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News > Latin America

Honduran Police Violently Clash With Berta Caceres Activists

  • Lenca women chained themselves in front of the Public Ministry, demanding justice for human rights activist Berta Caceres assassinated last month-

    Lenca women chained themselves in front of the Public Ministry, demanding justice for human rights activist Berta Caceres assassinated last month- | Photo: COPINH

Published 5 April 2016
Opinion

Caceres’ family and Honduran activists have doubted the willingness of the country's authorities to conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation into the assassination.

Honduran police units on Tuesday violently evicted a group of Indigenous women who had gathered in front of the Public Ministry, demanding justice over the recent murder of indigenous and environmental rights activists, Berta Caceres.

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Lenca women from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras or COPINH complained in a statement that police officers violently attacked them as they chained themselves at the entrance of the public facility. The women were demonstrating for more action on Caceres’ assassination after an official investigation still not led to any concrete results.

The Indigenous organization said that two military officers and a policemen aggressively approached the about 11.20 a.m. local time and arrested one of their members. The individual was beaten up during the arrest, they reported, before being eventually released. Another COPINH member was injured during the confrontation, they added.

Then about 120 members of the military police and anti-riot police arrived with a small armored tank in order to evict them all from the Public Ministry.

A few days ago, Berta Caceres' relatives called for an independent and internationally-led investigation, similar to the probe carried out by independent experts in the case of Mexico’s 43 forcibly disappeared Ayotzinapa students.

From day one, Caceres’ family and Honduran activists have doubted the willingness of the country's authorities to conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation into the assassination.

Caceres’ daughters have blamed the Honduran state for failing to protect their mother, who had denounced having received various death threats.

Caceres, 45, gained prominence for leading the Indigenous Lenca people in a struggle against a hydroelectric dam project. Her family has accused government officials of trying to mask her death, insisting that she was assassinated due to her activism against the environmental destruction poised by the activities of major mining — mainly Canadian — and hydroelectric companies.

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