{"id":34645,"date":"2017-03-03T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-22T13:00:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T13:00:27","slug":"9645-a-year-after-berta-c-ceres-murder-protecting-the-planet-is-just-as-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/9645-a-year-after-berta-c-ceres-murder-protecting-the-planet-is-just-as-deadly\/","title":{"rendered":"A year after Berta C\u00e1ceres\u2019 murder, protecting the planet is just as deadly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike Berta <\/span>C\u00e1ceres, who was gunned down in the sleepy Honduran town of Esperanza almost a year ago, primary school teacher and Tolupan indigenous community leader Jose Santos Sevilla was not well-known. But his murder on Friday 17 February had chilling parallels with that of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner.<\/p>\n

Like C\u00e1ceres, Santos was sleeping when he was fatally shot by masked gunmen who had broken into his home in the municipality of Orica, around 75 miles northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa. Alexander Rodriguez, the mayor of Orica and a friend of Santos, said the motive was unknown. However, other indigenous Tolupa have been killed during peaceful protests against mining and logging operations in their territory, agencies reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The death of Santos came just two weeks before the anniversary of <\/span>Caceres’s bloody killing on March 3, and amid a rising tide of murders and intimidations of environmental and indigenous activists in Honduras and globally. It also follows those of Nelson Garc\u00eda and Lesbia Yaneth<\/a> of Caceres\u2019 indigenous rights group COPINH<\/a>. In all, over 120 environmentalists have been murdered in the Central American country since 2010, making it the deadliest place in which to defend the environment, a recent investigation<\/a> by UK non-governmental organisation Global Witness revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have documented widespread violations of international law regarding indigenous peoples. Most significantly companies and state actors are illegally approving mining, agribusiness and hydropower projects without consulting affected communities,\u201d said Billy Kyte, leader of the environmental and land defenders campaign at Global Witness.<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Investors implicated<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Global Witness criticises the \u201csystematic, widespread failures\u201d of European investors in Honduras for failing to defuse violence at the Agua Zarca dam project they supported, and which C\u00e1ceres and the indigenous Lenca\u00a0people resisted. According to Kyte, Dutch investor FMO and Finland\u2019s Finnfund did not condemn the intimidation of C\u00e1ceres, who received 33 public death threats prior to her murder.<\/p>\n

FMO publicly stated<\/a> its regret at Caceres\u2019 violent death in a statement on its website and has temporarily suspended its activities in Honduras, saying it is seeking a \u201cresponsible exit\u201d from the project. It is yet to formally withdraw. Chinese contractor Sinohydro pulled out of the project in 2012 amid rising tensions between opponents of the dam and Desarrollos Energ\u00e9ticos S.A de C.V (known as\u00a0DESA<\/a>), the company managing the project.<\/p>\n