An Honduran court condemned the former head of a hydroelectric company of ordering the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres. The high court in Tegucigalpa found Roberto David Castillo, a US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer, guilty of being co-collaborator ordering the Goldman environmental prize winner's assassination. Cáceres was killed in 2016, after years of threats linked to her opposition of the Agua Zarca dam owned by the company headed by Castillo.
Yesterday's ruling states that Cáceres was murdered for leading the campaign to stop construction of the dam, which led to delays and financial losses for Desarrollos Energeticos, or Desa. Indiginous Lenca activists had said the project would cause major disruptions to their water and food supply and that the builders did not consult the area’s Indigenous groups.
Cáceres' family celebrated the ruling as a "people's victory,'' though they emphasized it does not mark the end of a search to identify and convict the intellectual authors of the killing. "It means that the criminal power structures failed to corrupt the justice system,” said the Indigenous rights group founded by Cáceres, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) Seven other men have already been convicted and sentenced for playing a role in the assasination.
(Guardian, EFE, Al Jazeera, Reuters)
Much of the trial was spent presenting evidence of how Castillo coordinated a long campaign of vigilance, harassment, and threats against Berta Cáceres in her capacity as general coordinator of COPINH, after she started accompanying the Indigenous Lenca communities in resistance to the implementation of the hydroelectric project in 2013, reports Nacla.
Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for activists: 20 human rights defenders were killed last year.
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Engel List
The so-called Engel List -- a U.S. State Department list that names individuals the U.S. government accuses of corruption, obstructing justice, or undermining democracy -- was released last week. It includes Central American presidential aides, top judges and former presidents. (Reuters)
The list is “a damning portrait of the political elite in northern Central America, at a time when backsliding in the fight against corruption, impunity, and attacks against democratic institutions from the region’s legislatures and executive branches are rousing constant condemnations from civil society, multilateral organizations, and the international community,” write El Faro’s José Luis Sanz and Nelson Rauda. (See El Faro's English newsletter.)
Seven current and former top Salvadoran officials appeared on the list, including President Nayib Bukele's Labor Minister Rolando Castro, Cabinet Chief Carolina Recinos, and former Justice and Security Minister Rogelio Rivas. More than a dozen Honduran lawmakers and two senior Guatemalan judges were also named, including recently appointed Constitutional Court judge Nester Vasquez.
InSight Crime criticized "the lack of clear criteria for those placed on the list," which "may undermine efforts to create a coherent strategy for rooting out high-level graft in Central America." While several current Salvadoran officials were on the list, Guatemala's executive entourage emerged relatively unscathed, and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández -- repeatedly accused in U.S. courts of participating in international drug trafficking -- also remained off the list.
In Guatemala, the Engel List “sends a strong message to the justice sector” in sanctioning judges and legislators involved in the “cooptation of justice,” prominent human rights advocate Helen Mack told El Faro.
News Briefs
Brazil
- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of being involved in a scheme to skim salaries of his aides while a federal deputy. UOL citing supposed audio recordings of Bolsonaro’s former sister-in-law explaining his role in the alleged racket. Known locally as rachadinha, the scheme involves hiring close associates as employees and then receiving a cut of their public salaries back from them. The report suggests Bolsonaro engaged in the practice during the three decades he served in Brazil's lower chamber of Congress. (Al Jazeera, Reuters, Guardian)
- Mounting allegations of presidential wrongdoing have pushed a Congressional inquiry into the Bolsonaro administration's handling of the pandemic from political theater to a real threat to the president's continuity, reports the Washington Post. (See yesterday's post.)
Chile
- Chile’s Constituent Assembly kicked off Sunday marked by the problems, tensions – and hopes – that have pushed the country towards a new charter. (See yesterday's post.) The inauguration was delayed when security forces clashed with protesters outside, prompting demands by delegates for "repressive" special forces police to be withdrawn. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
- There have been growing calls to recognize Chile’s Indigenous tribes within the constitution, and some analysts say the new charter could even make Chile a plurinational state with degrees of autonomy. LaBot Constituyente explores the possibilities, as well as the legal nitty gritty of how the convention will move forward now that it has a president.
- It is the first constitutional convention with gender parity, and many delegates hope to shift Chile -- where the constitution does not currently grant gender equality -- in a more feminist direction. El País launched a bimonthly analysis of the constitutional rewrite by women from the region: Chile por Ellas.
El Salvador
- Even as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele attracts increasing international criticism for playing loose and fast with democratic norms, citizens at home are more wooed by his pragmatic populist responses to violence and poverty, reports the Associated Press.
- The attorney general’s office in El Salvador has seized some assets from Arena, the main conservative opposition party, in what it said was an attempt to recover funds embezzled from a donation from Taiwan between 2003 and 2004. (Al Jazeera)
Mexico
- Wealthy Mexicans wrongly believe that class resentment fuels support for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador -- in fact, his voters are driven more by a (somewhat misguided) perception that things are improving, writes Viri Rios in New York Times Español.
Regional
- Covid-19 educational shutdowns are causing a generational crisis in Latin America, where schools have been shuttered for longer than elsewhere, and the technological gap makes virtual classes impossible in many homes. (Wall Street Journal)
Colombia
- After three decades of living in the shadows, Guillermo Acevedo has been caught. InSight Crime co-director, Jeremy McDermott, who led the investigation that uncovered the true identity of "Memo Fantasma," reveals how it came together.
Costa Rica
- The Rincón de la Vieja volcano in northwest Costa Rica erupted yesterday. The enormous column of smoke it spewed into the air in what could be its biggest outburst in years, reports AFP.
- The Brooklyn Museum returned a collection of 1,305 artifacts to Costa Rica -- a move that has left local archaeologists in awe, reports Reuters.
Did I miss something, get something wrong, or do you have a different take? Let me know ... Latin America Daily Briefing
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