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We are Indigenous.

We are being persecuted.

We are being murdered.

The funeral of Indigenous leader Zico Guajajara,

who was shot to death on Tuesday

Indigenous peoples have been fig for centuries

to defend their territories.

But with the current economic mo

that has put profit before life,

this violence is constantly being replayed.

Many female comrades have been k many male comrades too.

Above all in Latin America,

in Africa, in Asia...

as we are the countries being su

to extractivism.

To keep plundering us.

Sometimes it can be hard for us

to understand what is going to h to the planet,

fearing it will suddenly end

or we will all die overnight,

everyone at once.

Boom!

That's not going to happen.

What will happen

is that living conditions will deteriorate,

especially for the most vulnerab

Climate collapse is driven, abov all, by

capitalism. The only obstacle fo the oligarchs

and corporations that are destro the Earth

are the courageous environmental activists.

In many countries, we have seen these

brave activists, the local defen of

the ecosystem and the land, have been

murdered in cold blood by the fo of capital.

Has anyone suggested, comrades,

that the struggle of impoverished peoples,

of Indigenous peoples, has been easy?

Do you know how many years we Indigenous have had to fight?

520 years...

since the Spanish invasion.

70 million Indigenous people hav wiped out on this continent.

Comrades,

colonialism is still going stron

That's why this fight is so hard for Indigenous people.

But we do have power, comrades,

and that is why we are still her

That's one thing my mum had:

a holistic approach.

She didn't look at things in iso

like this is my struggle and it's the only one that exist

Instead, she saw that we are all interconnected,

so injustices suffered by some

will ultimately be suffered by a

It is not a crime to defend

our own rights as Indigenous peo

1993 saw the establishment of CO

the Honduran Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organi

It was set up to defend the environment,

to defend Lenca culture, and to defend women.

This river is important ancestra

spiritually, because it is home

to the female spirit of the Lenca cosmovision.

We have always been taught

that girls are the guardians of the rivers.

And the Gualcarque River

provides food

and medicinal plants,

and, of course, all this water i

by many people living downstream

My mother was therefore very cle

about the direction COPINH had t

Fighting for the political parti of women,

of Indigenous people,

talking about the economic model

talking about racial discriminat

as a product of all that persecu

violence and criminalisation to which the community was subje

Let us not be naïve in the face of such power.

She fought imperialism too,

fought against the idea of Hondu

as a mere extension of the United States,

where they can come and use us as a laboratory.

Provisional results suggest Hond opposition leader has won electi

Liberal Zelaya declared Presiden of Honduras

We are determined to fight to the bitter end

to defend democracy and human ri

Here in Honduras,

between 2006 and 2009,

there was an attempt by the gove led by Manuel Zelaya Rosales

to ensure that decisions could b

not only by business leaders or politicians,

or based on US government policy

but that instead there would be a diversification.

So they opened up to Brazil, to Venezuela, to Cuba...

But that didn't mean a complete with the elites.

There was a shared sense of joy.

People were keen to get on board

believing this would change Hond for the better

by recognising the rights of wom Indigenous people, the rural sec

and land issues, which remain very acute in our country.

Coup in Honduras: military ousts

Honduran leader forced into exil

The coup d'état had various poli and military dynamics

that conspired, both in Honduras and internation

to cut off any kind of public administration

that might pose even the slighte to those interests,

which had been consolidated in H over many years.

Honduras has always occupied

a strategic geopolitical positio

It borders Guatemala, El Salvado and Nicaragua.

It borders the Caribbean Sea.

It is linked to the Pacific Ocea

So it cannot be placed in jeopar

So the US government, in cohorts with the military

and the Honduran and Central American oligarchies

came up with a strategy of permanent counterinsurgency.

That was my first contact

with state repression, with the security forces,

and it was a very painful experi

given the country's dreams.

Berta Cáceres led the fightback

against the coup,

not from an elite position,

but from the trenches.

It was a fight that brought to l

all the contradictions inherent in the Honduran State

regarding the rights of Indigenous communities.

Berta's ability to connect with these communities

enabled her to awaken

the Lenca communities' rebelliou

The U.S. has had a devastating influence on Honduras and Centra

America in general.

US government policies are desig according

to the demands of US companies t exploit those countries.

Companies give orders and the government obeys.

The Water Forest is a relatively small area

that collects three-quarters of the water consumed by Mexico

It is also an area that is rich in biodiversity,

despite its limited size.

Two per cent of the world's biod

is thought to be in this zone.

The struggle in which we have long been engag

to defend the land of the Tlahui

to defend the forest...

all of this represents life for future generations.

Without forests there is no wate Without water there is no life.

My dad, Ildefonso Zamora Baldome was named 'defender of the fores

because he was always defending the disputed land

of San Juan Atzingo,

where he was the commissioner of community farmland.

Later on, he protected the wellb of the forest

by fighting illegal logging.

We need to set up programmes

related to the forest,

and to create jobs,

so those criminals have no more

They do not log out of necessity they do it to line their pockets

Ildefonso Zamora, threatened for defending Mexico's forests

The Water Forest is primarily th by urban growth,

which forces farming into the fo

and by illegal logging.

So the Zempoala lagoon, San Juan Atzingo and Ildefonso

became emblems

of logging as a threat to the forests in this region.

But this was also a positive cas

of a community coming together to defend its forests.

This is a place

of special significance

to me and my family.

It is a forest that we created ourselves.

Nineteen years ago,

my father decided

that he, my brother and I would plant trees here.

Fortunately, a large part of this Water Forest

lies within Tlahuica territory,

within the territory that we have watched over and pr

It is a source of great pride

to be able to play a part in ensuring that future generati

have a healthy habitat to enjoy.

I met Ildefonso

when I was part of Greenpeace Me

Some researchers at UNAM univers

put us in touch with Ildefonso

as a positive example of a commu trying to protect its forests.

Sadly,

the work undertaken by Ildefonso and the community of San Juan At

was not well supported.

They were basically left to defend their forest alone.

We have given names, addresses,

videos, photographs,

coordinates, site locations... The evidence is there.

As I have always said, the last two municipal administr

allowed these loggers to gain st

by failing to take any action to stop them.

So this criminal gang grew.

The Amazon rainforest is an essential regulator of the plane

climate.

It contains immense amounts of carbon.

If the rainforest is destroyed a burned,

the carbon is converted into car dioxide.

So, instead of preventing warmin the rainforest

releases carbon dioxide and accelerates it.

At the same time, the Amazon is fundamental to the

Earth's water balance. It produc large amounts of

water vapor, which helps regulat global

circulation systems and rainfall patterns.

If you destroy the Amazon, you destroy much of what

allows humans to survive on this planet.

Some ten years ago,

the Araribóia Indigenous Territo considered lost.

Loggers at work, environmental crimes being commi

And the government was doing not to protect this territory.

It was considered lost land.

The Brazilian State never respon to our complaints at the time,

even though we had a long list o committed within the Territory.

This is why we decided

to create the Guardians group within the Territory,

to provide a form of protection,

because my people were dying.

And they had a huge impact

on the issue of invasion and log

in the Araribóia Indigenous Terr

The Guardians of the Forest are a group of...

Indigenous Guajajara

who risk their own lives to defend Araribóia land.

That's why they were set up:

because adequate protection was not being offered by the sta

even though the defence of this territory is enshrined i

So they took matters into their own hands.

If we don't take care of our lan

it will disappear.

And if it disappears, where will

the materials to build our house

What will we do without our fore

What will we do without our hous

During Jair Bolsonaro's four yea in office,

he dismantled the environmental agencies,

he slashed the budgets

of environmental-protection bodi

and those protecting Indigenous peoples.

He also had a discourse

that openly supported the invade

This had a very big impact. Huge

Just imagine a country's highest authority

saying: 'No problem, go ahead, you can invade Indigenous land,

there will be no sanction.'

Bolsonaro said: "Sure, go ahead.

It's yours. It's a good thing. W want to destroy the Amazon."

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon a record high in Bolsonaro's las

Bolsonaro's environmental legacy Amazon deforestation at 15-year

That government was anti-environ

anti-Amazon.

He always spoke out in favour of

and in favour of these illegal economic activi

stressing Amazonia needed to dev

But this is a very outdated view of development,

which dates back to the time of Brazil's military dictatorshi

The military government treated Amazonia like a 'green h

like an empty space to be popula

Amazonia was seen, back then,

as a territory to be conquered

and tamed.

There was no consideration whats

for the people who were living t

So the aim of that project was

to bulldoze over those people

and bring so-called progress to Amazonia.

This is the view

that prevailed at that time

and, sadly, the view that prevails to this day

in the minds of those who were often trained

by the military government, or who are in the military.

So it's no wonder

that former President Jair Bolso holds the views he does,

since he is ex-military himself.

800 million trees cut down in si years to meet the demand for bee

The multinationals that industrialized the Amazon rainfo

Resources are running out.

We are reaching a critical point

in terms of climate change, drought, the pollution of our ri

the wiping out of our forested l

The most destructive companies i existence are those in oil, coal

and gas.

And the livestock companies.

It is clear that the big corpora do not act alone.

To survive, the big corporations and the capitalist model

need submissive states,

they need complicit states,

ones that see growth and accumul as the only viable process.

Big capital will never be satisf with small projects.

It's the malady of the megaproje

A small hotel will not suffice.

We're talking a 500-room hotel,

which requires a golf course,

not to mention more water

than a residential urban area.

The forest gets in the way.

You have to remove all kinds of

so that the agricultural machine or the hotel complex

or the mine can be installed.

The Lenca territory has a wealth of rivers,

and this has attracted the atten of many companies

that wish to exploit it for power generation.

This is where the hydroelectric Agua Zarca comes in,

owned by a company called DESA.

People found out about it when signs went up

demarcating the limits

of the 'company property'.

In reality, this whole zone belo to the community.

It forms part of a series of power-generation projects

rolled out in the context of the

They were signed off by the National Congress,

which had strong ties to the cou

The people went to COPINH

to ask for help.

That's when my mother's struggle

From the outset, this was in vio of Convention 169

and its cited duty to respect th of Indigenous peoples.

The licence was granted

without a free, prior and inform consultation process.

According to ILO Convention 169,

any kind of investment

in a rural area

is subject to prior and informed consultation.

This did not happen in Honduras.

That's no coincidence, is it?

After the coup, many members of the military began to engage

*in businesses like this one: power generation.

The coup d'état served to radica

the model that has been establis in Honduras for many decades,

namely that of hoarding...

Land, water,

the rivers, the mines, the forests...

Bringing together national entre

and international ones, foreign capital.

As soon as the company got here,

they started off on an aggressiv

wanting to force Río Blanco to accept the project, no matter

The community was not consulted about the project.

There was no prior, informed consultation.

They just forced their way in and imposed their will.

We saw nothing of profits or development plans, nothing.

Only what they wanted to generat

They deceived the people,

intimidated them,

used violence,

and paid out bribes to divide communities.

That is what we saw in the commu

As we began the Río Blanco battl

I waded into the river.

I could talk to the river, I could sense what it was tellin

and I knew how hard this was going to be.

The only thing the people could

to stop the hydroelectric projec to block the road.

On 1 April 2013, they took the o

to block the machinery's passage

The oak is on the way

to the Gualcarque River,

well, on one of the access route

It is where DESA built a road on which to move

all the equipment and pipes...

everything needed for the dam pr

The taking of the oak

is looked back on as a very important action

not only in defence of the right of Río Blanco,

but those of the Lenca too.

Before the dam, our communities were so healthy

that there was no violence.

We had no reason to believe the dam would be good for us.

The press played a role in cleaning up DESA's image.

The mainstream media

claimed that the violence stemme from COPINH,

that the protests were part of t

and that the company was simply defending its interests...

entirely within the law.

But we saw the financial backers pulling out

and the construction company pulling out,

which temporarily paralysed the

This was a very serious blow to the company.

Hence my mother was nominated for the Goldman Prize,

for defending the Gualcarque Riv

I was so nervous.

I was watching her

and I was shaking.

Every step she took, I was afraid she was going to fa

What if she messed up?

But I was so proud of her...

The Gualcarque River called to u

as do all the others that are at serious risk around the world

We must answer their call.

I saw how moved she was in that

I don't know if you can see it in the video,

but when she speaks of Río Blanc and COPINH,

her voice wavers.

And my mum always kept it togeth

I dedicate this award to all reb

to my mother,

to the Lenca people,

to Río Blanco,

to COPINH,

to all those who sacrifice thems in defence of our natural resour

Many thanks.

It was strange, I was filled wit

but also with sadness. It was...

I didn't know what was wrong wit

It was like I knew that prize was going to get her

When we decided to defend our te

at the beginning,

we would go to FUNAI to complain

about the invasion of loggers,

poachers, or whatever.

But they told us that our territory could not be

that it was already completely l

At first, there were six Guardia per region.

Then we expanded to 17.

Now, there are 85 Guardians of the Forest,

doing this work, monitoring the Territory,

expelling poachers and loggers from the land.

We map all the entry points

with coordinates, and photos or videos

that identify the people involve

And we also take

all this information to the Brazilian State.

To FUNAI, the federal police, the Public Prosecutor and IBAMA.

We've been working to log inform about environmental crimes.

In Brazil, people identify as Indigenous,

and this is a relatively recent

by self-declaration.

So, Indigenous identity must be respected.

The Guajajara people do have con with the outside world,

but this is due

to the colonisation that took place there,

which forced them into this cont

Yet the isolated Awá live within the Araribóia Indigenous Territo

They know of the existence of the outside world,

but want nothing to do with it.

They are considered the most thr Indigenous people on the planet.

We call them the original people the free people.

Not us. We're already prisoners, dominated by the state.

We've learnt to eat sugar,

white people's things like that.

We're dominated. Enslaved, you could say.

Not them. The Awá are free, totally free.

If we hadn't pulled together to fight this for the Awá,

I think it would be over already

The Brazilian State discriminate against our collective work.

We're not outlaws,

we're not a militia,

we're family people.

I have a house, I have a name,

I have identity papers.

I don't see myself as an outlaw.

We just ask for our lives to be respected,

and the lives of future generati

Several studies have shown

that Indigenous people on Indigenous land,

or communities in other protected territories,

are the best defenders of the fo

And if you look at satellite ima you can see this contrast:

where there is Indigenous land, it's really green.

The surrounding area? Deforested

The Araribóia Indigenous Territo

is a striking example. It's a green island

in the middle of a sea of defore

We urgently need to clear all the dead wood left by the lo

Not only can we not reforest the

because of all the wood that's lying around,

but it could also cause an unstoppable fire.

They come in, destroy and leave: with impunity in Mexico's Water

When he was appointed by the community

as head of community farmland,

the Water Forest was facing a big threat:

illegal logging.

There is a lot of irregular logg

The smallholders, collective lan

leaders, peasants and Indigenous, like Ildefonso,

opposed the loggers' powerful in by denouncing the logging.

These loggers, who have always acted illegally,

but who used to do it in a pretty unsophisticated way,

are now part of criminal chains

that are more sophisticated, more dangerous and more violent.

These loggers are always heavily

People are going to discover thi and need to discover it.

We are being threatened, but we accept God's will.

It is our destiny.

Illegal logging is another activ

that is often linked to organise

It can only happen if local auth and police turn a blind eye.

They allow trucks loaded with illegal timber to pass.

Even authorities at a higher lev

We are always checked rigorously in our vehicles,

but the loggers...

they drive around in their cars free of checks.

Trucks come by loaded with timbe and they look the other way,

letting them pass.

On one occasion,

there was a mass rally

to denounce this activity.

To put pressure on the governmen

to pay attention

to such crimes in this area.

I remember that one of the peopl who helped my father spread the

was the journalist Leonardo Ferr

They called me and said:

'Hey, we're going to set up a bi with blankets,

which will be visible from a helicopter.

And this SOS

will be placed in one of the Sta of Mexico's most logged regions.

He asked me if I wanted to cover I did.

Then, with the help of the commu they took us to this area

and we put up a giant sign.

I can't recall its exact size, but it was huge.

When we arrived with my camera c to film the event,

an old van pulled up.

And driving that blue van with its peeling paint

was a community farmer.

He got out and introduced himsel as Ildefonso Zamora,

president of San Juan Atzingo's association of community farmers

Ildefonso had recently

complained to the federal author

about indiscriminate logging.

They are still at work,

transporting their haul by night to Morelos.

They are making a mockery of us.

They may not be bringing out 10 or 12 trucks a day,

but they're still bringing out six, four, two...

They are logging from 1am until

We did a lot of flyovers with th

to show them the dire state of the forest.

Ildefonso accompanied us on many of these flights

to explain the situation to the

While we were working with them,

the huts they had built were burned down.

And there were strong confrontat

between loggers and members of the community,

involving insults and weapons

that they would brandish to thre

It was a very, very difficult si

At the end of 2015,

it became clear that the company

was going to press ahead with building the dam.

That it had no intention of stop

In came the banks: the Dutch FMO, the Finnish Finnf

CABEI, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration...

In came Voith Hydro, a German co

to enable the roll-out of this p

that violated the rights of the Lenca people.

My mum realised

that these so-called counterinsurgency strategies

were being employed in Río Blanc

in an attempt to divide the comm

to sow the seeds of terror,

and to paralyse the community's struggle.

The community of Río Blanco sits on the right bank of the river.

They said it would no longer be as they had moved to the other s

The community's response? 'Yes, but it's still the same ri

Under Berta Cáceres' leadership,

COPINH and Río Blanco

were going to stop the Agua Zarca project again,

stop the construction again.

From that moment,

David Castillo, the company's MD

began to conspire

with Douglas Bustillo, the company's former head of sec

to assassinate Berta Cáceres.

As we understand it, that was when the decision was taken to k

The most dangerous thing in Hond

something very real,

which even I can say I feel,

is the risk of losing your life.

Of being physically or emotional

In addition to a huge media camp directed against us.

Because being a female leader is the same as being a male leader.

The state, which is supposed to

doubly fails to protect.

First, it fails to protect the Territory,

hence all the mining, logging and environmental damage

affecting people's lives.

Then it forces people

to stand up and defend their hom

and be killed for it.

In the case of Berta,

they ticked, in my opinion, all the boxes

of the counterinsurgency plan methodology.

They start by ignoring,

trying to ignore,

those who oppose the extractive

When they don't manage to ignore

maybe because they have some pow some weight,

they attempt

to bribe that person or those gr

with money, or privileges,

or jobs, and so on.

And when this doesn't work, they move on to a third stage,

the stigmatisation

of the person or groups in quest

Saying that they are unruly,

they are anti-development,

they have hidden interests,

they are communists.

When that doesn't succeed, they move on to a fourth step,

which is to criminalise the indi

Berta Cáceres was even imprisone in 2013.

And when they don't get anywhere

with silence, or bribery, or stigmatisation, or criminalis

they proceed to the final step,

which is...

physical elimination.

The most difficult moments of my

have involved losing a comrade-i

When we lost Paulo Paulino.

Paulo Paulino Guajajara was a Guardian of the Forest,

a brave guardian

who was murdered in November 201

I interviewed Paulo

in late January, early February

In that interview, he opened his

telling me how alone they felt.

And then he told me

he was being threatened and persecuted.

There's a white man in the villa

who has sworn to kill me.

It's not even been a month

since he came after me to kill m

as I was defending the forest.

Every time I talk about Paulo,

it affects me.

I feel...

I feel a sense of longing.

I try to keep it together, but it's hard.

It's been around five years now,

and I think it's getting harder. It never goes away.

He walked me through the crime,

telling me that he and Paulo had to go hunting,

because as Indigenous people, they can do this,

hunting for subsistence.

So off they went

to a really remote location, close to where the Awá people li

He said they didn't catch anythi on the first night.

They slept there,

and they even heard the Awá...

singing, whistling, and so on.

And then the next day,

they spotted these motorbikes,

there, in a really inaccessible

They knew those bikes were not from their people.

There were a lot of them. Five, I think.

The idea was to grab the motorbi

and take them to the police, or FUNAI, to report them.

Because the only people who can enter Indigenous territo

are those authorised by the Indigenous people

or by FUNAI, the National Founda for Indigenous Peoples.

We hardly spoke to them.

I said that we were surrounded by Guardians.

But I was bluffing. It was just the two of us.

They said they also surrounded u

When I went to look behind a shr to check if a poacher was coming

I saw him take aim with his rifl and pull the trigger.

That's when it really kicked off

I felt the impact.

Here...

I had a gun with me too.

That gun was my salvation.

I shot in their direction.

They retreated, but kept sending back at us...

at me.

So many shots...

When I looked to one side,

thinking that Paulo was right th with me,

I saw that he was already down.

I don't think he'd even had time to get a single shot in.

I pulled him in close to me, despite my injury.

No idea how I found the strength

I managed to drag him over to me behind the tree.

I kept looking at him, and shaki

Then I noticed his colour had ch

He looked different.

He wasn't breathing, he wasn't responsive.

And I thought: 'They've killed my friend.'

I was getting weaker too.

I was losing a lot of blood.

He was thinking:

'I need to get to the village,

I need to tell my people

that they've killed Paulo.

And we need to come back here to get his body.

Otherwise, they'll take him away

I managed to escape.

I collapsed a few times on the r so weak and thirsty.

It was a real struggle to get up

And always looking over my shoul to check the gunmen weren't...

coming to finish me off.

But, thank God, I made it back to my village.

Paulo's father, José Maria, was who went to identify the body.

He spoke to me about the pain he

It was seven in the evening.

I was already in bed

when my son-in-law came to tell

that Paulo had been killed.

He'd been shot...

near his ear.

Once here,

and they'd also shot him here, right through him.

I was in a panic.

I had to get there.

So I called the police

and we got there at five in the

I saw my son lying there.

And I realised...

They'd shot him here,

they'd really messed him up.

AND...

His head was in such a state.

We're painting our faces because we're getting ready for

We're going after the loggers.

We're painting ourselves a bit like jaguars.

The spirit of the jaguar.

He gave his life for the forest,

he gave his life for the land,

he gave his life for the water,

and he gave his life for us.

We consider Paulino the symbol of our struggle

over the last few years,

when we've been fighting this battle together.

I'm quite emotional.

I miss my son so much.

I really miss him.

His mother does too.

It was a Tuesday. 15 May 2007.

A normal day, like any other.

We'd gone into the forest to make firebreaks.

We were on our way home,

but before we got there,

we were ambushed by a group of l

We were chatting, I was joking with my brother, la

when suddenly a vehicle cut in front of us,

blocking our path.

They got out, slashed our tyres,

and forced us to get out.

I thought they just wanted to scare us,

to spook us, you know.

Or maybe to use us to send a message to my father.

So we got out, and within seconds,

my brother and I had been shot a

Unfortunately, he was not as lucky as I was.

He died.

I was seriously injured.

It was all so quick, so unexpect

Such a cowardly act.

Who would attack two boys like t

I was just a kid. Just 15 years old.

That was a major turning point in my life.

An unexpected twist for my famil

for my father's struggle.

I don't even want to think about

how hard it hit him.

They hadn't come to talk.

They'd come to attack us, to kil

Why?

Well...

Because we were Ildefonso Zamora

and he was denouncing the loggin

It was an intense pain, one that is still with us.

When we buried Aldo, Misael was in hospital.

He was fighting for his life,

as the injuries he'd suffered were very serious.

It's a miracle I'm still here.

When the doctor showed me the X-

so I could see the bullet hole,

so I could see how serious it wa

once I had regained consciousnes after the operations,

he said to me:

'I don't know if you can, but try to smile.'

He showed me on the X-ray.

There was no more than two milli between the hole and my heart.

That's what it came down to.

That's...

the difference between life and

A fine line.

I don't know...

No one was expecting it.

We never imagined they would do such a thing.

But we gave thanks to God

because at least he lived.

This is urgent!

The focus must be on catching the killers.

Sadly, in many of these cases,

what follows an act of aggressio

or, in the worst-case scenario, a murder,

is a story of impunity.

And this sends the message

that violence against environmen is accepted and tolerated.

Only two of the perpetrators were arrested.

The key figures remain at large.

Unfortunately, the actual killer not yet been apprehended.

This is why we continue to demand justice

from the state government and the federal government.

And in spite of this death,

we will fight on.

I met Ildefonso.

'Leonardo,' he said,

'They carried through on their t

They targeted my two sons

because they knew where to hit m

where it would hurt the most.'

I asked if he knew who they were He replied:

'Of course I do. They're the peo we reported to the authorities,

who did absolutely nothing to stop them.'

The murder of Aldo Zamora, Ildefonso's son,

caused a national and internatio scandal.

Finally, we had...

the ear of the President, who was at that time Felipe Cald

Calderón decorated him.

That same year that Aldo was mur

they gave him the Ecological Merit Award.

At that time, this was, I'd say,

the most important honour bestow by the federal government.

The same agencies

that had been ignoring my father for years

were now giving him priority tre

There began to be some operation

by presidential order,

that brought a greater military to that area.

For a while, things seemed to calm down...

There was a lot less illegal log

Illegal logging was halted for m maybe even years.

But then normal service resumed,

and the decision-makers lost interest again.

Therefore...

the local powers got back to bus

with total impunity.

On 2 March, a group of four peop four men,

travelled from the north coast of Honduras

to the city of La Esperanza.

That same day, there was an event here in Utopi

Berta's Mexican comrade, Gustavo was paying her a visit.

She had invited me, so I went.

It was for a workshop that was s to last around three days.

It only lasted one.

They put me up in the 'Healing H

which was run by COPINH. A structure for women.

Berta told me:

'You can't stay here on your own Come to stay at my place tomorro

So we went to her house.

When we got to her place,

we sat outside on the porch

and chatted for a while.

Then she started to seem tired.

I was already in my room

when it all kicked off.

I heard a loud bang

and didn't know what it was.

Berta shouted: 'Who's there?'

Then one of the thugs came in and pointed a gun in my face.

I was...

lying down,

and this guy was about a metre and a half away.

That's when I heard the shots.

Three or four gunshots.

I obviously assumed they'd come for Berta.

At that point, I threw myself to the ground

to try to evade any shots from the hitman.

Then he did this.

And I did this,

a millisecond before he fired.

The bullet just grazed me, wounding my hand and my ear.

The blood spurted out, and he ra

It was like someone had grabbed and made me move,

because it wasn't me.

I've never understood it.

It was like...

like an existential question.

Someone was telling me:

'Gustavo, Berta chose you.

So you'd survive,

and bear witness to everything that happened.'

Just seconds later,

Berta called for me from her roo 'Gustavo, Gustavo!'

I think she was more worried for than herself.

That's when I pulled myself toge and went looking for her.

I found her lying on the floor.

That was really difficult,

really painful, because...

it's like desperation

mixed with great fear

to feel helpless like that, to feel alone,

and to not know what to do.

So I grabbed her and said:

'Bertita, Bertita, stay with me.

But in the end, you realise

the best thing to do is to say goodbye,

because there's nothing else you

Within minutes, she had drawn her last breath.

I went back to my room

to message for help.

There are no words for it.

Only someone who has received ne like that in the middle of the n

could possibly understand how much a mother

suffers from such cruel news.

And the miserable,

horrible way she was murdered...

It was my partner who took the c

He didn't say a word, just passed me the phone.

It was my uncle, Juan.

He said: 'Sweetie, your mother h murdered in her home.'

I said: 'No, it can't be true.

It can't be.'

He said yes and started to cry.

At that moment,

as he was talking, my mind was racing.

I was asking myself what we were going to do.

That was my first thought.

They woke me up and said:

'Hi Laura, we have something to tell you.

There was a break-in at your mum's house.'

'But Mum's OK, right?'

'No, darling,

your mum is dead.'

No.

Impossible. No, no, it can't be true.

How could they kill Berta? How?

I went to the radio station.

This is Radio Progresso...

I had to break the news.

I had to announce it myself.

That Berta Cáceres had been kill

I had to gather my strength to get the words out.

My mum,

she was dead.

And the media treated it like a tabloid story.

Never in my life had I seen

a funeral on the scale of hers.

Indigenous people came from Guat from Mexico, from El Salvador,

from all around the world.

All the Lenca people.

Eramani people from here too, from Intibucá,

and from all over Honduras.

I felt...

supported.

In my heart, she did not die,

she just multiplied.

For me, it was...

one of the most stirring experie of my life.

Berta Cáceres is with us!

Today, tomorrow and forever!

All we had to do was

connect Berta up with all the sp

and all the ancestors in the uni

who go ahead of us to guide us on our way.

They had no longer just killed a

and indignation began to build.

On 20 November, after celebrating the parade

to mark the Mexican Revolution,

my father was in his office

when a platoon of police arrived from the Public Prosecutor's Off

to tell him they had an arrest w and had to take him in.

So he was taken away.

Witnesses say there was hitting and pushing and shoving,

and he was pushed off a staircas

leading up to the first floor.

He was taken, very badly beaten,

to the court of Tenancingo in the State of Mexico,

which is our judicial district.

They claimed he'd burgled a hous

one in his own street, in his own village.

They invented a reason to lock h and they locked him up.

There was ample evidence that Il could not have been involved

in the crime they were accusing

It's the same old story, here in

When they locked him up,

he had a wound on his right thum

For someone with diabetes,

a wound can be very dangerous.

And in prison conditions,

even more so.

The first night,

a young inmate came up to him

where he slept, and gave him some cardboard.

The cell they shared

was for eight people.

There were even days and nights when he had to sleep in the bath

He began to decline, physically.

He was there for months. Nine or ten, I can't be sure.

Behind the scenes, we in the media were lobbying.

We interviewed his family, his l

I will not give up

and I am very thankful for all your support.

God bless you.

Don't forget about me!

It's hard to believe

that this community leader, who has already had a son killed

who has had no justice as the perpetrators are on the r

who received the National Ecological Merit Award in 2007

from the President of Mexico him

is now, years later, behind bars

We went to see him.

When I met him, he was as dignified as ever.

But he was also broken, from being in prison.

I recall him being thinner, gaun

We went to see him with Héctor M from Greenpeace.

Amnesty International was involv

as we had very quickly sought them out to say

a case had clearly been fabricated against him.

#FREEILDEFONSO

He was a prisoner of conscience

and Amnesty came to his defence.

Fortunately,

thanks to human rights organisat such as the Center PRODH,

which provided legal advice,

and the public pressure we exert through other bodies such as Gre

Ildefonso was eventually exonera

My imprisonment was unjust.

The charges were fabricated, inv

I would like to call on the government of the State of M

to listen to me, to tend to my n as a Mexican,

as a citizen of Mexico State,

as a citizen of Ocuilan,

and as a Tlahuica.

I think I deserve to have my constitutional rights respect

to have my human rights respecte

We were so happy to be together

to be reunited as a family in ou

But he did not leave prison with the same strength,

and his diabetes began to worsen

We didn't think it would progres so far or so fast.

He even showed great courage when saying goodbye.

I think he knew that his time had come...

He urged us to stay close as sib

and to take care of our mother.

By the end, he could no longer s

The last thing he asked for was a soft drink.

He really wanted a soft drink.

And some crisps.

My father died waiting for justi

Without exception,

environmental defence takes plac

on the fringes,

in the communities with the greatest biodiversity,

the greatest natural wealth.

The people who live in these are

are facing illegal action by many powers:

economic powers, sometimes governmental powers,

sometimes also the powers of the drug trade.

Many of these crimes and aggress

against defenders have gone unpu

The vast majority.

Very few of them have been inves

There is no truly independent justice system.

The system can be manipulated

for the benefit of a handful of

who enjoy some degree of power

and can get rid of those who oppose its abuse.

After Paulo was murdered,

other Guardians were murdered, other Guajajara were murdered.

Other Indigenous in Brazil too. Yet nothing is done.

This needs to stop.

Many murders aren't even investi

no case even opened.

Or a case is opened, but procedures are not followed.

Why are these crimes not investi

In the case of Indigenous people I can tell you from experience,

having covered this for eight ye

that there's a lot of prejudice out there,

including among the authorities.

I've never seen a white person

who's killed one of us Indigenou go to jail.

Never.

That's why white people can kill

Because there's no justice.

There are no legal consequences for them.

We feel very isolated, unsupport

We really need help.

Because this is our land.

Paulo's case is a landmark case in Brazil,

as it is the first case to go before a federal judge.

Why is this?

Because murder is generally cons

a crime between two individuals.

So it goes to the state courts.

But the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office

argued that Paulo's attack and m

represented an attack against the Guajajara people as

This trial is fantastic.

This is the first time in the Araribóia Indigenous Terr

that a crime of this type will be judged.

It's historic.

And a victory too...

after waiting so long for the white man's law to apply

That's why it's so important

for us to keep covering this cas

and to keep people updated on what's happening,

to ensure the trial takes place in the best possible way.

Not just for Paulo,

but as a signal against impunity

in cases of violence against Indigenous people throughout Bra

Attacks on Indigenous rights in are not only ongoing,

but also quite strong and overt, especially in the National Congr

The Indigenous movement has been bravely resisting them.

What we see is a movement of various business leaders,

who are, of course, right-wing,

backers of the last government,

lobbyists in the National Congre

who want to see these environmental laws relaxed

Here in Brazil, we've even dubbe

this attempt to pass laws and constitutional amendments

as the 'package of destruction'.

There are some 30 or so bills

and draft amendments to the Cons

that attack our environmental po in various ways,

and which are being forcibly pus through the National Congress.

We have another president now, President Lula,

who is trying to repair the dama done before,

ensure more protection.

But it is a challenge

because the legacy remains.

How do we undo that four-year pe of mass impunity?

Our democracy has lived through a very dramatic moment.

Under Bolsonaro,

democracy was at risk on various occasions,

and this culminated,

on 8 January, after President Lula's inaugurat

in the orchestrated attacks

in Brasilia, on Three Powers Squ

Bolsonaro terrorists invade Cong Presidential Palace and Supreme

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporter government buildings in Brasilia

That was the culmination

of something that had been built and nurtured

and which put our democracy at r

Fundamental and important actors took part.

Actors that contributed to Bolsonaro's success:

actors from the Armed Forces,

from fundamentalist religious gr

from agribusiness.

On 8 January, these various acto

apart from trying to stage a cou made it very clear to the new go

that they did not simply wish to turn the page.

Many people, in October 2022,

breathed a big sigh of relief,

as we thought we had won the ele

Now what we say is that was the day

we changed the government, but lost the election.

Brazil lost the election

as the election is taking place in the National Congress.

And the National Congress is now holding Lula hostage,

together with the army.

And...

I can't say we are living in a permanent coup,

but we are living in a permanent

of institutional blackmail.

The first thing the authorities

that it was 'an affair gone wron

These are the words used

by the Security Secretary.

They even detained someone

who had been a former partner of Berta Cáceres.

But, simultaneously, they were t

to link Berta's murder

to people within COPINH.

Many of her COPINH comrades,

including Gustavo Castro,

as he was with her at the moment she was killed,

were being subjected to lengthy interrogations.

They were constantly trying to trip me up

as I was giving them a descripti

of the person I saw.

I told them what he looked like, while they drew someone else.

I'd say: 'That's not right.'

So they would erase a bit

and start drawing again

as if they were doing it differe

But they just did the same again

I kept saying that he didn't look like that,

that his eyes were more like thi

And then I realised they were drawing someone from C

She won that prize, if I'm not m in April 2015,

and less than a year later, she was dead.

So the prize did help to raise awareness,

internationally, of COPINH's, Berta's and Río Blanco's struggl

But it certainly didn't stop the

Clearly they acted in this way because they felt completely pro

They knew they could do whatever they liked,

and none of the authorities, not the justice system

nor the executive or any other state authority,

were going to protect Berta Cáce any more than the private compan

So they stopped investigating DE

the company that had made the most threats.

They kept us out of the investig

they wouldn't tell us anything,

they carried out the investigati behind closed doors.

The family and COPINH

put together a group of five peo

experts in criminal law, experts in human rights investig

and this group managed to delve

It established that there was a much broader criminal structur

than the Public Prosecutor's Off had found,

and that it went all the way to the top,

that is, to David Castillo, and the owners of the company,

members of the Atala Zablah fami

And they also discovered that this criminal structure

was being backed and supported by other actors

within the state,

such as active military personne ministers,

and even the President of the Re

because communications reached that level.

And that's not all.

There was also some level of inv

by international financial insti

without whom this crime could never have been committed.

In late 2019,

four men were sentenced to 50 years in prison

for breaking into the ecologist' and shooting her to death.

A further three men...

Eight people have now been prose

two people linked to DESA:

Sergio Rodríguez, Environmental and Corporate Communications Man

and Douglas Bustillo, Head of Company Security.

Also convicted was

Army Major Mariano Díaz Chávez.

Military officer Henry Hernandez also found guilty,

as were three other assassins.

In a second trial,

they convicted David Castillo,

DESA Managing Director,

as a co-perpetrator of Berta Cáceres' murder.

There is one person who was char in my mum's case

who is on the run.

He belongs to one of the country's richest familie

They own banks, football teams, supermarkets, megastores...

Daniel Atala is on the run.

We keep mentioning Daniel Atala

Jacobo, José Eduardo,

and Pedro Atala Zablah.

They are brothers and majority shareholders.

If the witnesses are to be belie

no decision regarding the dam would have been taken

without their express approval.

For me, half-justice is no justice at all.

I think we should keep investigating, keep fightin

until we get there.

Many years have gone by,

but you know,

people say that delayed justice is not just

But I think it is.

Those who gave the order,

the big owners of DESA,

are enjoying full impunity.

In Berta's case,

for as long as we do not have full justice,

no environmental defender,

no human rights activist,

will be able to live a safe life

Being an environmentalist in Latin America

is a risky business.

It is dangerous because

we have neither the support

nor the security that we deserve

To be an environmentalist

is...

to be exposed at all times

to the risk of a bullet ending your life.

Or of some other attack.

And nothing will happen.

Seventeen years can go by, as in our case,

and it will still remain unpunis

and your family will still be seeking justice.

Berta Cáceres exemplifies courag its purest form.

Fighting against incredibly dangerous and powerful

forces, knowing that she was lik to be killed,

but without taking a step back.

Standing up to them until they killed her. They murdered her.

But his example lives on.

His spirit lives on.

They can't take that away.

They cannot kill his extraordina example,

which continues to inspire peopl this day.

Let us wake up.

Let us wake up, humanity.

Time is running out.

Mother Earth demands that we act

Let us build societies capable of coexisting

in a just, dignified manner, and for life.

Let us come together and move forward with hope,

defending and caring for the blo

of the earth and its spirits.