"Who killed Berta Cáceres? Behind the brutal murder of an environment crusader", 2 Jun 2020

The final few months of Berta Cáceres’s life were filled with ominous signs. Just before Christmas 2015, she confided in her sister Agustina that her life was in danger. “The messages never stop, the harassment never stops, they have me under surveillance. They don’t care that I have children. Those sons of bitches are going to kill me.”... Berta was involved in numerous land and water struggles alongside indigenous Lenca communities across western Honduras... Berta had reasons to suspect the hitmen were hired by Desa, the dam construction company. Desa’s trumped-up criminal charges against her and other leaders of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) had failed to silence them... On 20 February, Berta led a convoy to the Gualcarque, a river considered sacred... to make a stand against the company’s attempt to circumvent indigenous land rights by moving the dam across the shore... Desa’s communities and environmental manager, politely greeted Berta before warning her to turn back. “There are armed men at the river, we won’t be responsible if something happens to you.”... [Her daughter] Laura assumed... meeting the pope and winning the Goldman prize would protect her... [On the night of her killing, her friend Gustavo] ran to her and saw his friend sprawled on her back... struggling to breathe... “Don’t go, Berta! Don’t die! Stay with me,” he begged. But Berta Cáceres was bleeding to death...

This is an extract from Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet by Nina Lakhani published by Verso Books on 2 June.