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One suspect has been arrested and stands accused of killing Berta Caceres following Thursday's tragic loss of the renowned Honduran Indigenous activist and leader.
The news was confirmed in a statement by the Honduran government late Thursday. There were resportedly two assailants involved in the murder in Caceres' home around 1:00 a.m. in the morning on Thursday.
The government also claims that authorities have spoken to two witnesses in relation to the killing, including Mexican national Gustavo Castro, director of the organization Other Worlds Chiapas. The name of the second witness has yet to be released.
Berta Cáceres body arriving to @PartidoLibreHN house in Tegucigalpa @telesurenglish pic.twitter.com/GAJicHXPVD
— Gerardo T teleSUR (@GerardoTteleSUR) March 4, 2016
President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez said in a press conference that an active investigation is currently underway which is working in "coordination with the support of the United States and other countries to find the culprits."
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But Caceres' family and her organization COPINH have expressed skepticism that the Honduran government will carry out an adequate investigation. They have called for an independent, international investigation not led by the Honduran government, the Organization of American States, or the newly-launched anti-corruption body known as Maccih.
Caceres’ daughter, Berta Isabel Zuñiga Caceres, said in an interview with Desinformemonos that although the names of the assailants are unknown, she holds the company behind the hydroelectric project in Rio Blanca that Caceres was resisting and the Honduran government responsible for her mother’s death.
“We know that in Honduran it is very easy to pay people to commit murders,” said Zuñiga Caceres of her mother’s murder. “But we know that those behind this are other powerful people with money and a whole apparatus that allows them to commit these crimes.
Berta Caceres, the 43-year-old co-founder of the Indigenous organization COPIHN, was killed early Thursday morning inside her home in La Esperanza in the western province of Intibuca.
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Dozens of people crowded outside the morgue in the capital city Tegucigalpa where Caceres' body is beind held, carrying banners reading "No more impunity" as they wait for official autopsy results. Family members and friends also arranged an altar in her memory.
The United Nations has also condemned the murder, criticizing Honduran authorities for not providing adequate protection for Caceres, who had received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights mandating police protection.
Protesters in Tegucigalpa's morgue accused the Honduran State as responsible for the murder of Berta Caceres pic.twitter.com/9CbDd6EWww
— Gerardo T teleSUR (@GerardoTteleSUR) March 3, 2016
“It is disturbing that Ms. Caceres has been assassinated even though the IACHR asked authorities to give her special protection for the numerous threats she had received,” said U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Husein on Friday.
“We hope that the authorities get to the bottom of this issue,” Husein added. “It is not the first time that defenders of Indigenous people, in particular, have been targeted.”
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The statements come after the Indigenous Council of Central America called on the U.N. to speak about Caceres’ murder as part of an effort to ensure such rights abuses do not continue in Honduras, one of the most dangerous places in the world for land and environmental defenders.
Indigenous and environmental across Latin America have expressed mourning over Caceres’ death in solidarity with Honduran movements and called for the crime to be thoroughly investigated.
Caceres' funeral is scheduled to take place Saturday at 11:00 a.m. local time.
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