Powered by RedCircle
Summary:
Berta Cáceres is one of the most well-known Honduran activists. She was murdered in her home almost 5 years ago on March 2, 2016.
The legal case against David Castillo, one of the accused masterminds of Berta Cáceres’s murder keeps being postponed. To date, no other intellectual authors have been accused or arrested despite sufficient evidence outlining the involvement of powerful Honduran businessmen invested in the Agua Zarca dam, in Berta’s murder. This is “justice” in Honduras, even for cases as emblematic as the cases surrounding the murder of well known indigenous activist, Berta Cáceres.
But who is Roberto David Castillo Mejía? How is Castillo’s defense arguing his case? What is the strategy behind all the delay tactics to avoid the trial process against Castillo?
We hear from Berta Zúniga Cáceres, Berta’s second oldest daughter and the General Coordinator of the Civic Council for Popular and Indigenous Organizations in Honduras (COPINH) & Victor Fernandez, the lead lawyer representing COPINH & Berta’s family.
JUSTICE FOR BERTA CÁCERES!
For more information and in-depth examination of David Castillo & his business interests: https://soaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Violence-Corruption-Impunity-A-Profile-of-Roberto-David-Castillo.pdf
For the report from the international team of experts accompanying the case: https://gaipe.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GAIPE-Report-English.pdf
Follow us on Instagram for more stories & updates from Honduras: @hondurasnow
Transcript:
Karen Spring:
On February 10, the defense lawyers representing Honduran businessman David Castillo, succeeded in delaying his trial yet again. It was the 11th time that Castillo’s lawyers maneuvered to stop the trial against one of the accused masterminds of the murder of Berta Cáceres.
Berta Cáceres is perhaps one of the most internationally renowned Honduran activists and a heroic figure inside Honduras. She fought to defend the Lenca people and participated in many struggles in Honduras, but this put her in the crosshairs of the country’s oligarchs and powerful economic interests.
Outside of Honduras, Berta is probably best known for being a recipient of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize. But she was much more than an environmentalist. She was an organizer, a brilliant strategist, someone that unified struggles across the country and the region. The organization she helped found, the Civic Council for Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH by its acronym.
Her family, and all people inspired by her dedication to justice, will not rest until justice is done in her case.
****
Welcome to the Honduras Now podcast. This podcast shares human rights stories from Honduras and connects them with global issues and North American policy. I’m your host Karen Spring, a longtime human rights activist that has lived in Honduras for over a decade. Thanks so much for listening.
****
In a country like Honduras, justice is never guaranteed. This week, Castillo’s defense attorneys managed to delay the case from going to trial for the 11th time. Causing delays is part of Castillo’s defense strategies. If his attorneys can delay the trial from starting, Honduran law states that Castillo must be released from pretrial detention after two and a half years of imprisonment, if the trial hasn’t commenced. In other words, if you spend up to two and a half years in prison in Honduras, and you still haven’t gone to trial, you’re supposed to be released. In Castillo’s case, the two and a half years have passed. This two-and-a-half-year restriction was already extended due to COVID and other delay factors. Castillo has been imprisoned since his arrest on March 2, 2018. That’s almost three years ago. Castillo’s lawyers hope that, with enough delays, he can eventually be freed.
This could be a legal judgment made by Castillo’s lawyers. Maybe they think Castillo will be declared guilty in trial. So the best move would be to get him out of prison first, then go to trial. And well, then the Honduran government would have to take him back into custody if he was found guilty.
But who is Roberto David Castillo Mejía? Well, he’s a US-trained military intelligence officer. He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2004. Castillo is a former Honduran government employee and a Honduran businessman. In November 2011, he became the president of the board of Desa, the company building the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River in western Honduras. This is the river that Berta Cáceres defended, and she strongly and publicly opposed the Agua Zarca Dam project, along with the affected communities of Rio Blanco.
Castillo is also known to Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, often referred to as Bertita. Bertita Zúniga is Berta Cáceres’s second daughter and the General Coordinator of COPINH. Bertha was still in college when she first learned about Castillo from her mom back in 2013. Berta and COPINH were in the midst of their struggle against the construction of the hydroelectric dam that DESA wanted to build in their community. This is Bertita Zúniga Cáceres.
Bertita Zúniga Cáceres (interpreted):
I personally met David Castillo through what my mom told me about him. When I graduated from university, my mom traveled to be with me and, well, because we lived far away from one another, it wasn’t that easy for us to talk about everything going on. My mom told me that the president of the hydroelectric dam company was named David Castillo, and that he had been trained in a military intelligence academy. First she told me, Berta, he’s not an an aggressive or threatening person, but because of his profile and his ways, like his ways of dialoguing, she considered him to be the most dangerous person involved with the dam company.
Karen Spring:
In the days immediately after Berta was killed, the state and its accomplices in the private media tried to suggest that Berta’s murder had nothing to do with politics, but instead was a dispute between lovers or jealousy within COPINH. In Honduras this theory is so commonly used to attempt to justify violence of many types against activists and human rights defenders. Saying someone was murdered because of a jealous lover or colleague detaches the victim from systematic causes or the political motives behind a crime. In Berta’s case, this was no mistake, of course. It was a strategy used by the Honduran state to attempt to remove Berta’s life from her struggles and her defense of Indigenous rights. It was part of Castillo’s M.O.
This is why Berta considered him so dangerous. Berta expressed on many occasions, to me personally as well as many others, that she was scared of Castillo. It was a deep, suspicious, unsettling fear. Because in Honduras, most activists fear the sly, manipulative, and dangerous tactics of military intelligence that prey on the subjects of their intelligence gathering or strategies. Over decades of state-sponsored violence, these tactics have become known and greatly feared.
Bertita Zúniga Cáceres (interpreted):
I also remember the first time I spoke with my mom in person since the conflict in Rio Blanco had started. She told me that Castillo had told her that he wasn’t going to move quickly to have the company press charges against her the second time, because he wanted her to have the opportunity to travel to be with me, because he knew that I was her daughter, and that I was going to graduate from university.
So with Castillo, he would say things to my mom that would tell her that he knew where we lived and had information about us. He would say these things in a half-friendly, but also threatening way. That’s basically how he would tell my mom that he had a lot of information about her. My mom also told me that Castillo would send her messages and that at one point he told her that she spoke well in public in specific places where evidently he wasn’t present. Or he would say that the skirt she was wearing in meetings where only social movement people participated was pretty. He did this to tell her that he was following her every step.
So, to me, this describes him as a persecutor. Also, like a person with a way, like a different way of operating. For example, compare Castillo’s ways with Douglas Bustillo, a man convicted for my mother’s murder, who is also a former military officer who worked with Desa. My mom told me that Bustillo would directly threaten her and insult her when she saw him in Rio Blanco. She saw him as an opponent, but, in reality, because of my mom’s humanity and her ethics, she didn’t reciprocate. She would say she wasn’t like them.
Karen Spring:
Castillo communicated with Berta. He wrote her messages. It was confusing and unsettling for Berta. These communications via WhatsApp are being used as evidence in the trial against Castillo. Castillo’s lawyers are using them to say, see, they were friends, they communicated. Why would he kill her? And COPINH and Berta’s family, as well as possibly the public prosecutor’s office, are using the messages to show how Castillo tracked Berta, made it known to her that he knew what she was up to. But the idea that Berta Cáceres and David Castillo were friends withers under the slightest examination, and it demonstrates the misogynistic manner in which Castillo’s defense is arguing his case.
Bertita Zúniga Cáceres (interpreted):
I also think, like we say, it’s an expression of patriarchy. Without a doubt, all of his behaviors, murderous, violent, well, it’s intended to silence women. If you look at and analyze the text messages and communication between my mom and Castillo being used as evidence in the case, you can see that, over time, they lost contact.
Why? Because in communications Castillo would say, no, I’m going to definitely pull out of the dam project, saying this in 2015. After my mom received the Goldman Environmental Prize, he wrote to her that he’s going to pull out of the dam project because the Lenca people fighting the dam are rebellious, and that he didn’t want to invest in it. Then, after a bit of time, Desa moved the construction of the dam to the other side of the river. He would lie and say false things to simply achieve his manipulative objectives.
I think that this really bothered my mom. And she said that Castillo was definitely a liar, and that he would tell her that he was going to work in the southern part of the country to build an energy project, and not return to Lenca territory. But that was part of his objective, to maintain communication and get the information he needed from my mom. And, as the report written by the international group of experts that have accompanied my mom’s case says, his intentions were to neutralize, attack, and eliminate COPINH struggles in Rio Blanco.
Karen Spring:
Ultimately, Berta’s killers thought that they could destroy COPINH by killing her. They were wrong.
Securing the conviction of Castillo is important. This will send a clear signal that murdering social movement leaders in Honduras will not be tolerated. Seven hitmen have already been convicted and sentenced for their involvement in Berta’s murder.
But the success of the advancement and small steps of justice in this case are not because justice exists in Honduras. No, it’s because the Public Prosecutor’s office responsible for presenting and building the case against Berta’s murderers, and the justice system, have been pushed and pressured by Berta’s family, by COPINH, by protests, and by huge amounts of political pressure from outside the country.
And this has been going on for almost five years. In fact, in the almost five years since Berta’s murder, it’s exhausting to think of how much kicking and screaming, via press conferences, press releases, protests, gatherings, meetings, both nationally and internationally, that COPINH and Berta’s families have participated in, all to achieve the far from adequate actions to begin to seek justice for Berta’s murder.
This is Victor Fernández, the lead lawyer representing COPINH and Berta’s family. Victor is speaking during an impromptu press conference outside the courthouse on September 25, 2019.
Victor Fernández (interpreted):
Roberto David Castillo, accused in this case, the president of DESA. The proof is in the fact that the investigation has already been established. There is evidence that ties him directly to the execution of the crime, that ties him to the conspiracy to commit the crime against Berta Cáceres. There is sufficient information about his participation in a series of attacks against COPINH, against Berta Cáceres, against the Lenca people. So we’re anxious to see the judicial process proceed, and that there will be a resolution that confirms these extreme acts. In a way, this delay forces us to question the administration of the justice system, because it continues to be slow, unduly slow, unjustifiably slow. And this results, then, in the negative image that in general terms people have about justice in this country and, in particular, these types of cases linked to actors of the economic and politically powerful in the country.
Karen Spring:
This case is about much more than the murder of Berta. It reveals, amongst other things, the complex web of corruption that exists in Honduras.
Bertita Zúniga Cáceres (interpreted):
Based on what we know from all the evidence that we have been given, we don’t doubt that he’s guilty. We also don’t doubt the guilt of other people that have not been charged or tried. These are the people that are protecting Castillo. We don’t want this process to violate guarantees, because we know that violating the legal process is not fulfilling basic and international legal standards, puts the process in danger, and that achieves what the state of Honduras wants, to make this process a farce, a smokescreen, that hides the real truth behind the crime.
Karen Spring:
The case is emblematic in so many ways, because it puts on full display the farce of the Honduran justice system, and the ins and outs of what justice looks like for someone like Berta.
I just want to briefly explain something that has stood out to me over the last five years, as I’ve accompanied the Berta Cáceres case. Impunity is not just about not holding criminals responsible for their crimes. It’s about a justice system allowing a hearing to be delayed 11 times and dragged out for years. Impunity is about making Berta’s daughters and family put their lives on hold, to spend every single day demanding that their basic rights be respected, like the right to at least hear or observe the trials against their mother’s murderers. This is Victor Fernández.
Victor Fernández (interpreted):
Well, let’s say that the judicial system does not have elements that allow citizens to develop not even basic levels of trust, because of the way it is practiced. Let’s say that it privileges some and discriminates against others. That is what people that oppose the system, or the government in general, live, especially environmental and land defenders, opponents of the system, a justice that is fully inclined to privilege the economic status of the actors who are linked to those types of crimes.
The judicial system privileges them when the powerful or the wealthy demand justice. In those instances, institutions are diligent, and they are also drastic.
But for others, it’s different. For example, for events that do not warrant pretrial detention, people are sent to pretrial detention. And when those with economic status are the perpetrators of the crimes, justice struggles to reach them. And when it does reach them, it’s only partial, that is, it acts slowly. Let’s say that this approach is nothing new, because that is how the system has always worked.
Hopefully, there will be a break with this practice. Hopefully, the international community, which is very decisive in this type of case, the embassies that participate in this, that perpetuate the system, have a decisive position in this, because the population already has one. There is already a permanent demand, there is already permanent protest, and there is a permanent criticism of the justice system. Justice does not work because these institutions are committed to the issue of justice. Rather, it has been working partly because there are legitimate mechanisms to demand justice that are resonating, that the capacities to dismantle the structures of impunity that prevail in the country are growing.
Karen Spring:
Berta’s life, her struggles, and her murder tell so many stories about Honduras, about the justice system, about impunity, and what Honduras is like for the powerful and wealthy, and then what it’s like for the rest of the population. Berta Cáceres’s case is an emblematic one. It illustrates and describes the systematic issues faced by so many people in the country.
Bertita Zúniga Cáceres (interpreted):
Unfortunately, we started this struggle for justice in very adverse conditions, because here there’s very questionable democracy. In the country there is no independence of the branches of government. This is something we denounced from day one. It was the number one theme, that this case was going to be a judicial stunt designed to give the impression that justice exists. The other thing we denounced immediately is that the state losing valuable evidence and information.
We also know that we live in Honduras. It’s a country with high levels of impunity, a country that violates human rights and Indigenous rights over and over. Despite fighting for justice, we cannot and will not trust this process led by a criminal state, a state that is not independent. What is behind all decisions is a political agreement, an impunity pact, a pact that seeks to silence the voices of the people.
So we understand that the most important part of this cause is to continue fighting in defense of our territories and to fight for true democracy. This is to contribute in whatever possible manner to stop the crimes committed against the people from Guapinol, for example, that are being criminalized by a mining company, similar to what my mom lived. And we see the forced disappearance of Garifuna men, the struggles of the Tolupan indigenous people. While there are so many important struggles that are underway and that are repeated and affected by the same system of persecution that my mom lived and experienced.
Karen Spring:
The fight for justice for Berta Cáceres is part of a fight for change. As Bertita said, the cause, or the struggle for justice for Berta, is also justice for so many others around the country. The masterminds, or the intellectual authors, as they’re called in Spanish, or the people or interests that don’t necessarily carry out the crime, but that help plan, execute, and fund it, are rarely ever held responsible for their crimes. This is the standard in Honduras. The Berta Cáceres case is a shot at overturning this dangerous and decades-long precedent of not holding the masterminds of crimes like this one accountable.
There’s so much more to say about Berta Cáceres, this legal process, her life, her legacy, and about COPINH. But I wanted to delve a bit into the process, the legal case against David Castillo, and where the Berta Cáceres case is at at this moment.
This is because the trial against David Castillo could move forward at any time over the next few weeks. The next hearing is supposed to be the evidentiary hearing, the same one that has been changed and delayed 11 times. It is now scheduled for February 18. It looks like Castillo’s defense team have run out of strategies to keep delaying it. Well, at least we hope.
I will dive more into Berta’s life, and the national and international struggle for justice, in future episodes. I will also post additional resources about this case in the show notes, including really important reports that people interested in learning more should read.
Thanks so much for listening. If you have the ability, please consider making a small donation to this podcast. Thank you to all that have already generously donated. And if you can’t donate, please share this podcast with a friend or on your social media accounts.
That’s it for today. Until next time, hasta pronto.