Political Economy of Violence: How Development Finance and Corporate Power Enabled the Killing of Berta Cáceres

On the occasion of the presentation of the Final Report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), held on January 12 in Tegucigalpa, ESCR-Net expresses its firm and unwavering solidarity with the family of Berta Cáceres; with the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), a member of the Network; with the Lenca community of Río Blanco; and with Gustavo Castro, community leader and survivor of the attack in which Berta Cáceres was assassinated. We honor her memory and reaffirm our commitment to her struggle and that of her people in defense of life, territory, and collective rights.

We recognize and fully support the sustained legal accompaniment provided by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), also a member of the Network, whose work has been fundamental in advancing the pursuit of truth, comprehensive justice, and reparation, as well as in confronting the structural patterns of impunity that persist in this case. ESCR-Net urges the Honduran State to fully comply with its international human rights obligations, guarantee justice for Berta Cáceres and COPINH, and adopt effective guarantees of non-repetition, including an end to the criminalization and violence against those who defend human rights and territories.

The GIEI Final Report establishes that the assassination of Berta Cáceres was not an isolated act, but rather the result of a deliberately planned and executed criminal operation, embedded within a broader context of structural patriarchal violence, militarization, corruption, and impunity. The investigation confirms that the crime was directly linked to the imposition of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project and to the economic interests of the Atala Zablah family and its corporate network. It identifies the involvement of corporate executives, hired gunmen, members of State security forces, as well as the use of complex financial structures to channel and conceal resources associated with the crime.

As reported by InSight Crime in its article “Report Puts International Banks, Honduras Elites at Center of Berta Cáceres Murder” judicial proceedings stemming from the crime have resulted in the conviction of eight individuals for their direct participation. Among them is Roberto David Castillo Mejía, who served as Chief Executive Officer of Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), the company responsible for the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project and linked to the Atala Zablah business group. The company’s former head of security was also convicted for his role in planning and facilitating the murder. However, the State’s response to the case has been subject to strong criticism due to the lack of substantive progress in investigating and sanctioning those who allegedly acted as the intellectual authors of the crime.

Information incorporated into judicial case files in subsequent years, including the analysis of private communications, revealed coordination between the group that carried out the murder and high levels of DESA’s management structure. These communications involved Roberto David Castillo Mejía; Daniel Atala Midence, the company’s financial director; as well as members of its board of directors, José Eduardo Atala Zablah and Pedro Atala Zablah. To date, Castillo Mejía is the only individual at this hierarchical level who has been convicted.

In response to the release of the report, ESCR-Net has gathered the voices of members and allies who have consistently accompanied the case and continue to critically analyze its advances and ongoing challenges.

As stated by Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT),

the horrific murder of Berta Cáceres in 2016 shocked the world and exposed the failure of the Honduran State to prevent the crime, safeguard her life, and create a safe environment for human rights defenders. The case continues to demand truth, justice, and full accountability, as well as real policy change to protect rights and those who defend them.”

According to Alexis Deswaef, President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), “the conclusions of the GIEI report confirm that this murder was not accidental, but part of a criminal structure involving Honduran authorities. It is essential to continue investigations to fully clarify this grave crime. We urge the new Honduran government to adopt the report’s recommendations aimed at combating impunity and guaranteeing the conditions necessary for the exercise of human rights defense in Honduras.”

The report documents that State authorities had prior knowledge of the plan months before the assassination, failed to adopt preventive measures despite having clear and timely warnings, and subsequently engaged in actions and omissions that obstructed access to justice. These behaviors constitute not only serious violations of the State’s due diligence obligations, but also forms of institutional and gender-based violence, as they disproportionately expose women defenders to extreme risks and normalized attacks against those who challenge corporate and patriarchal power.

The report further establishes that funds originating from international financial institutions, including public development banks such as the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), were systematically diverted and converted into cash to finance illegal surveillance, intimidation, armed operations against the Lenca people, and ultimately, the assassination of Berta Cáceres. The GIEI determined that a cash payment of at least 500,000 lempiras (approximately USD 19,000) was made for Berta’s murder through three checks originating from the embezzlement structure of the Atala Zablah family’s company.

Additionally, the GIEI found that within the Inversiones Las Jacarandas business group, Jacobo Atala and José Eduardo Atala were specifically designated to directly oversee and assume responsibility for the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project and its associated investment. Likewise, Daniel Atala, son of José Eduardo, was tasked with managing the project’s financial operations and the company itself. This direct involvement demonstrates that the Atala family had prior knowledge, operational control, and responsibility over the corporate decisions related to the project that ultimately led to Berta’s assassination.

These findings reveal a grave pattern of corporate, financial, and State complicity and confirm how the corporate capture of public and financial institutions facilitates serious and systematic human rights violations. This case also exemplifies what members of ESCR-Net have described as the Political Economy of Violence (PEV): a structural framework in which corporate interests, political elites, financial institutions, State security forces, and criminal actors converge to impose extractive projects at the expense of collective rights, territory, and the right to life.

This structural reading of violence is echoed in the words of Alfred Lahai Gbabai Brownell Sr., Founding President of Global Climate Legal Defense (CLiDeF) and a Goldman Environmental Prize laureate for Africa, who stresses that the GIEI report exposes “the diversion of funds from international financial institutions and public development banks to support illegal activities such as surveillance, intimidation, armed conflicts, and the assassination of Berta Cáceres.” For Brownell, this case is not only about remembrance, but a clear call to confront entrenched cultures of impunity that continue to enable violence against those who defend land and territory.

Nearly a decade after the crime, he emphasizes that the struggle for land rights, justice, and accountability persists, fueling the resilience of Berta Cáceres’s community and allies worldwide. The pursuit of justice for Berta, he argues, is inseparable from the defense of Indigenous rights and environmental sovereignty, and her legacy continues to inspire collective efforts to build protections for communities confronting extractive mega-projects imposed through violence.

For Sandra Patargo, Protection Coordinator for North America, Central America, and the Caribbean at Front Line Defenders, the case of Berta Cáceres is perhaps the most emblematic and representative of the crisis of violence linked to corporate and State interests against communities and individuals who defend life in the region.

Justice imposed on all those responsible and implicated, comprehensive reparations, and the permanent cancellation of the Agua Zarca Project are non-negotiable. Only through justice for Berta can we imagine justice for the peoples who have been violated and plundered. The organizations that have walked alongside COPINH all these years will continue to do so until justice for Berta is achieved,” Patargo states.

The structural nature of this violence is further underscored by the words of Francisco Morales, from the coordination of the Council of the Maya People (CPO):

“The report confirms the criminal nature of the neoliberal extractivist economic model, which prioritizes corporate interests over the collective rights of peoples and the lives of individuals. This model is imposed in complicity with the State, which, instead of protecting its population, becomes a criminal operator for companies. The murder of our sister Berta could have been prevented, but the State allowed it.”

Nearly a decade after the crime, the structural conditions that made it possible persist: the lack of full recognition and titling of the collective Lenca territory of Río Blanco; the continued validity of the Agua Zarca project concession; the absence of accountability for all intellectual, material, and financial perpetrators; and the lack of comprehensive, collective, and transformative reparations.

Justice for Berta Cáceres is inseparable from justice for Indigenous women, territorial defenders, and communities that continue to face violence for defending life. For this reason, reparations and guarantees of non-repetition must be intersectional and community-centered, addressing not only individual harm but also the collective, gendered, and intergenerational impacts of violence.

ESCR-Net fully supports the findings and recommendations of the GIEI. We urge the State of Honduras to implement them urgently and comprehensively, including by:

• Investigating, prosecuting, and sanctioning all those responsible, including the intellectual, material, and financial authors;
• Revoking all legal instruments that sustain the Agua Zarca project and dissolving DESA;
• Demarcating and titling Indigenous Lenca territory;
• Establishing comprehensive reparations; and
• Adopting effective guarantees of non-repetition, including binding human rights due diligence obligations for companies and financial institutions operating in Honduras.

The legacy of Berta Cáceres lives on in the collective struggle for land, water, dignity, and the self-determination of peoples. We stand with COPINH and the family of Berta Cáceres in demanding truth, justice, comprehensive reparation, and structural transformations.