2 Police Arrested in Berta Caceres Murder Case in Honduras

By teleSUR

22 November 17

Caceres was a known leader in the fight to protect natural resources and Indigenous communities in the Central American nation.

wo policemen who allegedly tried to cover up and divert the investigation of the murder of Honduran environmental activist Berta Caceres have been arrested, the country's prosecutor's office has announced.

Caceres was an important activist within the Civic Council of Popular Organizations and Honduran Indigenous, known as Copinh.

For over two decades, she worked to protect the lands of the Indigenous Lenca of Honduras and successfully fought Energy Development SA, or DESA, construction plans for a hydroelectric dam. She blocked construction of the dam, Agua Zarca, on the Rio Blanco despite continual death threats and militarization of the area by Honduran forces.

Caceres was murdered on March 3, 2016. Her relatives, citing several in-depth investigations, affirm it was done by the multinational dam company with the support of the Honduran government.

Police officers Juan Carlos Cruz and Miguel Arcangel Rosales are accused of "the crime of adulterating evidence and presenting false evidence to divert the investigation," according to prosecution spokesperson Yuri Mora.

The report claimed both agents altered reports and recordings to protect the murderers and tried to present the murder of Caceres as a robbery or a family dispute.

The prosecutor's office announced that eight people had been arrested for the crime, including the manager of DESA, the company Caceres confronted in the area where the hydroelectric dam was intended to be built.

"The eight arrests were documented with scientific evidence when carrying out the analysis of the weapon with which they supposedly took the life of the environmentalist leader," the official statement said.