"Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres Died in Gustavo Castro Soto's Arms; Now His Life is in Danger"

WE NEVER FORGET

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From Democracy Now:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucASSkE_Akc width:560 height:315]

Introduction by Amy Goodman:

Berta Caceres, Honduran indigenous leader.png

Honduras is still reeling from last week’s assassination of Berta Cáceres, one of the country’s most well-known environmental and indigenous leaders. She was gunned down in her home early Thursday, less than a year after she won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Cáceres is at least the 110th environmental or land defender to be killed in Honduras since 2010 in the wake of a U.S.-supported coup. At the time of her assassination, Cáceres was with Gustavo Castro Soto, another well-known environmental campaigner and coordinator of Friends of the Earth Mexico. He witnessed the shooting and sustained two bullet wounds. Now, human rights activists say the Honduran government is detaining Castro without cause and refusing him permission to return to his native Mexico. We speak with Beverly Bell, longtime colleague of both Castro and Cáceres and coordinator of Other Worlds, a social and economic justice organization.

[Photograph added.]

From interview with Beverly Bell:

BEVERLY BELL: Well, the first thing to point out is that Gustavo is not only the sole witness, he also was a target for assassination. He was, as you mentioned, Amy, shot twice. And in the one letter that he has been able to get out to a few of us, he said, "They tried to assassinate me, and they are still trying to assassinate me." Gustavo feigned death after having been shot twice. The death squads, who were sent, we are certain, by the Honduran government, thought that he was dead. They left. Berta died in Gustavo’s arms. He was then immediately picked up for questioning. He is now in his fifth day of questioning. It reads like the worst horror movie you could ever imagine. It’s just been crazy, where Gustavo was locked up in horrible conditions, horrible, denied food and drink and other things, which I have been asked not to report until he leaves the country, for his security.

For International Women’s Day:

AMY GOODMAN: Bev Bell, because this is International Women’s Day, I want to end with the words of Berta Cáceres when she won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize.

BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] Our Mother Earth, militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated, demands that we take action.

Full transcript here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/8/honduran_activist_berta_caceres_die...

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thanatokephaloides's picture

What else can I add? Qua horribilis!

Sad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Weeping.

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wendy davis's picture

I've been following Berta's cruel assassination at Café Babylon, and i was dumbstruck at beverly bell's having...er...equivocating in amy's earlier coverage.

"AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned the coup, Silvio. We just have 20 seconds. But at the time, Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state and was very involved in what was happening in Honduras.

BEVERLY BELL: Well, you know, I don’t know what she was involved in. She was involved in—you know, Lanny Davis was also involved in getting payments from the Honduran government, and he’s very closely allied to Hillary Clinton. This is why this was never a clear-cut—it was never called an outright putsch, to say—for them to say it was a coup. And they backed off of that. And they didn’t know what to do. It was a very confusing situation for them. But I think it’s pretty clear now, in hindsight, what they should have done.”

wtf? even Lord Obama finally called it a coup. it was another example of clinton foreign policy, as was haiti, still in major turmoil electorally and socially: both herself and billy bubba big dog (or whatever nicknames).

but what are you about beverly bell? i read otherworldsarepossible quite often, and i know what you all know. okay, jaye raye, i'll try to simmer down now.

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JayRaye's picture

Seems so many are in Hillary's pocket these days.

Unbelievable that anyone would give either Obama or Hillary a pass on supporting this murderous government.

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

Aardvark's picture

Thank you JayRaye for your diary.
The history of the hegemony of the United States in Honduras is the result of US citizens who are convinced that any ideology is "bias." Symptomatic of this position are words like "inevitability" and the total insistence that someone's statistical model of an election adds any value to any coherent, axiomatic discussion of the images and messages bombarding us from every medium.

Here is a newsflash: you are brainwashed by an ideology which you are too blind to see and too ignorant to name. The only way to understand anything is to have a system which does more than explain cause-and-effect, one which provides a single, if imperfect, mechanism for assigning some value to actions and outcomes.

I am angry at this death, and the continuing poverty and the lethal spasms of a faltering mega-consumerist society.

We will always have supply and demand. This does not mean, that we have to give in to the desires of those who see this as the sole relevant measure of the human individual.

Peace and love to you, reader.

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JayRaye's picture

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

gulfgal98's picture

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Link: CIEL

The next 24 hours are crucial.
Gustavo Castro Soto

On March 2, gunmen shot and killed internationally-renowned human rights and environmental defender Berta Cáceres in her home in La Esperanza, Honduras. Her murder is a tremendous loss for Honduras, the region, and around the world for all those working for a more just and sustainable world.

Thanks!

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JayRaye's picture

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons