COPINH
Berta CáceresComunicadosEnglish

Daniel Atala Midence, responsible for the murder of Berta Cáceres, must be prosecuted and punished.

COPINH

A week ago, a formal request was made to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for an injunction against Daniel Atala Midence for the crime of murder and illicit association, as part of the intellectual authorship of the murder of Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, General Coordinator and founding member of COPINH.

The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras communicates the following:

  1. There is strong evidence about the participation of Daniel Atala Midence, in the persecution, criminalization and surveillance resulting in the assassination of Berta Cáceres, for which this person should be prosecuted and brought to justice.
  2. For more than four years the Public Prosecutor’s Office, led by Oscar Chinchilla, has had clear and sufficient evidence linking Daniel Atala Midence, a member of the Atala Zablah family, with the authorisation of payments to monitor, pursue, criminalise and prosecute Berta Cáceres, actions which led to her murder.
  3. In October 2018, COPINH, together with Berta Cáceres’ daughters, son and mother, submitted to the office of the General Attorney, Oscar Chinchilla, clear documentation supporting the request for the prosecution and trial of this person and other intellectual authors of the crime.
  4. Daniel Atala Zablah, served as financial manager of the DESA company, and directed, together with David Castillo, the illegal actions with the aim of building the Agua Zarca dam, which resulted in the murder of 6 people including Berta Cáceres. He is the son of José Eduardo Atala Zablah, and nephew of Pedro Atala Zablah and Jacobo Atala Zablah, members of the board of directors of the company, who are responsible for the decisions taken.
  5. The sentence of the process EXP.388acu.414 against the material authors of the murder of Berta Cáceres, textually says: “(…) it caused the planning and mediation of the way to kill Mrs. Cáceres, all with the knowledge and consent of the executives of the company DESA, among them Mr. Sergio Rodríguez and others who are not part of this process.”
  6. The State of Honduras has had more than 4 years to deduce the responsibilities and implement the legal actions to sanction this criminal structure, for which it faces international lawsuit processes by maintaining impunity. 
  7. The lack of justice having evidence is not only impunity but also corruption.

Late justice is not justice!

Justice for Berta!

Given in the city of La Esperanza on May 11, 2020.

“With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica, our voices are raised full of life, justice, dignity, freedom and peace.