Cáceres, an environmental campaigner who was killed last week, had complained of death threats from police, the army and landowners’ groups

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A large crowd in Honduras has accompanied the body of Berta Cáceres to its final resting place amid calls for justice over this week’s killing of the indigenous leader and environmental activist.

Many of those carrying Cáceres’ coffin on their shoulders through the dusty streets of La Esperanza on Saturday were Lenca indigenous people for whose rights she had fought. Drummers pounded out Afro-Honduran rhythms as mourners chanted “The struggle goes on and on” and “Berta Cáceres is present, today and forever.”

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The crowd marched more than 10km (6m) from Cáceres’ mother’s home to a chapel where a Mass was celebrated in her memory, and then to the cemetery in La Esperanza about 300km east of the capital. Her four daughters and her ex-husband were among the procession.

“Forgive me, Bertita,” said Salvador Zuniga, Cáceres’ former husband. “Forgive me for not understanding your greatness.”

The previous evening, Austra Flores said she hoped that her daughter’s murder will not go unpunished and that international attention will pressure Honduran authorities to find those responsible.

Cáceres, 45, who was awarded the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in fighting a dam project, had complained of death threats from police, the army and landowners’ groups. She was killed early on Thursday by gunmen who broke into her home and shot her four times.

“My mother died because she defended the land and rivers of her country,” Cáceres’ daughter Olivia said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Friends and supporters gather near the coffin of slain environmental rights activist Berta Caceres as they attend a mass outside the Virgen de Lourdes church. Photograph: Jorge Cabrera/Reuters

Gustavo Castro Soto, a Mexican human rights activist, was also wounded in the attack. Justice minister Julian Pacheco said Soto survived the shooting by playing dead after gunfire grazed his cheek and left hand. Soto is considered a protected witness whose testimony is key to solving the killing.

Pacheco said two suspects have been detained for questioning, including a neighbourhood private security guard. Authorities have not said what role they may have played in her killing.

President Juan Orlando Hernandez said authorities were investigating Caceres’ killing with assistance from the United States.

US ambassador James Nealon said at the funeral: “We have asked for a rapid and exhaustive investigation so the full weight of the law is applied to those responsible.”

Foreign minister Arturo Corrales vowed on Friday in a meeting with diplomats that justice would be done, saying that “there is abundant information to solve the case.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man puts flowers on the coffin of slain environmental rights activist Berta Caceres at a cemetery in the town of La Esperanza. Photograph: Jorge Cabrera/Reuters

According to the website of the Goldman Environmental Prize, Cáceres “waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.”

It said the project threatened to “cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of Lenca people and violate their right to sustainably manage and live off their land.”