Justice follows environmentalist murder

The murder of an indigenous environmentalist who exposed the construction of a hydroelectric plant in Honduras has led to accusations against 16 people by the country’s prosecutor.

The killing three years ago of Berta Cáceres led to protests throughout the Americas and led to the creation of the Mission of Support Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH).

On Monday, March 4, the OAS mission announced that the prosecutor’s office “presented evidence” for the crimes of “fraud, abuse of authority, violation of the duties of the officials (…) and falsification of documents “. The evidence was provided “based on allegations made by the Lenca indigenous leader Cáceres, murdered three years ago,” added the representative of the MACCIH.

Among the accused is David Castillo, executive president of Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), arrested as the mastermind of the environmentalist’s murder committed on March 2, 2016, in La Esperanza, west of the country.

The prosecutor said Calderón explained that the defendants committed crimes “to get DESA to benefit from water contract over the Gualcarque River”, in indigenous territory.

He said that Castillo was a financial assistant of the National Energy Company ENEE and at the same time he was an executive of DESA, so in collusion with other officials, he managed to approve energy purchase contracts for the company.

without having ” capabilities, experience, and capital to develop the project “.

He argued that “the fraud is evidenced by a series of irregular administrative procedures to favor the project developed by DESA”, carried out by officials of the Secretariat of Natural Resources and Environment (Serna), ENEE and other institutions.

Seven people were sentenced for the murder of Cáceres, but the court has not yet defined the sentence.