions. More than 500 years of resistance and thousands of years taking care of mother earth make us the legitimate decision-makers for our territories.

We thank the solidarity of brothers and sisters who have been supporting their support for our demand for justice.

This is a peaceful protest, just like the hundreds of protests taking place around the world, which are part of the struggle for justice, against impunity and in defense of life, for which reason we demand that the forces of repression, those who provoke confrontation, leave this protest area and our communities and respect our integrity and our security.

Police, military and security guards at this institutions violently attacked out brothers, who were hanging a banner with the picture of our sister, Berta Cáceres. These actions are already being denounced at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, since they are a violation of our protective measures. We ask ourselves, why are the authorities scared of a picture of our sister Berta? Why are they afraid of the voice of the women of COPINH? Why all the military and police?

We the indigenous Lenca women organized in COPINH call on the men and women of the world to join together against misogyny, discrimination, racism, extraction, and patriarchy.

Tegucigalpa, April 7^th, 2016

WITH THE ANCESTRAL STRENGTH OF LEMPIRA, MOTA, ENTEMPICA, WE RAISE OUR VOICES FULL OF LIFE, JUSTICE, DIGNITY AND PEACE.

BERTA CÁCERES LIVES.

"She brought us here, Bertita did" - Women of COPINH camped out demanding justice

In the thick of night, the women of COPINH keep watch*

By Melissa Cardoza 

[Versión original en español]

Close to 150 women from COPINH, joined by girls, boys and some brothers showed up in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa yesterday, Monday April 4th.

They arrived looking colorful, tired, sweating along the route down from the mountains, communities, villages. They are Lenca indigenous women, peasants, many young, all fighting for rivers, mountains, spirits, bodies and the earth.

They are called by the fighting spirit of Berta Cáceres Flores, her words and actions of rebellion. “She brought us here, Bertita did” one sister tells us as she dries her tears with the back of her hand. The pain is still stark on the faces of these sisters.

“We saw her a few days before they killed her,” the sisters of Río Lindo tell us, “she came when they evicted us to give us strength, lots of hope.” They came from there to show that same strength to Berta. They have been camped out since Tuesday at dawn on this Tuesday April 5th in front of the Attorney General’s office, a place where time and again they have come to demand the investigation and clarification of the crime against Berta Caceres Flores, and where time and again there has been no response.

The demands are the ones that they have been making since the day of her assassination:

An independent commission to investigate with the participation of the victims, meaning Berta’s family and COPINH.

The immediate and definitive cancellation of the Agua Zarca project that fills the Gualcarque River with grief.

Respect for the territorial, cultural and political autonomy of the Lenca people and their organization, COPINH.

While they chain themselves together and paint the walls of the Attorney General’s offices red they shout chants for justice and freedom. Full of rage and truth they confront the callous functionaries: “You have the blood of our sister all over your hands.”

Tegucigalpa’s feminist movement and other movements and people from the city back up the COPINH womens’ action, showing up to accompany them and share what they have and what is needed for the womens’ encampment.

The sisters arrive to this city at the precipice of public attention over the scandal of high police officials ordering the killing of one of their own top prosecutors. These are the same police that the Honduran state says are responsible for the safety of the people, of the women.

The women of COPINH aren’t just on the right side of history because they come from a people attacked for centuries by racist domination. They let out their cry for justice at a moment when the country is fed up with the cynisism of those who govern it and the violence of its institutions. The assassination of Berta Cáceres Flores is the ‘Enough!’ - ¡Ya Basta! – of this nation.

From here we call for everyone to back up the actions of the COPINH women in this city, whether by sending messages of support, contributions or displays of solidarity to the National Nework of Women Defending Human Rights. 

Tegucigalpa, Aptil 5th, 2016, 34 days after the assasination of Berta Cáceres Flores. 

 *The original title of this article, in Spanish, is “Alta es la noche, y las copinas vigilan,” a reference to the Pablo Neruda poem “Alta es la noche, y Morazán vigila,” the Chilean poet’s tribute to Honduran independence leader Francisco Morazán from his famous Canto General.

Women of COPINH Camped Outside Honduran Attorney General's Office

Since this morning, Tuesday April 5th, hundreds of the indigenous Lenca women of COPINH have been protesting at the Honduran Attorney General's Office, hanging banners from it, painting its windows and doors in red paint symbolizing the blood spilled to stop the construction of the Agua Zarca dam along the Gualcarque River, and demanding justice for Berta Cáceres. Below is an update from the Network of Women Defending Human Rights (Red de Defensoras de los Derechos Humanos) as well as several pictures and videos:

Alert: Members of COPINH attacked, violent displacement feared. 
Tegucigalpa, Honduras - April 5th, 2016 - The People's Social Movement Platform of Honduras (PMSPH) alerts that, during the sit-in in front of the Attorney General's office by Lenca women from the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) members of that organization are being attacked. At 11:20am members of COPINH were hanging a banner with Berta Cáceres's picture when two soldiers and a police officer approached them aggressively and detained Gaspar Sanchez, who was then held for 3 minutes inside the Attorney General's office. During the time that Gaspar Sanchez was detained he was beaten with punches and kicks all over his body. Sanchez was freed due to the pressure from COPINH members outside the offices. During the aggression Selvin Milla, another COPINH member, was also injured with a cut to his foot. Minutes later approximately 120 riot police and soldiers arrived at the offices, along with a police tank, for which reason there is fear of a violent displacement of the people who are on site. This sit-in began at 5:30am, with over 100 Lenca women mobilizing to Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the assassination of Berta Cáceres. Women of different generations, pregnant women and minors are involved. The women of COPINH state that they will maintain the sit-in as planned.

Defensoras @COPINHHONDURAS frente al MP piden #JusticiaParaBerta, alertamos ante actos d represión o desmovilización pic.twitter.com/IUJmYwTM56

— IM-Defensoras (@IM_Defensoras) April 5, 2016

#JusticiaParaBerta "Alerta, alerta, que aquí camina Berta" @redefensorashn @COPINHHONDURAS pic.twitter.com/8fyjfNL2Nf

— IM-Defensoras (@IM_Defensoras) April 5, 2016

Alert// Members of COPINH attacked, violent displacement feared. 

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - April 5th, 2016 - The People's Social Movement Platform of Honduras (PMSPH) alerts that, during the sit-in in front of the Attorney General's office by Lenca women from the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) members of that organization are being attacked. At 11:20am members of COPINH were hanging a banner with Berta Cáceres's picture when two soldiers and a police officer approached them aggressively and detained Gaspar Sanchez, who was then held for 3 minutes inside the Attorney General's office. During the time that Gaspar Sanchez was detained he was beaten with punches and kicks all over his body. Sanchez was freed due to the pressure from COPINH members outside the offices. During the aggression Selvin Milla, another COPINH member, was also injured with a cut to his foot. Minutes later approximately 120 riot police and soldiers arrived at the offices, along with a police tank, for which reason there is fear of a violent displacement of the people who are on site. This sit-in began at 5:30am, with over 100 Lenca women mobilizing to Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the assassination of Berta Cáceres. Women of different generations, pregnant women and minors are involved. The women of COPINH state that they will maintain the sit-in as planned.
Posted by Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Berta' Mother: The Honduran State is Responsible for this Crime

Public Letter from Austra Bertha Flores López.

[Original en español]

As you know, I am the mother of Bertha Isabel Cáceres Flores, assassinated on March 2nd of this year. A month has gone by since this abominable and cowardly crime took place. I write this public letter despite the pain it causes me, in order to reach as many people as possible with these messages:

1. I want to express my deepest thanks to all of the people, social movement organizations, human rights organizations, representatives of indigenous and afro-descendant peoples, women's organizations, representatives of different churches, diplomats, teachers' organizations, youth organizations, LGBT organizations, environmentalist organizations, members of the media, in summary, to all of those who have shown solidarity during this tremendously difficult time that I have had to live through as a result of this violent crime. The same is true, of course, for my grand daughters and my grandson, who had their mother stolen from them in the most horrendous way imaginable, along with all of the other family members who have suffered this irreparable loss.
I have painstakingly served my people as a midwife, a mayor, a governor and a congresswoman, roles which allowed me to push for the approval of ILO Convention 169, for the defense of women, of children and of human rights in general. At 83 years of age this crime has hit me hard and I am only able to stay strong thanks to the steadfast solidarity that I have received from you. I want to tell you that I hope not to leave this world before achieving justice for my daughter Bertita, who has given her life for our mother earth, for the rights of indigenous and black peoples, for women and for the rivers. For this reason I ask you to please continue to vigorously support me so that we may achieve justice and end impunity in a country so beaten down by the oppressors' political violence against those who work to build a more just and humane society. I reiterate to you my appreciation, and ask that we make our cries for justice even louder, since that is the only way we can end the impunity that has surrounded this crime. You all can decide on the way to do this, whether through a prayer, a poster, a march, a drawing on a wall, or a non-violent but powerful action. Our sisters and brothers have demonstrated enormous creativity. Keep it up, so that a world without violence can one day be possible. 

2. Secondly, I write to you to say that it is the Honduran state that is responsible for this crime, for the following reasons: The Honduran state was under obligation to comply with the protective measures ordered to secure my daughter's life, yet the state did not fulfill these international commitments. It was the Honduran state that approved the concessions of our natural resources, including the Gualcarque River, a river that is part of the Lenca territory, without the required prior, free, and informed community consultation, despite knowing that it is required to do so under an international agreement approved by the Honduran state. That agreement is the Untied Nations International Labor Organization Convention 169, which mentions the right to consultation. The violation of this convention has generated tremendous conflict, leading to bloodshet in the communities, assassination of indigenous leaders and environmentalists.
The Honduran state criminalized my daughter by leveraging state institutions to mount several cases against her for the crime of carrying out her work in defense of our natural resources and the rights of indigenous and black peoples in Honduras. The Honduran state has taken it upon itself to defend the private interests of extractive companies, to such an extent that when my daughter, as general coordinator of COPINH, led a march this past February, she was insulted, vilified and threatened by people linked to DESA's interests in front of the police and the army, whose response was to repress her and the Lena people that were mobilizing, going so far as to seize the buses that were transporting them.
The Honduran state contaminated the crime scene instead of preserving and investigating it. It has been a month already and despite national and international pressure, the state has been unable to capture the material or intellectual authors of this crime that has brought grief to our family and our people.
After the coup d'état lists of people to be targeted by death squads for assassination circulated. The first person on those lists was Bertha Isabel.
I know that nobody can bring my daughter back to life, but that will not stop my determination to fight with all of my strength so that Bertita's assassination does not remain in impunity. That means fighting for the Honduran state to allow an independent commission to investigate this painful assassination and to cancel all of the concessions of natural resources that have been handed out in clear violation of ILO Convention 169, particularly the concessions along the Gualcarque River, for which my daughter struggled and continues to struggle from wherever she may be. It means the Honduran government must commit to not allow any more crimes against the women and men who defend human rights. That Honduras allow our family to participate in the investigation. That the Honduran state cease the criminalization of COPINH and the social movement organizations.
I would like for UNESCO to designate the Gualcarque River as part of humanity's cultural and natural heritage.

I also want to use this opportunity to express how happy I am that Gustavo Castro, a dear friend and another victim of this crime, has been able to return to his country.
I close by asking that all of our people in Honduras and all of the peoples of the world take up the struggle in defense of life and mother earth. Towards that end, I leave you with the words of my daughter: “WAKE UP HUMANITY, THERE'S NO TIME LEFT.”
With conviction, appreciation and solidarity, sincerely,
Austra Bertha Flores López