Political Quotes

“3 years ago yesterday, Berta Caceres, an indigenous rights activist in Honduras who had been a vocal opponent of the construction of a hydroelectric dam that threatened the territory of the Lenka people, was murdered in her home. That cowardly crime, about which I have spoken many times, was the culmination of years of harassment and threats against her life, and it was by no means an isolated case. At the time, it was only the latest of scores of assassinations of social activists who protested against the confiscation of land, forced evictions, and infrastructure development involving corrupt payoffs to circumvent environmental and social safeguards, and against abuses by Honduran security forces. Nobody has been punished for any of those other, similar, crimes. I did not know Berta Caceres, but I knew of her. I remember when she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. I remember the disgust and outrage I felt when I learned that she had been murdered. I remember thinking that whoever would murder Berta Caceres, a charismatic leader who was recognized not only in her native country but around the world, must have been confident that they would never see the inside of a jail cell, because in Honduras only a small fraction of homicides, not to mention other violent crimes, ever results in conviction. Impunity and the corruption that enables it is a way of life there.…”