30 year jail sentence for one of the assassins of Berta Caceres, killed March 2, 2016 in Honduras
https://mailchi.mp/rightsaction/30-yr-sentence-for-a-berta-caceres-assassin
Struggle continues to hold accountable the “intellectual authors”, the planners and funders of her killing
- Below: Report from COPINH (Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), co-founded by Berta Caceres in 1992.
This case is part of the devastating legacy of U.S. and Canadian support for the June 27, 2009 military coup in Honduras, and 13 years of full economic, political and security relations with the military-backed, drug-trafficking, “open for global business” regime of President Juan Orlando Hernandez and the National Party, treated throughout as a “democratic ally” by the U.S., Canada and mainstream media.
Global north impunity: There has been no political or legal accountability whatsoever in the U.S. or Canada for our instrumental roles in supporting and legitimizing these 13 years of devastating violence and destruction throughout Honduras.
From 1998-2016, Rights Action was a constant grassroots funder of COPINH and we regularly carried out north-south education and activism with COPINH. Rights Action continues to provide regular support funds to Berta’s 93 year-old mother.
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Popular victory: Sergio Rodríguez Orellana is convicted of the murder of Berta Cáceres and sentenced to 30 years in prison
By Resumen Latinoamericano, February 9, 2025
https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2025/02/09/honduras-victoria-popular-confirman-sentencia-de-sergio-rodriguez-orellana-como-autor-del-asesinato-de-berta-caceres-y-condena-a-30-anos-de-prision/
(We share a statement from COPINH, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, on the victory of the final sentence against Berta Cáceres' co-perpetrator.)
The Supreme Court of Justice confirms the sentence of Sergio Rodríguez Orellana, an employee of the Atala Zablah family, as co-perpetrator of the murder of Berta Cáceres and sentences him to 30 years in prison.
After more than six years of waiting, the full bench of the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice has confirmed the conviction of Sergio Ramón Rodríguez Orellana, ratifying his guilt of aggravated murder for the crime against our sister Berta Cáceres and the sentence of 30 years in prison. The full bench has reclassified his responsibility as perpetrator by inducement.
On November 29, 2018, Chamber I of the Sentencing Court found Sergio Rodríguez guilty as co-author of the murder of Berta Cáceres. During the trial, indisputable evidence of his communications extracted from his telephone and call records were presented, which showed his control of the criminal act through the identification, surveillance and harassment of Berta Cáceres, actions that were essential for the commission of the crime.
In November 2024, her case was referred to the full Supreme Court of Justice in the absence of unanimity on the ratification of the sentence, after a sentence in which magistrates Nelson Mairena and Walter Miranda handed down a sentence with benefits in favor of the murderer. Today, his guilt has been confirmed.
Sergio Rodríguez is part of the criminal structure that has terrorized the Lenca community of Río Blanco since 2013, with the intention of imposing the illegal Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, for the economic benefit of the Atala Zablah family.
Their role, disguised as environmental and social management, was to infiltrate, antagonize and attack the Lenca community and to monitor and identify the leaders as targets for attack by the Atala Zablah criminal enterprise.
From COPINH, we reaffirm our commitment to justice in Honduras and the vindication of the rights of the indigenous peoples for which Berta Cáceres fought. We will not lower our guard until all those responsible for her murder, including the Atala Zablah family, face the consequences of their crimes.
COPINH demands that the State of Honduras fulfill its obligations and prosecute and punish all those responsible for the crime of Berta Cáceres and related crimes, as well as respect the rights of the Lenca people.
Berta lives on, the struggle continues!
La Esperanza, Intibucá, 7 February, 2025
“With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica,
our voices rise up, full of life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace.”
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Background
- Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet, by Nina Lakhani
- THE CASH BEFORE THE KILLING: Newly Released Documents Reveal International Funding Trail Preceding the Murder of Berta Cáceres, by Jared Olson, The Intercept
- Capture order issued for alleged mastermind & financier of assassination of Berta Caceres - Legacy of U.S. & Canadian-backed Narco-Dictatorship in Honduras, by Grahame Russell
- Berta: The memory that flows like a river, by Gabriela Castellanos
COPINH
To support efforts for justice in this case, and for all that Berta was working for in Honduras and on this planet: www.copinh.org / https://bertavivecopinhsigue.copinh.org / copinhonduras.blogspot.com / http://copinhenglish.blogspot.com / @COPINHHONDURAS
Rights Action
info@rightsaction.org / https://rightsaction.org
Honduras Solidarity Network / Honduras Now
https://www.hondurasnow.org/; www.hondurassolidarity.org
Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and democracy, human rights and justice struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
- US: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
- Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown, Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2
Credit-card donations: https://rightsaction.org/donate/
Direct deposits, write to: info@rightsaction.org
Donate securities, write to: info@rightsaction.org
Settlement of landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits
Oct.7, 2024 press release: https://rightsaction.org
“TESTIMONIO–Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala”
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell (Between The Lines, 2021)
