Honduras: The executive of a hydroelectric power station is convicted of the crime of the ecologist Berta Cáceres | Designated as “intellectual co-author”, David Castillo could face a sentence of between 20 and 25 years

Honduran justice convicted businessman Roberto David Castillo as co-perpetrator of the murder of Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres, a crime for which seven people have already been convicted in 2019. The decision was resolved unanimously by the sentencing court and the prison term to which Castillo will be sentenced, director of Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), He will be released on August 3. Caceres, fierce opponent of the project that this company was developing in indigenous territory, was shot dead on March 2, 2016 in the town of La Esperanza, department of Intibucá in western Honduras, despite the precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to protect her from the constant threats she received.

Castillo, a DESA executive and former Honduran military graduate of the US military school West Point, has been named as a “brain co-author.” the murder of Cáceres and can face a sentence of 20 to 25 years. According to the trial court, the businessman was in direct communication with Douglas Bustillo, one of the seven convicted of environmentalist crimes in December 2019.

During the hearing, the contents of the telephone contacts recorded between Castillo and seven other people who had already been sentenced in December 2019 to between 30 and 50 years in prison for the murder of the indigenous leader and winner of the Goldman Prize for the environment was been revealed. in 2015. “Supposedly David Castillo would have worked in the organization and logistics to kill Berta Cáceres”underlined the spokesperson of the judiciary, Lucía Villars.

Ehe sentencing court verdict is “a victory for the peoples of the world who have accompanied this process, for the community of solidarity and for human rights”, He said Bertha Zuniga, one of the environmentalist’s daughters at a press conference after learning about the decision. The conviction means that “the power structures have not corrupted the judicial system and that the criminal structure of the Atala Zablah family (owner of the DESA company), of which the convict David Castillo is the instrument, has not reached her goals. Zúñiga indicated while reading a statement from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh).

Cáceres was shot dead at midnight on March 2, 2016 by men who entered her home in the western community of La Esperanza.. At the time of the events He was sleeping in his house, where he had as a guest Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro, the only witness to the crime and who suffered a slight gunshot wound to the ear.

Castillo was captured on March 2, 2018 as the suspected mastermind of the murder. According to the prosecution, the former soldier and two DESA executives, who are among the five convicted, hired the contract killers who killed Cáceres, who opposed the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam, considering that ‘it was causing damage to the communities of the Lenca ethnic group.