"Berta Cáceres: conviction of killers brings some justice, but questions remain", 01 Dec 2018

Berta Cáceres spent the final hours of her life being tailed by contract killers. On 2 March 2016, at least four men were following the Honduran activist in the town of La Esperanza. They shadowed her... Cáceres was scared, and asked Gustavo Castro,...old friend, to stay with her... Just after 11.30pm, at least two men broke into the house. “Who’s there?” shouted Cáceres, before Elvin Rapalo shot her three times... He stamped on her torso to stop her fighting back... The trial was mired by allegations of negligence and cover-ups, but the verdict was clear: the killers were paid to shoot Cáceres, and the order came from executives at Desa, a company building an internationally backed hydroelectric project on a river considered sacred by the indigenous Lenca people. Cáceres had led opposition to the Agua Zarca dam and the protests were causing costly delays, so an elaborate plan was drawn up to kill her. Surveillance, planning and logistics were handled by... Desa’s communities and environment manager,... company’s former security chief and a... US trained special forces major... Company president David Castillo, a former intelligence officer, is accused of masterminding the murder... Desa’s international lawyer dismissed the verdict as a “politically motivated farce”... [M]any questions remain unanswered.