Berta Cáceres has become known worldwide as an environmental activist who gave her life for her cause. Her family, friends, and fellow activists know her as so much more.

For over 25 years, Berta worked with COPINH to protect the rights of the environment, the indigenous, women, children, the LGBTQ community and many others. She travelled the world to advocate for the oppressed, and she stood up to powerful forces that tried to exploit them.

Berta will always be remembered as Honduras’s Guardian of the River, but she gave her life to guard all who were vulnerable.  

The Lenca people of Honduras have faced discrimination and exploitation since the time of colonialism. The ratification of ILO Convention 169 in 1995 protected the Lenca’s right to their traditionally occupied land.

Their right has been threatened with the onslaught of energy projects that, in many cases, fail to consult the indigenous communities before beginning construction.

As the director of COPINH, Berta Cáceres spent the last years of her life fighting 49 hydroelectric dams that she claimed did not comply with law. Honduran authorities have connected her death with one in particular, the Agua Zarca dam.

Minutes before midnight on March 2, 2016, two gunmen broke into the home of Berta Cáceres and assassinated her. Since then nine men have been arrested for her murder, 3 of who have been employees of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam.

Only one of the suspects is considered a high-level intellectual author. Many believe that the men who gave the orders for her assassination are still free.

Secrecy and lack of cooperation of the Public Prosecutor’s office has led to multiple delays in court proceedings.  Two years have gone by and the world continues to wait for justice for Berta.