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I'm fangirling over Berta Cáceres and I bet you are too

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whlw: no. 295

February 27 – March 6, 2022

Hey, this is Sham, your very own news curator. Today's issue is a short one. This past week, my beloved grandfather passed away and tomorrow, on International Women's Day, I'm saying goodbye to him.

In honor of March 8, I want you to read about someone my extremely feminist grandfather would have called a "jineki zor rek u pek", that's (Sorani) Kurdish for 'a very formidable woman': Berta Cáceres from Honduras.

Btw, this newsletter has its very own Spotify playlist Decolonize Weekly. Feel free to subscribe. I added some of my grandfather's favorite songs in there this week.

If you like this newsletter, help keep this newsletter going with monthly or yearly financial support on Patreon or via PayPal. 263 (+3 since last week – thank you!) out of 15k+ people are pitching in at the moment. Thank you!

Now without further ado, here's what happened last week,
Sham 

what happened last week
CENTRAL AMERICA
We remember what happened to Berta Cáceres in Honduras 
March 3, 2016 was a pretty tragic day in Honduras: Lenca indigenous leader, feminist and environmental activist Berta Cáceres died.

Why this matters: Saving our planet from overheating is life-threatening. All over the world, so many people we don't get to hear or learn about, especially Indigenous people, are on the actual frontlines. Many of them risk their lives doing so. Their activism deserves respect and attention.

Tell me more about her
In one of the world's most dangerous countries for environmental activists, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the 22-megawatt Agua Zarca Dam, and won the prestigious Goldman Prize for it. She's one of Latin America's most prominent environmental defenders.

Why did she die?
Ultimately, she was killed by Roberto David Castillo, an executive of energy company DESA (and a US-trained former military intelligence officer). In July 2021, he was found guilty of being the mastermind of her murder. By that time, Seven men had already been convicted for her murder and were sentenced to a lot of jail time.

What?!
Yes. Honduras is a very dangerous country for environmental and human rights activists like Cáceres.

Why?
There was a coup in 2009. And since then, things have kind of gone downhill. Think super-mega-projects all over the country that are/were environment-destroyers and indigenous-communities-displacers.

Like the Agua Zarca Dam?
Yes. This specific dam was supposed to be built on the sacred Gualcarque River –– a project that was pushed through without asking the indigenous Lenca people for permission.

Why consult them though?
Well. The dam would cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of Lenca people and violate their right to sustainably manage and live off their land.

Who was building it?
It was a group project between Honduran company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) (the man that killed Cáceres founded this company) and Sinohydro (owned by the government of China), the world’s largest dam developer.

And just how did Cáceres stop this dam(ned) project?
She was super politically active. In 1993, she cofounded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) to address the growing threats posed to Lenca communities by illegal logging, fight for their territorial rights and improve their livelihoods. Then in 2006, community members from Río Blanco asked COPINH for help, 'there are so many machines and construction equipment in general coming into our town. But someone's building something on the river!! Please hurry and help us.'

And so Cáceres got to work. Her goal: Destroy the Agua Zarca Dam.

What did she do exactly?
She filed complaints with government authorities, bringing along community representatives on trips to Tegucigalpa. She organized a local assembly where community members formally voted against the dam, and led a protest where people peacefully demanded their rightful say in the project.

The campaign also reached out to the international community, bringing the case to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and lodging appeals against the project’s funders such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank.

That worked, right? It must have.
No. Honduras' government and local mayors were like, 'we're going to build this dam anyway' and tried to bribe their way into building this dam. No luck. But then came April 2013 and sh*t started hitting the fan.

How?
Cáceres organized a road blockade to prevent DESA's access to the dam site. For well over a year. The country's armed forces couldn't push the Lenca people out either. Sinohydro in late 2013 was like, 'okay, I'm out.' Then, IFC was like, 'I'm out, too. Too many human rights violations.' And the dam project effectively died.

And that's when she died?
Not right away. For years, Cáceres would receive death threats, until March 3, 2016, when she was killed by gunmen in her home in La Esperanza. Just twelve days later, her colleague and fellow COPINH member Nelson García, was also killed.

The stats: According to the advocacy group Global Witness, "at least 40 land and environmental defenders" have been killed in the country since Cáceres's death.

I want to read more about Cáceres.
I have some links for you. 
  • Recommended listen: If you want to dive in deeper audio-wise, Cáceres' murder was documented in detail in Blood River, a podcast released in 2020.
  • Recommended watch: Learn about Cáceres’ work and philosophy from this Democracy Now! segment and from a tribute by Beverly Bell and a 2020 interview with Laura Zúñiga Cáceres, Honduran activist and daughter of Berta Cáceres.
  • Recommended read: (Not about her but kind of about her) A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. Are you reading this, dear people who are teachers?
That's it from me for this week. If you want to stay connected on social media, follow me on Twitter or on Instagram.

Bye,
Sham
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