Berta Cáceres
| Berta Cáceres | |
|---|---|
Cáceres in 2015
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| Born |
Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores 4 March 1971 (or 1972 or 1973; see references) La Esperanza, Honduras |
| Died | 3 March 2016 (aged 44) La Esperanza, Honduras |
| Cause of death | Murder by shooting |
| Nationality | Honduran |
| Occupation | Environmentalist, indigenous rights activists |
| Years active | 1993–2016 |
| Known for | work to defend Lenca people habitat and rights, Río Gualcarque for which she won the Goldman Prize |
| Children | Olivia, Berta, Laura, Salvador |
Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbeɾta isaˈβel ˈkaseɾes ˈfloɾes]; 4 March 1971, 1972, or 1973 – 3 March 2016) (Lenca) was a Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader of her people, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, for "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam" at the Río Gualcarque.
She was assassinated in her home by armed intruders, after years of threats against her life. Twelve environmental activists were killed in Honduras in 2014, according to research by Global Witness, which makes it the most dangerous country in the world, relative to its size, for activists protecting forests and rivers.
Cáceres was born into the Lenca people in La Esperanza (Intibucá), Honduras. She grew up in the 1970s during a time of civil unrest and violence in Central America. Her mother Berta Flores was a role model of humanitarianism: she was a midwife and social activist who took in and cared for refugees from El Salvador.
Cáceres studied education at university and graduated with a teaching qualification. She found in Fr. Ismael Moreno, director of Radio Progreso & ERIC-SJ, a close friend and collaborator.
In 1993, as a student activist, Cáceres co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), an organization to support indigenous people's rights in Honduras. She led campaigns on a wide variety of issues, including protesting illegal logging, plantation owners, and the presence of US military bases on Lenca land. She supported feminism, LGBT rights, as well as wider social and indigenous issues.
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