Berta Caceres, a human rights and environmental activist in Honduras, was a prominent coordinator of the indigenous organization COPINH. For years she fought against the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Gualcarque River, a project that would have severely altered fragile ecosystems and the traditional home of the Lenca people. In April 2015 Caceres was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work.



Less than a year later, in March 2016, Caceres was killed by several armed men who broke into her home.

The trial of eight suspects in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, begins Monday. A commission made up of representatives of 17 international and national NGOs, as well as human rights experts, will be monitoring proceedings.

Among those standing trial are former employees of the Honduran company DESA, the owner and operator behind the hydroelectric power plant on the Gualcarque River, as well as active and former members of the Honduran military.

COPINH and members of Caceres' family hold DESA and state security agencies responsible for the crime. In a separate trial, the responsibility of former DESA manager David Castillo Mejia, who was arrested last March, will be clarified.

Watch video 00:40 2016: Deadliest year for activists

'Plaintiffs, victims being deprived of right to truth'

There were repeated delays and irregularities in the run-up to the trial. In September 2016, some of the investigation files were stolen. And lawyers for the Caceres family have repeatedly been denied access to investigation results by the Honduran public prosecutor's office, despite several court orders.

It was only this past August, a few days before the hearing of evidence, that the public prosecutor's office relented. It turned out, however, that even more than two years after the murder the public prosecutor's office still had not analyzed much of the confiscated evidence, such as the suspects' computers and mobile phones. Information potentially relevant to the case was therefore not taken into consideration in the hearing.

"The plaintiffs and victims are being deprived of the right to the truth," said Ariel Madrid, a lawyer for the Caceres family. "We have prepared a very solid line of argument, but it will be difficult to maintain with the evidence we have."

The trial is also likely to be hampered by the fact that several witnesses have not been allowed to testify. The court has rejected four members of the influential Honduran Atala Zablah family who, as majority owners of the DESA company, are said to have had close ties to some of the defendants.

Following her death, supporters honored Berta Caceres with a religious ceremony on the Gualcarque River

Will trial be transparent?

Caceres' family is, unsurprisingly, suspicious of the work of the public prosecutor's office. Shortly after the murder, her relatives and COPINH commissioned an international group of experts (GAIPE) to investigate the crime. In its report, published last year, GAIPE concluded that DESA company representatives, as well as state and private security forces, were involved in crimes related to the murder.

"The DESA company was founded as a kind of criminal structure in order to threaten people and destroy social ties in communities," said GAIPE member Miguel Angel Urbina. The original financial partners in the hydropower project included the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, the Finnish development bank Finnfund and the Dutch financial institution FMO. European investors have since withdrawn from the project.

The GAIPE report has been sharply criticized by Amsterdam & Partners LLP, the law firm representing DESA in the trial. An assessment commissioned by the defense lawyers criticized the GAIPE report as being one-sided and only representing the interests of the victim's family and the indigenous organization. Neither the GAIPE report nor the defense assessment is admissible as evidence in the trial.

It remains to be seen whether the court will conduct the proceedings in a transparent manner. Video and audio recordings have been banned during the supposedly public murder trial, despite a request by the joint plaintiffs.

"This was rejected on the grounds that the presence of the victim's representatives alone would ensure publicity," said Ariel Madrid. "Publicity will only be created, however, if the media is allowed to broadcast the trial."

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Activists in custody Several Greenpeace activists are being held in police custody in Murmansk for attempting to climb aboard a Russian oil rig in the Artic. The Russian authorities have accused them and more than 20 other protesters of 'organized piracy.' Greenpeace has been fighting the oil industry worldwide for many years - often with success.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Protest with long-term effects On April 30,1995, nearly 30 Greenpeace activists climbed aboard the Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea. The Shell oil company was planning to sink the decommissioned rig to dispose of it. The protest prevented it. In 1998, all the countries bordering the North Sea then agreed to only dispose oil rigs on land. But the roots of Greenpeace go back to the anti-nuclear movement.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation The birth of Greenpeace In 1970/71 when the United States wanted to conduct nuclear tests on the Alaskan island of Amchitka, a protest movement evolved to oppose the plan. The activists called themselves "Greenpeace" and tried to penetrate the test zone in a ship with the same name. The attempt failed, but the name stuck, and Greenpeace became the best known environmental organization in the world.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Dangerous protests in the South Seas Repeatedly, Greenpeace activists in the past have put life and limb at risk. During a protest in the South Pacific in 1973 against French nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll, their ship, the Vega, was rammed by a French warship - and was followed by a fist fight with French soldiers. But, other Greenpeace actions were not so tame.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation A sunken ship and one fatality Protests against nuclear testing continued in the 1980s. In 1985, the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, was supposed to leave New Zealand for a protest on Mururoa Atoll. To prevent that from happening, a French secret agent blew a hole in the ship and sank it in Auckland harbor. The Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira drowned in that incident on July 10, 1985.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Farewell to a controversial campaign Since the 1970s, Greenpeace fought against the brutal clubbing of baby seals. Using spray paint, they made the seal skins worthless for the hunters. Greenpeace now views the seal hunt differently. The group supports hunters in Greenland, who kill individual adult animals of species that are not endangered. A total hunting ban threatened the livelihoods of seal hunters.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Illegal whaling - An ongoing controversy One of the biggest successes of Greenpeace was the end of commercial whaling after the implementation of an international moratorium in 1986. Countries that continue to ignore the ban - Iceland, Norway and Japan - are still the focus of perilous Greenpeace protests, like this one across the bow of a Japanese whaling ship.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Court accepts environment protests In Britain, Greenpeace achieved a legal breathrough in 2008. For the first time, a court accepted climate protection as a legitimate reason for protests against climate damaging installations. In this particular case, Greenpeace was fighting against a coal-fired power plant in Kingsnorth. All the protesters were acquitted.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation First smokestack occupation worldwide Greenpeace also made history in Germany. The occupation of a smokestack on the property of the Boehringer Chemical Company in Hamburg on June 25, 1981, was the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The factory manufactured insecticides and herbicides that contained highly toxic dioxins. Following the protest, guidelines were tightened in Germany and the factory had to close.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Anti-nuclear protests in Germany A major ongoing issue with environmental activists is nuclear energy. Greenpeace has repeatedly warned of the risks of this technology, like here at the Unterweser nuclear power facility in Nordenham, Lower Saxony, in 2009. In the wake of Germany's move toward renewable energies after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, the Unterweser plant was shut down in 2011.

Greenpeace: A history of confrontation Castor containers - No thanks! Greenpeace has conducted numerous protests against the transport of nuclear waste in so-called Castor containers to the Gorleben storage facility in Lower Saxony. Whether climate change, energy transition, or animal rights, there is still plenty to do around the world, says Greenpeace spokesman, Michael Hopf. But, the successes are both affirmation and motivation for continued protests.. Author: Martin Koch



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