US Military's Role in the Murder of Honduran Activist Berta Cáceres

Revealed: Environmental Activist Berta Cáceres' Suspected Killers Received U.S. Military Training

by Democracy Now

March 3, 2017

We discuss a new investigation that reveals further ties between the killing of renowned environmental activist Berta Cáceres, Honduran military intelligence and the United States. Cáceres was assassinated one year ago in her home in La Esperanza, Honduras, just before midnight on March 2, 2016.

She was the co-founder of COPINH, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. In 2015, she won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her decade-long fight against the Agua Zarca Dam, a project planned along a river sacred to the indigenous Lenca people.

Eight men have been arrested as suspects in Cáceres’s killing — including one active army major and two retired military members. Two of these suspects reportedly received military training in the United States. 

We are joined by Nina Lakhani, a freelance journalist who has been based in Mexico and Central America for the last four years. Her recent piece for The Guardian is, "Berta Cáceres court papers show murder suspects’ links to US-trained elite troops."