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The Honduran state criminalized my daughter using supposed institutionality to level proceedings against her, because she played a role as a defender of natural common goods and the rights of Indigenous and Black peoples of Honduras.”
-Austra Bertha Flores Lopez, mother of Berta Cáceres
Dear ,
This month as we lift up the honor the mothers and caretakers in our lives, join us standing with mother and community leader Austra Bertha Flores Lopez, in her fight for justice for her daughter Berta Cáceres.
Berta Cáceres, a Lenca woman, grew up during the violence that swept through Central America in the 1980s. Her mother, Austra Bertha Flores Lopez, was a midwife and social activist, who took in and cared for refugees from El Salvador, teaching her young children the value of standing up for disenfranchised people. Berta followed in her mother’s footsteps and became one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras. Over 20 years ago, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH, a grassroots organization of workers, women, Indigenous people and campesinos. Cáceres led the successful campaign that defeated one of Central America's biggest hydropower projects, the Agua Zarca cascade of four giant dams in the Gualcarque River basin.
On March 3, 2016, Berta Cáceres's life was taken from her and those who loved her when armed gunmen stormed into her home and shot her.
Berta's mother and her three daughters are calling for an independent investigation into her assassination. While the Honduran government is beginning to feel the mounting pressure and began a series of arrests yesterday, Berta’s family is still being shut out of the investigation process. Our support is needed now more than ever to keep the pressure on.
Our movements in the US have an important role to play in holding the US accountable for ongoing support of the military regime that took power in the 2009 coup that led to this wave of violent repression against popular movements. The US State Department is still supporting the Honduran government, which has impeded the investigation into Berta’s murder.
Join the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and the World March of Women, US Chapter in calling on the State Department stop aid and training to the Honduran military and support the family’s call for the independent investigators led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
We honor Berta's life, her work as a mother, a feminist, an environmental activist, a human rights defender, an Indigenous leader, and her fight for everyone's right to be happy. We honor her mother and her daughters who are vigilant in their demand for justice.
This Mother's Day, we stand with Austra Bertha Flores Lopez and all mothers on the frontlines of the struggle for justice!
¡Berta Cáceres Vive! ¡La Lucha Sigue!
Helena Wong, National Organizer
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, World March of Women US Chapter
PS: In addition to circulating this petition and gathering pressure against the US State Department, we will also be Taking it to the the Streets on Tuesday May 10th, Latin American Mother's Day, in NYC targeting the Honduran government. Corre la voz!
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