Corruption scandals, narcotrafficking, extreme poverty and high rates of femicide are words thrown around in the context of Honduran governance. One of the more recent cases that has shed light on root causes of these ills is the gruesome extrajudicial murder of Berta Cáceres. Berta, an indigenous Lenca human rights and environmental activist, was killed in an arduous battle protecting indigenous land from a hydroelectric dam project with private and political interests.
The connection between human rights abuses in Central America is not often discussed in terms of accountability from the U.S. Berta’s case is unfortunately not rare in the deadliest country in the world for environmental activism, but it has made waves internationally. In a key article, the Guardian revealed the evidence of an extrajudicial murder involving DESA (the corporation behind the hydroelectric dam project), the Honduran government, tasked with protecting Berta, and the U.S. military, which trained at least two of the eight men arrested in connection to her murder. Seven of those men have been found guilty by the Honduran Supreme Court, while 16 private and public officials, including the CEO of DESA were indicted earlier this year on counts of fraud and illicit activity involved in masterminding Berta’s murder.
The CEO’s name is Roberto David Castillo Mejia, Deputy Lieutenant of Military Intelligence in the Armed Forces of Honduras, and a 2004 graduate of none other than West Point, the United States Military Academy. While the U.S. has often tried its best downplay unethical foreign intervention, there is no doubt that it is good at funneling millions of American taxpayer dollars into Central America to fund or enable violence, and lead covert military operations, often in the name of democracy.
