Eight years after the assassination of Berta Cáceres –feminist and defender of the territory and rights of the Lenca people– the guilty verdicts against the perpetrators and co-author of the crime are not yet final, and the process of justice is under attack.
Recently, Juan Carlos Sánchez Cantillano and Ritza Antúnez, the attorneys of David Castillo, found guilty as co-author of the assassination of Berta Cáceres by the Trial Court on July 5, 2021, have developed a campaign of false statements in order to negatively affect the process of justice for Berta Cáceres and the confirmation of the sentences of those responsible for her death.
This attack aims to criminalize the expert witness of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and hamper the duty of the Court’s Judicial Chamber of Criminal Cases to ratify the guilty verdict against David Castillo and other assassins of Berta Cáceres.
The purpose of the statements made by the defense attorneys of David Castillo is to create doubt and confusion. Nevertheless, they have been invalidated in communications of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and organizations that accompany them. And they have also been dismissed in the sentencing trial that convicted Castillo.
These organizations point out that the very communications of the persons found guilty are the fundamental proof that corroborate their criminal liability. Furthermore, the cell phone extractions of the accused implemented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, coincide with those of the expert witness in Castillo’s defense, Sean Bodde. The information extracted from telephone devices proves that David Castillo participated in the planning, coordination, implementation, and payment for the assassination of Berta Cáceres.
It is important to note that the alleged complaint was presented before the Public Prosecutor’s Office one week after the designation of Juan Carlos Sánchez Villalobos as Director of Attorneys of the Office. Sánchez Villalobos is well known for defending accused parties in emblematic cases of corruption. He participated, for example, in the defense of Carolina Castillo in the “Fraude against the Gualcarque” trial, a case that proved that corruption in granting non-consulted licenses for the exploitation of the sacred Gualcarque River led to violations of the rights of the indigenous Lenca people in the administrative districts of Intibucá and Santa Barbara.
On May 3, Carolina Castillo and David Castillo were found guilty of fraud and Raúl Pineda was found guilty of usurpation of functions and falsification of documents, setting a new precedent that reveals the criminal structure behind the Agua Zarca project.
This information is relevant because it reveals influence trafficking that allows this terrible assassination to go unpunished and because the crime against Berta Cáceres is related to the “Fraude against the Gualcarque.”
Meanwhile, certain actions of Sergio Ramón Ramírez Orellana, also convicted for the assassination of Berta Cáceres, are aimed at manipulating the work of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. All of these actions seek to negatively affect the results provided by the penal system in this case in response to the demand for justice from the family, COPINH, and the struggle against impunity and for preservation of the State of Law.
The undersigned organizations condemn the maneuvers that jeopardize the process and the personas involved in it. In the same vein, we demand that the Supreme Court of Justice presided over by the magistrates Walter Raúl Miranda Sabio, Mario Rolando Díaz and Nelson Danilo Mairena Franco, immediately confirm the ruling handed down against the seven men responsible for perpetrating the assassination of Berta Cáceres and also confirm the sentence against David Castillo, as co-author of this crime.
Women defenders sustain life in their communities. Thus, every action against them by enforcers of an extractive, capitalist, and predatory model of development mean an attack against the community as a whole that is deeply patriarchal and consequently attacks women in specific and distinctive ways.
We join COPINH in calling for the national and international community to remain alert and vigilant over the functioning of the system of justice in Honduras in order to guarantee effective access for the Lenca people to truth, justice, reparations, and non-repetitive measures.
ENDORSEMENTS
International organizations: Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre), Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, Colectivo Caminando Fronteras, Comité de Solidaridad con los Pueblos - Interpueblos, Coordinadora Asturiana de ONGD (CODOPA), Cultural Survival.Entrepueblos/Entrepobles/Entrepobos/Herriarte.Equality Now, FIDH (Federación Internacional por los Derechos Humanos), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Foro Honduras Suiza, Hondurasdelegation, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Lisangà culture in movimento Italia, Lumaltik Herriak, MUGARIK GABE, Observatoire International des Avocats en Danger, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos, Organización mundial contra la tortura (OMCT), en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Red Ecofeminista, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Soldepaz Pachakuti, Solidarity Economy Association, South Feminist Futures (SFF),Synergía, iniciativas para los derechos humanos, Trocaire (Honduras), Witness for Peace - Solidarity Collective, Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin.
Regional organizations: ARTICLE 19 Oficina para México y Centroamérica, Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL), Fundación para Estudio e investigación de la Mujer (FEIM), Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras), Instituto Las Segovias, Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Latin America Working Group (LAWG), Latinas en Poder, MENA Fem Movement For Economic, Development And Ecological Justice, MIRA: feminismos y democracias, Protection International, Oficina para Mesoamérica, Red de Solidaridad para la transformación social (REDS), Red Europea de Comités Oscar Romero (SICSAL-Europa), Rights Action.
National and local organizations: Alemania / Germany: Oficina Ecuménica por La Paz y la Justicia.
Argentina: Red de Defensoras del Ambiente y el Buen Vivir (RDBV) de la región de la Patagonia, Unidos por Nuestras Acequias de la región Paravachasca en Córdoba, Red Disidente Santiagueña de Santiago del Estero, VICAM: Vicuñas, camélidos y ambiente, Nómadas Comunicación Feminista de la región de la Patagonia.
Bolivia: Comunidad de Derechos Humanos, Red Nacional Alianza Libres sin Violencia.
Colombia: Tamboras Insurrectas Colectiva Feminista,Colectivo de Abogados y Abogadas "José Alvear Restrepo" (CAJAR), Sindicato de Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos (SINDHEP), Comunidad Guaguas Guaneñas, Catedra de Paz Alfredo Molano Bravo (CEPAZ), Juntanza feminista de mujeres y disidencias sexuales de Cali, Fundación Tejiendo Cultura Caribe, Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Colombianas (ASONAM), Corporación para el Desarrollo Regional (CDR) de Cali, Fundación Grupo de Teatro La Mascara de Cali, Escuela Política Travesía por la Paz y la Equidad de Género.
Costa Rica: Movimiento Ríos Vivos de Costa Rica.
Ecuador: Organización del pueblo kichwa Saraguro SAKIAT.
El Salvador: Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto, Asociación por el Respeto de los Derechos de la Mujer Salvadoreña (ARDEMUSA), Centro Cultural Casa Bruja, Colectiva Amorales, Colectiva Feminista por el Desarrollo Local, Colectivo Alejandría, COSAL, Red Salvadoreña Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (RSDDH).
Spain: Ecologistas en Acción, Grup Suport Con Vos, SOS Ribagorza, Araba Bizirik de Euskal Herria, AHTrik EZ Arabako Haranak de Euskal Herria.
United States: Madre Tierra, Organización de Mujeres Latinas Inmigrantes en Washington, DC, Virginia & Maryland.
Guatemala: Asociación Pop No'j, Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos de Guatemala, Consejo del Pueblo Maya (CPO), Organización de Mujeres Tierra Viva.
Honduras: ACI PARTICIPA, Bufete Justicia para los Pueblos, Comité Municipal de Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Públicos de Tocoa, Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación (ERIC-SJ), Equipo Jurídico por los Derechos Humanos, Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), Red Nacional Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras.
Kirguistán: Bir Duino Human Rights Movement.
Liberia: Green Advocates International.
México: Alianza Sierra Madre en Chihuahua (ASMAC), Coordinadora de Pueblos y Organizaciones del Oriente del estado de México en Defensa de la Tierra, el Agua y su Cultura (CPOOEM), Otros Mundos Chiapas A.C., Consorcio Oaxaca, Colectivo del periódico El Zenzontle, Comunidad Teo Tepahkale en Ciudad de México, El Puente SC. en Chiapas, Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México (RNDDHM),Taller Integral para el Desarrollo Comunitario TAIDECO A.C., Tamaulipas Diversidad Vihda Trans A.C, Sí hay mujeres en Durango A.C., Asociación Mexicana de Abogados del Pueblo (AMAP), Comunidad Casas de Medicina y Partería Tradicional en México,Servicios y Asesoría para la Paz A.C. (SERAPAZ), Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes” (Red TDT), Secretariado Social Mexicano (SSM), Tlalij, yolojtli uan nemililistlij de San Luis Potosí, Instituto Mexicano para el Desarrollo Comunitario (IMDEC).
Mongolia: Oyu Tolgoi Watch.
Nicaragua: Agenda Propia Nicaragua, Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral de la Mujer (APADEIM), Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más, Morada Feminista Nicaragua-UK, Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres de Nicaragua (MAM), Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco (UNAB), Unión Democrática Renovadora (Unamos).
Perú: Demus Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer, Paz y Esperanza.
Uganda: Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda.
Venezuela: Acción Solidaria,Vicaría de Derechos Humanos de Caracas.