"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

Berta's Family Accuses the Government of Complicity in her Death

OPEN LETTER: WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE PART OF THE CRIME

[Versión original en español]

Family members of Berta Càceres condemn the prosecutor’s office for protecting the murderers. There is a financial connection between the director of the prosecution and the DESA lawyers. They believe that the Honduran state knew of the plan to assassinate indigenous leader Berta Càceres.

WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ALL ARE PART OF THE CRIME AND THAT YOU ARE HIDING THE INVESTIGATION FROM THE VICTIMS TO GUARANTEE IMPUNITY

Mr. President of the Republic, Juan Orlando Hernández,
Mr. Attorney General of the Republic, Oscar Chinchilla,

The family members of Berta Cáceres, COPINH, the Grassroots Social Movement Platform of Honduras (PMSPH) and the Articulación Popular Berta Cáceres, with Honduran society and the International community listening, writes to you to express and demand the following:

It has been almost a month since the crime against Berta Cáceres and Gustavo Castro. Up until now, what we know with certainty is that you as principal figures within the Honduran state and government have not fulfilled your responsibility to protect Berta’s life, despite her repeated denunciations of death threats and the fact that since 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights told you that she was facing serious and real danger and asked for you to protect her. That means that you are already responsible for this crime and we hope that you will one day be brought before a court of law. 

It is incumbent upon you to explain and clarify several events that have taken place in the aftermath of the crime against Berta and Gustavo Castro, but this should be done first to the victims and then to others as you see fit. Among the main points that should be clarified are:

• Who came up with the hypothesis (the only one that you have made public), that the crime against Berta is related to a personal conflict or COPINH’s internal affairs?
• What actions have been taken with regards to the public officials who have failed or fallen short in their obligation to protect Berta Cáceres?
• What actions have been taken against police, prosecutors, witnesses and other people who in the first hours after the crime had already resolved the case, with egregious falsehoods, and insisted on accusing anybody in order to ensure impunity and reduce the National and International pressure that the crime provoked?
• What actions have been taken with regards to the manipulation of the crime scene and the investigative process that has been publicly condemned by numerous parties, including the victim, Gustavo Castro?
• Why do you insist on keeping Gustavo Castro in the country and violating his human rights despite collaboration with the investigation and willingness to continue collaborating from his home in Mexico?
• Why have you not attended to the requests made by the daughters, son, mother and other family members of Berta?
• Why don’t you accept an independent commission directed by the IACHR, to help with the investigation of the crime?
• Why do you refuse the active participation of the victims in the investigation via their legal representatives?
• What are you hiding, what are those who you are protecting afraid of, why do you insist on continuing to violate the rights of the victims? 
• What role does the FBI play in the investigation of the crime? In what ways has this body intervened?
• Who are and what is the experience of the people who are supposedly collaborating with the Honduran authorities?
• Are these FBI agents participating in the investigation to assure impunity for DESA, for USAID, for the U.S. Embassy in Honduras and for you as the government?
• What are and how do you explain the terms of the cooperation agreement between USAID and DESA, the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project developer and principle suspect in conceiving of and carrying out the crime against Berta? 
• How will you explain the degree to which the investigation is independent, when the current director of prosecutors, Arturo Duarte, who is an active participant in the investigation, has been a partner in the law firm that represents DESA and that made accusations towards Berta in the La Esperanza courts in 2013?
• Do you think that you can hide the fact that DESA’s lawyer, Juan Sánchez Cantillano, has been a partner and a personal friend of the current director of prosecutors Arturo Duarte and that this clearly compromises and lends to the manipulation of the investigation?

Mr. President and Mr. Attorney General,

Your attitude and the above-mentioned concerns give us reason to believe that you not only ceased to protect Berta, but that you may have known of the plan to assassinate her and today are part of the plan to ensure this crime remains in impunity. That is to say that all of the state’s actions and omissions with regards to the case of Berta Cáceres lead us to the assertion that there is a clear will on the part of the State to ensure that justice will not be served.

We want to reaffirm that, as victims, the family, COPINH, the PMSPH and the Articulación Popular Berta Cáceres, we are determined to seek and obtain truth and justice in this crime. For that reason we urge you to resolve the requests that the victims have already placed before you on your desks:

• Accept the intervention of an Independent Commission of international experts guided by the IACHR to contribute actively to the investigation and clarification of the crime against Berta and Gustavo Castro.
• Respect the rights of the victims to participate actively in the investigation already being carried out by the Attorney General’s office
• Respect and guarantee the life and other rights of the victims, of COPINH and of the legal team that accompanies them, in particular by ensuring that they can continue with their legitimate defense of the human rights of indigenous peoples.
• Respect the right of victim Gustavo Castro to return to his country, from where he will continue to contribute to the investigation as necessary
• Cancel once and for all the concession of the Gualcarque River to the DESA corporation, along with all other illegitimate concessions affecting the Honduran territory.
• We demand that you cease your campaign against Berta’s family, COPINH and the Honduran social movement. It is you who are responsible for the economic and human disaster that the country is living through; it is you, along with the political and economic class that has brought our country to the pinnacle of corruption, violence and ineptitude.
• Finally, we reaffirm our unbreakable commitment to continue demanding and building a Honduras where justice and dignity prevail for all victims, which is to say, for the vast majority of Hondurans. 

March, 2016
BERTA CÁCERES LIVES

No Resting or Forgetting

POSITION OF THE NATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONDURAS – NO RESTING OR FORGETTING…

[Original en español]

Berta Cáceres, our sister compañera from COPINH, our ally in the effort to build an anti-patriarchal practice within our territorial struggles against capitalism and racism, the one we sought out to shape and build this network that links us as rights defenders and feminists, Berta our compita with her own unique expressions to describe danger level with dog metaphors, the one who backed down discouragement by saying no se agüite - “don’t give in,” Berta Cáceres the one who called upon us to re-found ourselves first, to live out a different kind of power starting with ourselves and our organizations and communities, a power different than the formal one we know, one that is like she was, against the system. All of those Bertas who are really one, who are us, now, we renew her commitment through the struggle of COPINH, sparking many actions through the National Network of Women Defending Human Rights in Honduras, part of the Platform for the Grassroots Social Movement of Honduras, PMSPH.

This past March 17th-18th the streets of Tegucigalpa filled with color, chants, spirituality, drums, and cries for justice during the “Berta Cáceres Vive” National Indigenous Peoples Mobilization. The Garífuna, Lenca, Pech, Tawaka, Miskito, Maya-Chortí, Tolupán peoples joined together and made their presence felt in front of numerous government offices, only a few of which even sent out a low-level official. We denounce that, rather than offering the answers they owe for illegal water and mining concessions, for impositions in violation of ILO Convention 169, they lashed out and claimed that we would be liable for the withdrawal of financial backing by international organizations. They refused to admit that it is their state policy of exterminating human rights defenders, youth and poor women that truly makes this country unsafe for those of us who live in it. That it is the fault of their own disgusting attempt to sell the country off to the highest bidder.

The heat of this concrete city gleamed on the faces of the peoples making the pilgrimage through its tree-less streets, past its public officials. “The trees and breeze are gone,” said Miriam Miranda,

a genuine leader of OFRANEH and PMSPH. “The trees and breeze are gone, but there are people resisting here, in this other recuperated territory,” were her provocative words at the National Autonomous University of Honduras where the indigenous peoples entered triumphantly as the national heroes that they are to applause, cries of emotion, memories of Berta on everyone’s minds, present as always and as never before, her face painted on the walls, on banners, in chants, on the bodies of the young women and men who understand that their studies should translate into a commitment to struggle.

Through these days of mobilization and continuing through March 20^th we organized and received a visit from a high level International Delegation with participation of representatives from the European Parliament, from Argentina’s Plaza de Mayo mothers of the disappeared, from the Mexican congress, from Jubilee South, Diálogo 2000, Grito de los Excluidos, environmental networks and social movements for water and land, key figures from different struggles and opposition parties, making up a group of people who came together with the Honduran grassroots social movement to demand justice for Berta Cáceres. The International Delegation was not received by most of the governmental offices with which appointments had been requested from the Offices of the European Parliament in Brussels, the first expression of their lack of political will to discover the truth about the killing of our compañera.

The Delegation’s presence and its commitment to follow up on the demand for justice are extremely important. Their Preliminary Report clearly expresses concern about the serious lack of accountability, the lack of an independent judicial system, the lack of respect for international law displayed by the mega-project concessions and the lack of legal justification to place compañero Gustavo Castro in danger, to not treat him as a victim and witness in the case.

The National Network of Women Defending Human Rights in Honduras denounces the extreme vulnerability of leaders and community members of Río Blanco organized as part of COPINH, who, after the assassination of Berta Cáceres, were dispersed by the DESA corporation’s private security as they walked around the Agua Zarca dam facilities and were later stopped and stripped of their bus by police as they mobilized from their community to Tegucigalpa to participate in the National Mobilization of Indigenous Peoples.

We call upon our people in general, upon the grassroots social organizations, upon the peoples of the world in solidarity with struggles for defense of indigenous territorial stewardship, to participate in the action that will take place in Río Blanco, on the banks of the Gualcarque River, to carry out a spiritual ceremony in memory of Berta Cáceres on the 22^nd Anniversary of COPINH’s founding, Sunday March 27th.

Let the sacred waters of the Gualcarque River continue to run, let people build territorial autonomy, let us defend the right to defend rights.

Tegucigalpa, March 22^nd, 2016.

National Network of Women in Defense of Human Rights

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