The International Mission “Justice for Berta Cáceres Flores”, composed of 15 parliamentarians, jurists and representatives of human rights, trade union, and popular organizations and networks from throughout the world, carried out an intense program of activities in Honduras between 17 and 21 March 2016. Responding to the request of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders of Honduras, and of an extensive network of international solidarity in support of the Honduran people, it focused on clarifying the context of the brutal murder of the indigenous Lenca leader Berta Cáceres Flores, the night of March 2, 2016, and pushing for the release of the Mexican social leader, Gustavo Castro, wounded in the murder of Berta and retained unjustly by the authorities of Honduras.
The Mission further sought to verify the context in which the assassination of Berta Cáceres and that of Nelson Noé Garcia, another Lenca leader of COPINH shot to death 12 days after Berta, took place, and to support Honduran popular demands for the cancellation of concessions and projects such as Agua Zarca, a hydroelectric dam against whose construction in Lenca territory – in the absence of prior consultation – Berta had been struggling and COPINH continues to struggle, the demilitarization of indigenous territories, and implementation of a law for the protection of human rights defenders.