In honor of March 8, I want you to read about someone my extremely feminist grandfather would have called a "jineki zor rek u pek", that's (Sorani) Kurdish for 'a very formidable woman': Berta Cáceres from Honduras.
Now without further ado, here's what happened last week:
what happened last week
We remember what happened to Berta Cáceres in Honduras
March 3, 2016 was a pretty tragic day in Honduras: Lenca indigenous leader, feminist and environmental activist Berta Cáceres died.
Why this matters:
Saving our planet from overheating is life-threatening. All over the world, so many people we don't get to hear or learn about, especially Indigenous people, are on the actual frontlines. Many of them risk their lives doing so. Their activism deserves respect and attention.
Tell me more about her:
In one of the world's most dangerous countries for environmental activists, Berta Cáceres rallied the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world's largest dam builder to pull out of the 22-megawatt Agua Zarca Dam, and won the prestigious Goldman Prize for it. She's one of Latin America's most prominent environmental defenders.
Why did she die?
Ultimately, she was killed by Roberto David Castillo, an executive of energy company DESA (and a US-trained former military intelligence officer). In July 2021, he was found guilty of being the mastermind of her murder. By that time, Seven men had already been convicted for her murder and were sentenced to a lot of jail time.
What?!
Yes. Honduras is a very dangerous country for environmental and human rights activists like Cáceres.
Why?
There was a coup in 2009. And since then, things have kind of gone downhill. Think super-mega-projects all over the country that are/were environment-destroyers and indigenous-communities-displacers.
Like the Agua Zarca Dam?
Yes. This specific dam was supposed to be built on the sacred...
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Below you'll find some of the sources used for this issue. Only sources that support "media embedding" are included.
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Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, who led protests against a hydro-electric dam, was killed in 2016.
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A Honduran court finds seven men guilty of killing renowned environmental campaigner Berta Cáceres.
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Listen to Bloomberg's Blood River podcast on Apple Podcasts.
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Honduran indigenous and environmental organizer Berta Cáceres has been assassinated in her home in Honduras. She was one of the leading organizers for indigenous land rights in Honduras. In 1993, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH. For years, the group faced death threats and repression as they stood up to mining and dam projects that threatened to destroy their community. Last year, Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the
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By Beverly Bell I began writing a eulogy for Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores years ago, though she died only last week. Berta was assassinated by Honduran government-backed death squads on March. She was not destined to die of old age. She spoke too much truth to too much power.
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Five years in the making, A People's Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollutionÑas well as on people who are working to make things better. A People's Curriculum for the Earth has the breadth and depth of Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World, one of the most popular books we've published. At a time when it's becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at risk, here is a resource that helps students see what's wrong and imagine solutions.
Each week, What Happened Last Week curates news and perspectives from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The newsletter is written by Sham Jaff and focuses on stories that rarely receive sustained attention in Western media.
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