“One Step Closer to Justice for Berta Cáceres in Honduras”, 06 July 2021

...The latest guilty verdict in Cáceres’ murder marks a major advancement in the pursuit of justice in Honduras, one of the most dangerous country's in the world for land defenders and where the impunity rate was the highest in all of Latin America last year, according to the 2020 Global Impunity Index...Cáceres’ legal team had expressed concern about the armed forces and economic sector potentially influencing the outcome of the case. The guilty verdict shows the courts can successfully prosecute high-profile cases amid considerable national and international pressure...“David Castillo was a key figure connecting the material authors of Cáceres’ murder to other businessmen, military officers and public officials who also participated in the murder and have yet to be prosecuted,” said Annie Bird, Director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, who has done extensive research on impunity and corruption in Honduras...In December 2019, private messages published by The Intercept in an exclusive report revealed that the team of hitmen “communicated through a compartmentalized chain that reached the highest ranks of [DESA’s] leadership.” Present in one of those group chats, titled "Seguridad PHAZ,” or “Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project Security,” was Castillo Mejía and DESA’s chief financial officer, Daniel Atala Midence. DESA board members José Eduardo Atala Zablah and Pedro Atala Zablah were also included. The Atala Zablah family wields considerable influence in Honduras and has close ties to the Honduran government and financial sector. None of those men have been arrested or charged criminally. All of them deny any participation in the crime. "Berta Cáceres’ murder was part of a much broader criminal conspiracy. ... Only a fraction of the crimes and … people responsible have been investigated,” Bird told InSight Crime...