The Killing of Berta Cáceres

Democracy Now has a segment about "a new investigation that reveals further ties between [environmental activist] Berta Cáceres’s killing, Honduran military intelligence, and the United States."

Amy Goodman interviews freelance journalist Nina Lakhani whose article "Berta Cáceres’s Court Papers Show Murder Suspects’ Links to U.S.-trained Elite Troops" was published in the Guardian.

Last year, the Guardian reported that a former Honduran soldier said he had seen Cáceres’s name on a hitlist that was passed to US-trained units.

[...]

[He] deserted after Cáceres’s murder and remains in hiding. The whereabouts of his former colleagues is unknown.

  Guardian

Hey, we just train 'em. We don't tell 'em what to do, right?

Cáceres was shot dead a year ago while supposedly under state protection after receiving death threats over her opposition to a hydroelectric dam.

The murder of Cáceres, winner of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize in 2015, prompted international outcry and calls for the US to revoke military aid to Honduras, a key ally in its war on drugs.

Eight men have been arrested in connection with the murder, including one serving and two retired military officers.

So far, so what? Nothing says the US was actually involved.

American experts have been involved in the investigation from the start, according to the US embassy in Tegucigalpa.

OK, now that is suspicious. Why are we involved in the investigation?

Senator Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said US support should not be unconditional: “It is essential that we not only strengthen our commitment to improving the rule of law in Honduras, but we must also demand greater accountability for human rights violations and attacks against civil society.”

The U.S. should be "improving the rule of law in Honduras?" Yeah, I'm not buying it.

In recent years, US support has focused on Honduras’s special forces units, originally created as a counterinsurgency force during the 1980s “dirty war”.

[...]

Violence against social activists has surged since a military backed coup d’état ousted populist president Manuel Zelaya in 2009. Since then at least 124 land and environmental campaigners have been killed.

[...]

Extrajudicial killings by the security forces and widespread impunity are among the most serious human rights violations in Honduras, according to the US state department.

Nevertheless, the US is the main provider of military and police support to Honduras, and last year approved $18m of aid.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.