Ireland Remembers Berta Cáceres, Murdered Honduran Indigenous Leader & Environmental Activist at Protest in Dublin

Apr 17, 2016, 02:11 PM

Saturday April 16, 2016 Ireland remembered the courageous Honduran indigenous leader and environmental activist Berta Careres assassinated at her home on March 3rd. At a demonstration in Dublin city centre there were calls for Berta's killers to be brought to justice, and an end to the brutal persecution of people campaigning for land and water rights in Honduras. Aged 45 Berta had become a world renowned campaigner for her work especially in resisting the Aqua Zurca Hydroelectric Dam Project which threatened the livelihoods and even survival of her own indigenous Lenca people. Threatened so many times she lived in constant danger and admitted to friends that she didn't expect to live into old age because of the number of death threats she received. Her supporters blame the Honduran Government backed death squads for her murder because of her successful resistance to the dam project, and many remain skeptical her family will get justice. In 2015 Berta was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize - the world’s leading environmental award for her work. Well known in Ireland Berta's many friends and supporters in Trocaire, Frontline and LASC - Latin America Solidarity Campaign helped organise Saturday's protest. Esperanza’s Anne Daly went along and her report opens with Berta speaking about the sacredness of the Rio Blanco on which the dam project was proposed.

Esperanza Productions was co-founded by award winning documentary filmmakers Ronan Tynan and Anne Daly.

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