TEGUCIGALPA – A Honduran court on Monday sentenced a former executive in power to more than two decades behind bars for his role in the killing of Berta Cáceres, whose killing in 2016 highlighted the danger faced by environmental and indigenous activists in the Central American country.
Roberto David Castillo, former president of the Honduran electric power company Desarrollos Energéticos (DESA), sentenced to 22 years and six months after being convicted last year of participating in the murder of Cáceres.
Cáceres, a 44-year-old Lenca indigenous woman who headed the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), organized to save the electric power company from building a hydroelectric power plant on her community’s ancestral lands when she was shot dead in her home in March 2016.
COPINH welcomed the conviction and further investigations of bankers and executives related to DESA.
In December 2019, seven people, including the DESA executive, were sentenced to between 30 and 50 years in prison for their participation in the murder of Cáceres.
On Twitter, Cáceres’ daughter, Olivia Zúñiga Cáceres, said she was “outraged” that Castillo “had not won the maximum penalty. “
Ritza Antunez, one of Castillo’s defense lawyers, told Reuters his team plans to appeal the conviction to a court of last resort.
“The sentence is the product of the evidence. This is a product of media pressure,” Antunez said.
Cáceres, an instructor who won the prestigious Goldman Prize in 2015 for her environmental activism, had denounced death threats against her and her circle of relatives before killing.
The conviction comes days after Brazilian police arrested suspects involved in the murders of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips.
(Reporting through Gustavo Palencia; Written through Brendan O’Boyle; Editing via Lisa Shumaker)
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