Indigenous leader Berta Caceres murdered at home in Honduras


Berta Caceres. Photo from Goldman Environmental Prize

indigenous activist Berta Caceres was murdered at her home in Honduras on Thursday, according to news reports..

Caceres, 43, was from the Lenca community. She won the Goldman Environmental Prize last year for preventing a dam from being built on the sacred Gualcarque River.

“Honduras has lost a brave and committed social activist,” Tomas Membreno of the Indian Council of People’s Organizations of Honduras, a group founded by Caceres, said in a statement, the Associated Press reported.


Goldman Environmental Prize: Berta Caceres acceptance speech, 2015 Goldman Prize ceremony

Caceres often received death threats for her work and was supposed to be under special protection, the AP reported, citing an aide to President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

“The president has instructed all government security forces to use all means to find the killers,” Jorge Alcerro, Hernandez's chief of staff, told the AP.

Get the Story:
Gunmen kill Honduran Indian, environmentalist leader (AP 3/3)
Honduras: Indigenous Leader Murdered Despite Police Protection (teleSUR 3/3)
Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize (Democracy Now! 3/3)
Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres murdered, family says (AFP 3/3)

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