COPINH
Berta CáceresEnglish

COPINH presents proposals for Justice for Berta and Lenca People to President Xiomara Castro.

COPINH

Press Release 14

AQUI en Español

COPINH met with President Xiomara Castro in the framework of the Mobilization for Justice for Berta and the Lenca people held in the city of Tegucigalpa on June 20 and 21 of this year.

The mobilization aimed to emphasize that Justice for Berta does not end with the conviction of David Castillo, but must continue now more than ever, against the masterminds, the Atala Zablah family. David Castillo, co-author of the murder of Berta Cáceres and employee of the Atala Zablah family was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison.

In the meeting with President Xiomara Castro, COPINH discussed through the members of the General Coordination, Bertha Zúniga and Catalina Hernández, the need to advance in concrete actions to strengthen the process of Justice for Berta Cáceres beyond the necessary symbolic actions and the establishment of measures to guarantee the rights of the Lenca indigenous communities.

COPINH delivered a list of specific and concrete demands centered on three commitments:

  1. The commitment to advance in the process of justice for our colleague Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, National Heroine, as well as for the Lenca community of Río Blanco.
  2. The compromise to take immediate measures for the elimination of territorial conflicts and the reduction of inequality and poverty of the Lenca people organized in COPINH.
  3. The compromise of the State of Honduras to recognize the rights to land, territories and rights of indigenous communities in the realization of regulatory, administrative and legal changes for the comprehensive protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

The President instructed the Secretary of State in the Office of the Presidency, Rodolfo Pastor de María y Campos, as the person in charge of articulating and energizing the inter-institutional table to be created for the realization of the commitments.

Beautiful postcards have been left of the visit of the COPINH communities to the presidential house and the reception of President Xiomara Castro. The Lenca people dressed with dignity the presidential house that was usurped for more than a decade and that should be the home of all the Honduran people.

Given in the city of La Esperanza, Intibucá on the 27th day of the month of June 2022.

“With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica rise our voices full of life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace!”