- Title: Clashes in Honduras as protesters mark anniversary activist Caceres' murder
- Date: 3rd March 2017
- Summary: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (MARCH 02, 2017) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF LOCAL UNIVERSITY WITH RIOT POLICE AND CLASHING PROTESTERS IN THE BACKGROUND RIOT POLICE OUTSIDE UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE PROTESTERS CHANTING AS THEY HANG OFF ENTRANCE BARS TO UNIVERSITY RIOT POLICE AT PROTEST SCENE GENERAL VIEW OF PROTEST WITH RIOT POLICE AND SMOKE SEEN IN BACKGROUND MASKED PROTESTERS THROWING ROCKS R
- Embargoed: 17th March 2017 02:36
- Keywords: protest violence anniversary death environmentalist Berta Caceres Tegucigalpa Honduras activist police
- Location: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS
- City: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS
- Country: Honduras
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA00166ELZCZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Protesters faced off with riot police in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on Thursday (March 02) after tempers flared during a demonstration to mark the one year anniversary of the murder of environmental activist Berta Caceres.
Berta Caceres, 43, who fought to stop the construction of hydroelectric plants and mines on indigenous territory, was fatally shot in La Esperanza, Honduras, in March 2016, sparking domestic and international outrage.
University student angry at a perceived lack of justice in the case threw rocks at riot police during their protest.
Honduran police have arrested six people in connection with the killing of Caceres, including an employee of a company whose project she helped block, officials reported.
But protesters say authorities have not apprehended those who ordered the murder.
"There needs to be a real investigation of Berta Caceres murder because we do not agree that they are imprisoning the alleged material suspects. Where are those (culprits) who gave the order (to kill Caceres), those who paid to kill Berta Caceres? They are the ones I want to see in jail also. The government knows this, the state knows this perfectly well," said activist, Miriam Miranda.
Last year, U.S. and EU lawmakers accused Honduran authorities of bungling the investigation into Caceres' murder, after court files related to the case were stolen in September.
Speaking out against the investigation, Caceres' daughter, Berta Zunigas, denounced the lack of justice in the case.
"We are here to denounce the lack of justice. They (authorities) want us to feel that the case has been resolved. On the contrary, we are saying that the process is full of irregularities. It won't imprison nor guarantee the sentencing of those people who have been arrested," she declared.
Caceres, who had previously received death threats, won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for her efforts to prevent the construction of a $50 million dam that threatened to displace hundreds of indigenous people.
Despite Caceres' high profile death, land rights activists are still being targeted for assassination in Honduras with two killings last year in the northeastern Aguan Valley alone, an area where more than 150 land campaigners have been killed since 2009, activists reported. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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