A soldier in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. (photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Berta
Cáceres Court Papers Show Murder Suspects' Links to US-Trained Elite Troops
By Nina Lakhani, Guardian UK
28 February 17
The Honduran environmental activist’s killing a year ago bears the
hallmarks of a ‘well-planned operation designed by military intelligence’ says
legal source
Leaked
court documents raise concerns that the murder of the Honduran
environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an
extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to
the country’s US–trained special forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
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.
Officials
have denied state involvement in the activist’s murder, and downplayed the
arrest of the serving officer Maj Mariano Díaz, who was hurriedly discharged
from the army.
But
the detainees’ military records and court documents seen by the Guardian reveal
that:
- Díaz,
a decorated special forces veteran, was appointed chief of army
intelligence in 2015, and at the time of the murder was on track for
promotion to lieutenant colonel.
- Another
suspect, Lt Douglas Giovanny Bustillo joined the military on the same day
as Díaz; they served together and prosecutors say they remained in contact
after Bustillo retired in 2008.
- Díaz
and Bustillo both received military training in the US.
- A
third suspect, Sergeant Henry Javier Hernández, was a former special
forces sniper, who had worked under the direct command of Díaz.
Prosecutors believe he may also have worked as an informant for military
intelligence after leaving the army in 2013.
Court
documents also include the records of mobile phone messages which prosecutors
believe contain coded references to the murder.
Bustillo
and Hernández visited the town of La Esperanza, where Cáceres lived, several
times in the weeks before her death, according to phone records and Hernández’s
testimony.
A
legal source close to the investigation told the Guardian: “The murder of Berta
Cáceres has all the characteristics of a well-planned operation designed by
military intelligence, where it is absolutely normal to contract civilians as
assassins.
“It’s
inconceivable that someone with her high profile, whose campaign had made her a
problem for the state, could be murdered without at least implicit
authorisation of military high command.”
The
Honduran defence ministry ignored repeated requests from the Guardian for
comment, but the head of the armed forces recently denied that military deaths squads were
operating in the country.
Five
civilians with no known military record have also been arrested. They include
Sergio Rodríguez, a manager for the internationally funded Agua Zarca
hydroelectric dam which Cáceres had opposed.
The
project is being led by Desarrollos Energéticos SA, (Desa), which has extensive
military and government links. The company’s president, Roberto David Castillo
Mejía, is a former military intelligence officer,
and its secretary, Roberto Pacheco Reyes, is a former justice minister. Desa
employed former lieutenant Bustillo as head of security between 2013 and 2015.
Cáceres
had reported 33 death threats linked to her campaign against the dam, including
several from Desa employees. Desa denies any involvement in the murder.
Cáceres was killed at about 11.30pm on
2 March, when at least four assassins entered the gated community to
which she had recently moved on the outskirts of La Esperanza.
A
checkpoint at the entrance to the town – normally manned by police officers or
soldiers – was left unattended on the night she was killed, witnesses have told
the Guardian.
Initially, investigators suggested the murderer
was a former lover or disgruntled co-worker. But amid mounting
international condemnation, Díaz, Bustillo and two others were
arrested in May 2016.
Hernández,
who was eventually arrested in Mexico,
is the only suspect to have given detailed testimony in court. He has admitted
his involvement, but says he acted under duress.
All
eight have been charged with murder and attempted murder. The other seven
suspects have either denied involvement or not given testimony in court.
Prosecutors
say that phone records submitted to court show extensive communication between
the three military men, including a text message which was a coded discussion
of payment for a contract killing.
American
experts have been involved in the investigation from the start, according to
the US embassy in Tegucigalpa.
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.”
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.
First
Sergeant Rodrigo Cruz said that two elite units were given lists featuring the
names and photographs of activists – and ordered to eliminate each target.
Cruz’s
unit commander deserted rather than comply with the order. The rest of the unit
were then sent on leave.
In a
follow-up interview with the Guardian, Cruz said the hitlist was given by the
Honduran military joint chiefs of staff to the commander of the Xatruch
multi-agency taskforce, to which his unit belonged.
Cruz –
who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym for fear of retribution – deserted
after Cáceres’s murder and remains in hiding. The whereabouts of his former
colleagues is unknown.
Following
the Guardian’s report, James Nealon, the US ambassador to Honduras, pledged to investigate the allegations,
and in an interview last week, said that no stone had been left unturned.
“I’ve
spoken to everyone I can think of to speak to, as have members of my team, and
no one can produce such a hitlist,” said Nealon.
But
the embassy did not speak to the Xatruch commander, Nealon said. Activists,
including those with information about the alleged hitlist, have told the
Guardian they have not been interviewed by US or Honduran officials.
Lauren
Carasik, clinical professor of law at Western New England University, said
America’s unwavering support for Honduras suggests it tolerates impunity for
intellectual authors of high-profile targeted killings.
“Washington
cannot, in good conscience, continue to ignore mounting evidence that the
Honduran military was complicit in the extrajudicial assassination of Cáceres.”
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.
In
recent years, US support has focused on Honduras’s special forces units, originally created as a
counterinsurgency force during the 1980s “dirty war”.
The
elite units ostensibly target terrorism, organised crime and gangs, but
campaigners say the Honduran intelligence apparatus is used to target
troublesome community leaders.
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.
A
recent investigation by corruption watchdog Global Witness described extensive involvement of political,
business and military elites in environmentally destructive mega projects which
have flourished since the coup.
One of
the most troubled parts of the country has been northern Bajo Aguán region,
where a land conflict between palm oil companies and peasant farmers has
claimed more than 130 lives over the past six years.
The
Bajo Aguán is also home to the 15th battalion – one of two special forces units
in the Honduran army – and the special forces training centre.
Two of
the suspects, Díaz and Hernández, served in the 15th battalion together; Cruz’s
elite unit was also stationed in the Bajo Aguán.
Ambassador
Nealon said that there was no record of Díaz, Hernández or Bustillo attending
any US training courses in Honduras.
“Our
training programmes for police or for military are not designed to instruct
people in how to commit human rights violations or to create an atmosphere in
which they believe that they are empowered to commit human rights violations,
in fact, just the opposite,” said Nealon.
Honduran
military records show that Díaz attended several counterinsurgency courses at
special forces bases in Tegucigalpa and in the Bajo Aguán.
He
also attended cadet leadership courses at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1997, and a
counter-terrorism course at the Inter American air force academy in
2005.
The
court documents also reveal that at the time of his arrest, Díaz, 44, was under
investigation for drug trafficking and kidnapping, while also studying for
promotion.
Military
records show that in 1997, Bustillo attended logistics and artillery courses at
the School of the Americas, at Fort Benning,
Georgia, which trained hundreds of Latin American officers who later committed
human rights abuses.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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