A Honduran court on Monday (June 20) sentenced the president of a hydroelectric company to 22 and a half years in prison for the 2016 murder of indigenous activist and environmental defender Berta Caceres, who opposed a dam project on the territory of an indigenous community.
The court, ruling unanimously, sentenced Roberto David Castillo Mejia to 22 years and six months in prison
“for his participation in the assassination of environmental defender Berta Isabel Caceres Flores”
, announced the Supreme Court of Honduran justice in a statement.
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David Castillo, an ex-soldier trained at the American military academy at West Point, was executive chairman of the company Desarrollos Energéticos (DESA).
He was found guilty in July 2021 as a “co-author” of the assassination.
Wiretaps, documentary evidence and testimonies have established that David Castillo
"directly participated"
in the assassination, according to the sentence.
The defense has 20 days to appeal the conviction.
Sergio Rodríguez and Douglas Bustillo, senior DESA executives, and ex-soldier Mariano Díaz were sentenced to 30 years in prison as "co-perpetrators" of the assassination.
Hitmen Edilson Duarte, Oscar Torres, Henry Hernández and Elvin Rapalo were sentenced to 50 years in prison.
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Justice has established that Berta Caceres was murdered because she opposed the project of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque river (western Honduras).
The activist was coordinator of the Citizen Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh).
“We are going to prosecute others”
accused, announced to AFP Robero Caceres, brother of the murdered activist.
"It's not easy because they are people with great political and economic power, but we continue the fight by collecting evidence to be able to bring them to justice
," he added.
Berta Caceres was Honduras' most famous environmental defender and had received the Goldman Prize for the Environment a year before her death.
She was murdered on March 3, 2016 in La Esperanza (western Honduras) by hired killers who shot her in her home in the middle of the night.
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