Latin America
Related: About this forumIn Honduras, USAID Was in Bed with Berta Cáceres’ Accused Killers
May 27, 2016
In Honduras, USAID Was in Bed with Berta Cáceres Accused Killers
by Gloria Jimenez
Less than three months before Lenca leader Berta Cáceres was brutally assassinated, the social arm of Desarollos Energeticos SA (DESA)the Honduran company leading the Agua Zarca dam project Cáceres was campaigning againstsigned a contract with USAID implementing partner Fintrac, a Washington DC based development contracting firm.
The DESA representative who was present for the public signing of the USAID agreement was none other than Sergio Rodríguez, the companys Social Investment Manager, who is now accused of Cáceres assassination along with another former DESA employee and individuals with military ties. The arrests also included Douglas Geovanny Bustillo, a retired military officer and the former head of DESAs security detail. The trial against the accused murderers began on Monday.
COPINHs Powerful Political and Economic Enemies in Rio Blanco
As one of the strongest and most recognized indigenous organizations in Honduras, the Council of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, have challenged powerful economic and political forces while working to protect the environment and conserve the Lenca culture.
The Agua Zarca dam project is illustrative of DESAs business dealings and of what COPINH is up against. DESA is owned by the Atala family, one of the most powerful families in Honduras. In fact, the dam project allegedly received funding from the largest bank in HondurasFicohsa, headed up by Camilo Atala. Although it has been recently under attack for its possible complicity with Cáceres assassination, it has a dark past including allegations of money laundering.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/27/in-honduras-usaid-was-in-bed-with-berta-caceres-accused-killers/
Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016158482
juxtaposed
(2,778 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)from link: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/27/in-honduras-usaid-was-in-bed-with-berta-caceres-accused-killers/
One of many reasons Rio Blanco was part of a movement against the Agua Zarca dam project was that the dam threatens the Gualcarque River, on which they depend for their economic and cultural survival. Olivia Marcela Zuniga, Berta Cáceres daughter, addressed foreign financiers of, and accomplices to the Agua Zarca dam on her facebook page:
development cannot trample over human lives, development should be to better the lives of living beings, not to kill life. The western world cannot impose its vision of development, because these are our territories, our bodies, our lives and our vision of development should prevail because it secures the existence of mother earth and that of humanity
it cannot be capitalist
Our vision of development is a vision of harmony, equilibrium and respect [with and,] for all living things. (Original post in Spanish)