Berta Caceres Part 4

WEBVTT
1
00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.960
Hey everyone, This is Carmen and Christina and this is
2
00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:15.160
Estoria Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.
3
00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:19.079
Sometimes it's horrible and deals with heavy topics like racism, corruption,
4
00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.839
and genocide, but more than that, it's also about resistance,
5
00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:27.719
power and community. Yes, we are continuing with Berta Cassides.
6
00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:33.280
This is part four and our last part. Okay, good, Yeah.
7
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:35.840
I almost was like, let's put this into but no,
8
00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:38.200
that was too much. That was too much. So here
9
00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:42.679
we are, here we are. In part three, we talked
10
00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:45.479
about the coup that led to the policies that allowed
11
00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.439
for the Awa Sarga Damn project to begin and then expand,
12
00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.600
as well as details about this and the company behind
13
00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:56.520
the Awa Sarka Damn, who their backers were, and Holberta
14
00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.200
suspected the involvement of international banks, which she was right about,
15
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.079
but she could not find this out. She would not
16
00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:05.359
find this out, I mean before her murder. And so
17
00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:09.239
now we're just going to continue. By twenty thirteen, the
18
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.079
fight against the dam was getting more dangerous for Coping,
19
00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:15.920
Berta Cassides and the Lenka But this was the year
20
00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:20.159
things were turned straight up deadly for them. Specifically the
21
00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:24.040
Rio Blanco community that the river was in on On
22
00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.400
April first, twenty thirteen, the community set up a roadblock
23
00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:31.040
and El Robles to stop the construction of the dam,
24
00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:34.359
a human barricade. They occupied it in twelve of our shifts,
25
00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:38.799
making sure someone was always there, women, children, men, everyone participated.
26
00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:41.560
They had also set up a camp there to make
27
00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.400
sure someone was always there. They cooked over a campfire.
28
00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:49.120
They decorated the campsite with Honduran and coping flags. The
29
00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:53.000
military would come and ransack the site. They would kick
30
00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.799
over pots of food and chase people out, but the
31
00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.319
people kept returning because like, this is their livelihood. Yeah,
32
00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:03.799
what choice that they have. So on top of private
33
00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:07.840
security guards and the police, DESA had the military helping them.
34
00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.759
The soldiers were under the command of Colonel Milton, a
35
00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:17.599
graduate of the School of Americas. That's right, the infamous
36
00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:23.159
School of Americas. These soldiers seemed to be employed by ESSA,
37
00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:26.599
and you would think they were straight up employed by
38
00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:32.039
ESSA and not like National soldiers of the Yeah, so
39
00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:37.240
the relational army national soldiers being used for private private
40
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:40.800
corporation essentially, which is actually what the military is and
41
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:46.520
does regardless. Yeah, when you really get down to it. Yes, yep,
42
00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.639
and they operated out of a Vessa encampment. Damn, it's
43
00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:55.159
just more like explicit, I guess, more obvious here instead
44
00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.879
of like backwards because it was Desa who obviously was
45
00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:02.199
providing their shelter with and camin but also like their food.
46
00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:05.280
This had the full back end of the state, their
47
00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:10.560
own private security and spies within the Nika communities. This
48
00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:13.360
that quickly learned the best spies were the family members
49
00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:16.800
of those who post the damn. Oh, the family members
50
00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.400
of those that were opposing the damn damn. That's shady, yeah,
51
00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.199
family members of Copin and some of them were paid
52
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:26.919
so little. Well, I mean when you're desperate. People like
53
00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:29.479
Sa Sanchez were paid five hundred limpidas a week to
54
00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:33.080
report on Copin and Betta's next moves. And like way
55
00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:35.560
at the end of the book, who killed Berta Gas
56
00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.080
it is she? Nina Lakanie talks with Sara Sanchez specifically
57
00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:44.520
and asks him how much she was paid and he
58
00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.360
told her five hundred lmpiinas and she was like, you
59
00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.039
sold her out for say who was he again though
60
00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:55.280
he is a member of the community, Like, okay, he
61
00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:57.520
was the brother I want to say, the brother of
62
00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:00.400
one of like Copin's like and one of Breda's like. Stress.
63
00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.599
He was also in being damn that's he was being paid. Yeah,
64
00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:07.360
and he she asked him like what he said is
65
00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:09.879
so little? And then he and what she tells him,
66
00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:12.800
you sold her out for so little? And he said,
67
00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:16.639
I didn't know it was going to end like this.
68
00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:18.120
What do you think it was going to happen? And
69
00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:22.959
that's what she told him, like she's taking down journeysts right,
70
00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.680
what did you think was gonna happen? She's like dead.
71
00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:26.160
Now He's like, I didn't think they would killing her.
72
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.879
I feel so terrible. I mean, I get I don't know.
73
00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.759
I guess I could. Of course you wouldn't think that
74
00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:38.399
would happen, but one only has to look around to
75
00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:44.879
know that's the outcome. Yeah. Yeah, it's sad because it happened.
76
00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:49.480
This happened so much in so many movements. Yeah, especially
77
00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:57.439
in environmentalist movements in Central and South America. Yep, oh
78
00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:59.839
period is he was the of course I wrote down
79
00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:01.480
who he was. He was the nephew of the Linka
80
00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:07.600
community leader named Chico Sanchez. And this all this just
81
00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.240
like really shows how they were up against like a
82
00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:18.680
very powerful company. Yeah. On May twenty four, twenty thirteen,
83
00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:21.839
Berta and Tomas Gomez, another high up coping member basically
84
00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:25.439
her right hand man in copin we're driving to Rio
85
00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:28.680
Blanco for a meeting where they stopped at they were
86
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.720
and they were stopped at two military checkpoints. At the
87
00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:34.040
second stop, they were forced out of the vehicle by
88
00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:37.959
fifteen soldiers and these fifteen soldiers began to check the
89
00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:42.800
coping vehicle then called for police backup, who continued the search.
90
00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:47.279
And when the police got there, they claimed to have
91
00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:51.439
found a thirty eight Revolver in the trunk, which wasn't
92
00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:57.920
theirs planning mm hmm. Berta and Tomas were then separated
93
00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:01.920
and placed in two different police cars. Oh and actually
94
00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:05.240
the police when they arrived to the scene they were
95
00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:08.839
in deatha vehicles. They weren't even in police vehicles. Wow.
96
00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:12.079
And then they were taken to a station in Santa Barbara.
97
00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.319
Domas was released at eleven pm that same day. Boberta
98
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:19.639
was placed in a cell and treated as a quote
99
00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.240
highly dangerous individual and she was released the next day,
100
00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:26.959
but under very specific conditions. She had to sign in
101
00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.279
at the court every Friday and told her trial, which
102
00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:33.759
was scheduled for June thirteen, twenty thirteen. When was they
103
00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:40.319
arrested in May a little bit after her release. David Castillo,
104
00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.199
who's come up already, but he's the president of Dessa.
105
00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:47.959
Oh okay, I'm like, and who is this man? He
106
00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.800
called Berta and offered to stall the case so she
107
00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:56.519
could attend her daughter's graduation. Wow. Yeah, And then this
108
00:06:56.680 --> 00:07:00.600
shook her for a couple of reasons. One, why did
109
00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.600
he know about her daughter's graduation? Yeah, that means there
110
00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:08.800
have been surveiling her exactly. And two who did he
111
00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.399
know that gave him the power to stall her case?
112
00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:12.360
Yeah?
113
00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:16.560
Yeah, that's scary for sure. Yeah. And it turns out
114
00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:19.639
that he was seeing he was spotted having lunch with
115
00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:23.000
the judge who was hearing her case. That should not
116
00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:27.959
have been allowed. No, no. And so now Dessa was
117
00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.839
fully criminalizing members with the help of the police and judges,
118
00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:37.680
and the fight against the dam was growing increasingly dangerous.
119
00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.800
Dessa employed a man named Olvin Gustavo Garcia Mahia to
120
00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:47.079
intimidate community members, and that was in his official role.
121
00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:50.040
He had some other role, but his actual role was
122
00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:53.120
to intimidate community members. Like on Pipper, he had like
123
00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:57.360
a different role, but his actual thing was to intimidate exactly.
124
00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:02.920
He was seen in desa company targeting damn opponents, and
125
00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.800
he had no fear of repercussions. He knew he could
126
00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:10.800
get away with basically anything because he could. He walked
127
00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:13.079
around with a nine millimeter gun in his hand and
128
00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:16.439
a macheta in the other. His family have Solderland to
129
00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:21.959
Lessa willingly, and then he convinced and or coerced many
130
00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:25.639
others to do the same thing. People were terrified of him.
131
00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:29.040
He made it known that he had a hit list
132
00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:31.279
of leaders in the community, and he would openly talk
133
00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:35.279
about looking forward to killing Berta. And I'm dripping a
134
00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.600
little bit ahead here. But in twenty fifteen, Olwen chopped
135
00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:42.200
off the fingers of a coping member. Oh my god,
136
00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:47.519
yes and base No nothing percussions for him, Yes, thank you.
137
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:51.679
Also that year, in twenty fifteen, he confronted another coping
138
00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.279
member named Don Gustino in a store and threatened to
139
00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:58.559
shoot him if he didn't tell him about Bertha's plans.
140
00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:02.080
When Don Hustino were used to answer, he fired his
141
00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:05.799
gun twice into the air, but Houstino fled and stayed
142
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.799
away from his house for a few hours after that confentration.
143
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:13.720
When he returned, his house had been set on fire. Luckily,
144
00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.399
nothing happened to Whinny one because his family had already
145
00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.799
fled like they weren't in the house due to all
146
00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:23.240
these threats. But it was never proven, but it was
147
00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:26.559
probably Lvin who set the house on fire. At the
148
00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:30.000
end of that year, December twenty fifteen, Olvin was arrested
149
00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:34.480
for illegal possession of two unlicensed guns, but this I
150
00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:37.399
used its power and money to have the charges dropped.
151
00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:40.840
But in the process of that, it came out that
152
00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:45.039
he was wanted for the twenty fourteen murder of Bernardo Perez,
153
00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:51.879
another coping and community member. Bernardo's son is the one
154
00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.639
who saw Albin and testified against Albin and was the
155
00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:59.600
key witness who saw this murder taking place. Once this
156
00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:03.159
I came involved in this case, those charges were also
157
00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:07.600
dropped because the SUN suddenly changed his testimony. Wow, and
158
00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:11.360
we can guess yeah, they were either paid or forced
159
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:15.600
to change it. All this to really emphasize the type
160
00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:17.600
of things DESA was willing to do to keep this
161
00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:20.320
damn project moving and the power that they had. Yeah,
162
00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:23.080
and the power, yes, and the power that they had.
163
00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:27.000
When the author of who killed Berta Casiz reached out
164
00:10:27.080 --> 00:10:31.039
to Dessa about Orbin, they denied knowing him. But phone
165
00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:34.120
messages unnersed during the trial for Bertha's murder would prove
166
00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:38.600
that was a lie. The phone messages is really what
167
00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:45.799
undid them once. We'll get to that when the trial happens. Okay,
168
00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:49.039
now back to our timeline. Mays Don thirteen, Betta was
169
00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.559
charged with the illegal possession of a firearm and banned
170
00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.320
from leaving the country. A couple months after this, on
171
00:10:54.399 --> 00:11:00.279
July fifteen, thirteen, community members broke into the Vesa compound
172
00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.399
to march and demand a meeting about the dam. Soldiers
173
00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:08.559
fired warning shots into the air, but then Kevin Yase
174
00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:15.960
Sarabia fired into the crowd. A soldier, Domas Garcia, who
175
00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:19.639
had just turned down twenty thousand lampias to switch sides,
176
00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:24.519
was shot dead. His son and two others were injured
177
00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:29.799
in this shooting. Various witnesses saw Kevin Ya Sarabia shoot
178
00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:35.440
into an unarmed crowd without provocation, but this I paid
179
00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:39.200
friendly journalists to publish that it was done in self. Defense. Wow.
180
00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:43.240
Domas was buried in the forest not far from the river,
181
00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:46.679
marked by a white cross the linka. People believed his
182
00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:52.519
spirit will return to mother Earth. Alan Garcia, the son
183
00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:56.159
who was shot during the protest but survived, said quote,
184
00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.320
we were protesting peacefully, so why did they kill my father?
185
00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:01.960
I want the soldiers to face the full weight of
186
00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.559
the law because he didn't kill an animal, he killed
187
00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:09.480
a human being. And many fled the area after this protest,
188
00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:11.960
fearing that the violence would only get worse. So it
189
00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.840
was a success for Essa, but Alan Garcia and the
190
00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:18.639
rest of the siblings refused to give up. Just like Berta,
191
00:12:19.559 --> 00:12:24.000
the river was their livelihood. Alan Garcia told the author
192
00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:27.559
if quote if they take the river, where will we go?
193
00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.399
What will we eat? End quote? When this took place,
194
00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:35.960
Berta was in La Esperanza, which is I think like
195
00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.919
forty minutes away from here. It also happened that as
196
00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:45.399
this was happening, there was another actually a little bit
197
00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.879
after the death of Domas and this protest that you know,
198
00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:52.879
shot were fired. A sixteen year old named Guisian Madrid
199
00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:57.440
had been shot and he died. This happened in El Barrian,
200
00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:01.240
which is past way past, like I think it's like
201
00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:04.960
an hour passed this area, like it's not close to here,
202
00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:10.279
and it's even further away from na Esperanza. So this
203
00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:15.039
sixteen year old Kristian Madrid was shot and killed without
204
00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:20.159
any evidence. Berta was accused by Dessa's security chief Douglas
205
00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:23.840
Giovanni Bustillo, of being the mastermind behind the shooting, which
206
00:13:23.879 --> 00:13:28.320
makes no sense, absolutely none. The Madrid family was a
207
00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.960
big the only area they were rich. They supported the damn.
208
00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:35.600
Many families were convinced, coerced to sell their land to
209
00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:38.399
the Madrids, who then sold it to Dessa to not
210
00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:42.679
even more rich, and they weren't cohods with Dessa, and
211
00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:47.480
then they they rallied behind this claim of Berta Casseris
212
00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:52.519
killing their son, which just was not possible. That accusation
213
00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.720
went nowhere, but that didn't stop Dessa from trying to
214
00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:01.519
find ways to have Bertha arrested instead. Tember of that year, Berta,
215
00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:07.320
along with other COPING members Aureliano Lito Molina and Tomas
216
00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:13.200
Gomez Membreno, were facing charges of usurpation of land, coersion
217
00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:16.799
and causing more than three million in damages to Dessa
218
00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:20.159
because some equipment had been set on fire and damaged.
219
00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:25.039
Messages would later show this was Desa themselves, Oh, just
220
00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:29.919
trying to frame them, Yeah, and there was no proof
221
00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:33.080
it was through them, but they were charged with this.
222
00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:37.360
Berta faced the tension, but the other two were released
223
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.240
on bail but order to sign in at the station
224
00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:45.360
every fifteen days. Litho or Aurelio is his name, but
225
00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:48.279
his name is Litho, who faces charges with her was
226
00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:53.120
apparently her boyfriend, and I think I think he was
227
00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:58.480
ten or twenty years younger than her, Okay, Bertha, Yeah,
228
00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:01.799
and had like, you know, grown up the organization, and
229
00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:06.840
this is what caused the split in COPING and led
230
00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:10.600
to Salvador leaving the organization because they don't remember in
231
00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:14.759
which part I mentioned that he was like Sarlotta is her? Yeah,
232
00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:19.399
sal who founded coping and is the father of her children. Yeah, okay,
233
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.360
so yeah, over this he left the organization. So they
234
00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:25.919
had been they had been split up since two thousand
235
00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.799
and three, but they kept working together for all that time.
236
00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:32.600
Oh but then this happened and he's like nah, Yeah.
237
00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.159
This relationship with Leito was her first public relationship after
238
00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.960
her split up ten years before this and when people
239
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.960
found out they were not happy. It basically split Coping
240
00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:48.639
in two people took sides, including Berta's old mother who
241
00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:55.919
sided with Salvador No. Colberta's mom, yeah, Donya Austra, And
242
00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.399
so now there was two organizations fighting for the same cause.
243
00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:05.519
Did she just band together? They were to all this?
244
00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:10.799
But also, for at least two years before this, Berta
245
00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:15.440
had been pushing for Coping to adopt more feminist practices.
246
00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:20.399
Could that have been another I think so, yeah, fighting
247
00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:23.960
or I can't think of the word motivator for this split.
248
00:16:24.039 --> 00:16:32.240
I guess yeah. During one meeting, she and the other
249
00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:34.759
women refused to do any of the cooking or cleaning,
250
00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:37.919
and the men had to do it, including Sanvalon. Some
251
00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:41.600
were receptive, willing to change their machista ways, but others
252
00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:48.720
were not. Sarvo mentioned to in the book that Litho
253
00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.440
wasn't the only reason he left Coping. He said that
254
00:16:51.480 --> 00:16:54.120
it was changing too much, and that Berta's new feminist
255
00:16:54.120 --> 00:17:02.440
friends were changing her. Okay, still, despite these differences, and
256
00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:05.640
like the drama that they went through with this whole
257
00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:12.920
Letho situation, her last words in twenty sixteen were called Salvador. Wow,
258
00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:19.160
and this is probably like such like the worst time
259
00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:22.599
this could be happening, to lose like both her mom
260
00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:25.240
and Salvadora at the same time, like to lose her
261
00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:28.880
support within Gobineah, because she always described them as like
262
00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:33.920
her closest confidants. And it was becoming at this point
263
00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:36.799
that Desile was using the state to come after her,
264
00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.680
and especially because she was the only one facing detention
265
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.960
for these false charges, and she fled to avoid being detained,
266
00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:48.720
feeling that something worse what happened to her in prison,
267
00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:55.519
And so in September, Thomas and Letho were given bail
268
00:17:55.720 --> 00:18:00.519
and she had been sentenced to jail. So on October tenth, thirteen,
269
00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.359
she went into hiding. And she never spent more than
270
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:06.079
like a few days in the same place during this time.
271
00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.400
You know, even on the run, if I did not
272
00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:11.000
stop for her, she was still trying to find a
273
00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:15.440
way to prove that she was right about the International
274
00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:18.559
banks being involved. In one of the places she was hiding,
275
00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:22.200
a friend's house in Agua Caliente, a design employee had
276
00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:27.680
stopped by to tell her friend to not get involved.
277
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:32.079
That Berta Casserez is a vieja pica, Oh wow, got
278
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:35.440
criminal and she's going to jail for damaging our machinery.
279
00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:37.960
If you hide her here, you'll be in trouble too.
280
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:40.359
And Berta's friend was not a friend. She's like, get
281
00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:41.799
out of here. You have no right to come to
282
00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:44.200
my house and tell me this. But it's scary because
283
00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:45.960
they knew. That means they knew where she was. They
284
00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.079
were following her even though she was hiding. They knew
285
00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:51.920
where she was a month into her hiding. In November
286
00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:57.839
twenty thirteen, Nina Lacani, the author of the book The
287
00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:02.279
Our Main Source Here, went to see Bertha. During this meeting,
288
00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:06.480
Berta told her quote, they're always watching me. When Nina
289
00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:09.680
asked her who, Berta told her the police, the army,
290
00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:13.440
the government. And even when she was there, they saw
291
00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:17.200
cars with tinted windows and no license plates driving by.
292
00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:20.920
And these cars would pass by day and night, no
293
00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:26.079
matter where she was staying. She also received many anonymous
294
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:32.039
threats via phone calls and text messages. She told Nina quote,
295
00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.079
I'm not free to walk alone or to swim in
296
00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:37.880
the sacred Guacarke. I separated from my children. I cannot
297
00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:41.319
live in peace. I'm always thinking about being killed or kidnapped.
298
00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:43.880
I am a human rights defender. I will not give
299
00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:46.680
up the struggle. I love my country. It doesn't have
300
00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:51.519
to be like this. End quote. And then when Nina
301
00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:56.519
left uh from where Bertha was staying, Berta told her
302
00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:59.680
the army has an assassination list of sixteen wanted human
303
00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.720
rights defenders with my name at the top. I want
304
00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:04.839
to live. There are many things I still want to
305
00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:08.359
do in this world. I take precautions, but in the end,
306
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.880
in this country where there is total impunity, I am vulnerable.
307
00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:15.079
When they want to kill me, they will do it.
308
00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:17.599
It wasn't until January of twenty fourteen that the case
309
00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.000
against Berta, Tomas and Lito would be suspended for lack
310
00:20:21.079 --> 00:20:24.559
of evidence, so this was in the tenth of January.
311
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.559
Despite this, less than twenty days after it was suspended,
312
00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:32.960
on the twenty eighth of January, Berta was arrested and
313
00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:38.880
detained for an hour for no reason, just to scare her. Yeah.
314
00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:42.880
In November of twenty fourteen, Berta traveled to Buenos Aires
315
00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:47.079
for an interview during which she spoke about the repression, impunity,
316
00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:50.480
and the danger she and others faced. She also talked
317
00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:54.759
about those who had died for the cause already so far. Sorry,
318
00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:58.880
where did she go? Oh? An interview in Argentina. Okay, yeah,
319
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.200
I did these deaths to a wider scale geopolitically, which
320
00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:09.319
of course includes the US and the DAM. There had
321
00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:13.240
been growing attacks against campesinos in Naiwan, and the DA
322
00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:18.880
committed a massacre in La Mosquitia. Oh, and I added
323
00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:22.519
it to our topic list. I think heard of a
324
00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:25.960
little bit about this, the same unit. It starts with
325
00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:28.960
an X. It'll come up again later because they were
326
00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:34.720
implicated and black Acid is murder. US military unit. No, no, no,
327
00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:39.920
US trained, Oh, US trained, Yeah, military unit. Okay, working
328
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:43.759
with the DEA. Oh I see, I see, yeah, And
329
00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:45.839
so she mentioned I just didn't write that down there
330
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:48.160
name here, but they're the ones who were involved in
331
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.480
La Mosquitia. In this interview, she again called that Hillary
332
00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:56.440
Clinton about legitimizing a coup that led to these conditions. Indas,
333
00:21:57.160 --> 00:22:01.559
by the time Hillary Clinton addressed the WHO after her
334
00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:04.400
memoir was released, and she was asked about it because
335
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:08.559
she mentions it in her memoir and she finally like
336
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.839
addressed it, Berta had already been murdered. Did she say
337
00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:17.599
anything about Bertha. No, yeah, she basically justifies her legitimizing
338
00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:20.759
the coup, of course, and I'm not gonna get into it,
339
00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:23.799
but the book does an excellent job about tying together
340
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:27.519
like the coup, the DA, the dangers Alberta and other
341
00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:31.000
activists were facing, even the war on gangs, and like
342
00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:35.079
the Mano Lura policy as well as mass migration to
343
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:38.240
the US. Like it connects all of those things because
344
00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:42.039
they are connected. It's all connected. Yes, yeah, like the
345
00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:47.039
Charlie Day meme. No for real, that's what I felt like.
346
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:49.319
But I did want to share this quote from the book.
347
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:55.359
It's from a counterinsurgency expert, Michael Micklin talk quote the
348
00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:58.039
coup was such a throwback to the nineteen eighties, except
349
00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:00.319
everything is now clouded by the fog of the drug
350
00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:03.640
war and gag war, and it's easy to smoke screen
351
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.720
target Achillians by general violence. And yeah, yes to everything
352
00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:12.039
that this count is right the experts. Yes, this is
353
00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:19.000
why Mano Luda policies and like the ergo henceforth to
354
00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:28.839
with to now for real. So back to Bertha. In
355
00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:32.119
November twenty fourteen, she was informed that she would be
356
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.880
a twenty fifteen winner of the Goldman Prize of Environmental Defenders.
357
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:42.720
This is like winning the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental activists.
358
00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:45.559
And yet out of all the nominees, Berta took the
359
00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:50.839
longest to accept the nomination and the money and the attention.
360
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.079
It just didn't seem right to her, But she was
361
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:56.319
convinced by everyone and being like around her who told
362
00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:59.599
her that raising this level of awareness about their struggle
363
00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:04.240
help protect them. So when the Goldman film crew arrived
364
00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:08.240
in the area in January of twenty fifteen, they saw
365
00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:11.400
first hand the danger that Berta was in. They were
366
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.799
randomly stomped by police soldiers, even an angry mob. At
367
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:18.640
one point, for no reason other than working with Bertha.
368
00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:23.160
Berta asked Goldman researcher Ryan Mack what would happen if
369
00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:27.799
she died before receiving the prize money, and he was shocked.
370
00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:32.079
No one had harassed in this. Had no one else
371
00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:36.640
from Latin America. I've received this. I know another recipient
372
00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:40.799
died but after her, and I think they were from
373
00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:43.359
Latin America too, I just don't remember who. I didn't
374
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:46.640
write it down, but yeah, at least one other has
375
00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:50.839
died or just been up this specific prize, but he said,
376
00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:53.400
no one has ever asked me that. Before Bertha knew
377
00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:56.160
the seriousness of the threats against her life, if anyone
378
00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:01.119
understood that time was running out, it was her. Yeah,
379
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:06.119
that's terrible. It's such a scary, traumatizing way to live
380
00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:10.480
for like years before she was killed, it was twenty thirteen,
381
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.640
and yet she didn't back down. She continued her fight. Yeah.
382
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:18.440
When she accepted her award and gave her speech on
383
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:22.160
April nineteenth, that twenty fifteen, she told that three thousand
384
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.319
people in the audience, wake up, wake up, humanity. We're
385
00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:30.559
out of time, and we'll watch it here. In Spanish, okay, one,
386
00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:38.359
two three, play doesn't she look beautiful?
387
00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:59.160
I was just gonna say.
388
00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:54.119
I loved her hair. Yeah, that's yes.
389
00:25:56.279 --> 00:26:03.680
When I noticed familiar old mom investras cosmovisiones somos suhiro
390
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:09.359
de laterra e lawa elmas de lorreos, somus custodios and
391
00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:15.279
estrale helpolo linka res gardo maslo spirito de la ninas,
392
00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:21.880
keno la vida, the multiplaformers plasa lorios is dar la
393
00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:29.480
vida parlien de la manida iste planeta el cooping caminando
394
00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:37.759
compoelo persue, sipassion ratifical, compromiso de se defendi la lorreos, investorians,
395
00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:47.039
communeturalisa a scomonestro de recho, como pelos despertemos, despertemos manida
396
00:26:47.480 --> 00:27:00.200
jan uy tempo, nuestra consciencias, nuestra consciencias serranzadas porreleccho, the
397
00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:08.519
star solo contemplando lautostruccion Bassalona, the Predacon capitalista, rasista I
398
00:27:08.640 --> 00:27:23.799
patriarchal and rio walk no saya malolo de mas kestan
399
00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:31.599
seriamnasao and toel mundo. The musa kudir la madre, tierra military,
400
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:39.839
sala cercala and bennada done systematicamente de recho elementalest no
401
00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:41.319
sex actor.
402
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:49.480
Comes tru yamos and so escapase.
403
00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:54.240
The co exister de manera usta dina ippo la vida
404
00:27:55.319 --> 00:28:04.920
juntemoosiamo experanza fendiendo iquidan dola sandre de la spiritus de liques,
405
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:16.359
the premio a mean madri alolenca ario lanco alcopini alas lomartes.
406
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:33.559
Which asias and in English, the Gualcarque River has called
407
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.279
the Panas, as have other gravely threatened rivers. We must
408
00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:40.799
answer their call. Mother Earth has been militarized, fenced in,
409
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.799
and poisoned. It's a place where basic rights are systematically violated.
410
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.880
It demands that we take action. Let us build societies
411
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:52.319
that co exist in a just and dignified way that
412
00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:56.079
protects life. I dedicated the war to all the rebels
413
00:28:56.119 --> 00:28:58.440
out there, to my mother, to the Lenca people, to
414
00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:01.920
Rio Blanco, and to the martyrs who gave their lives
415
00:29:01.960 --> 00:29:04.680
in the struggle to defend their natural resources. Thank you
416
00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:11.599
very much. And yeah, just beautiful, truer words that needed
417
00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:16.319
to be heard. But like everyone in this room, I
418
00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:18.960
obviously agreed with her, Like there was a standing ovation
419
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:25.480
after her speech, and yet you know this couldn't stop
420
00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:28.839
her murder. And it's just yeah, I don't know. I
421
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:32.440
felt so sad as I wrote all these notes because
422
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.519
I watched, Yeah, I watched a bunch of interviews of hers.
423
00:29:36.599 --> 00:29:41.079
I listened to interviews and just like what a loss. Yeah,
424
00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:46.319
the world suffered, and for what for capitalism? I'm sick
425
00:29:46.359 --> 00:29:51.119
of it exactly. I'm like, like, how are we born
426
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:55.720
in this in this world? And humanity created capitalism? Like
427
00:29:56.279 --> 00:29:59.559
of all things, of all the things, when we could
428
00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:04.839
let the river thrive, let the Lenka people live, let
429
00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:08.440
all the rivers thrive, all the animals. Yeah, I just
430
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:12.720
hate it. I hate it. Yeah, it's I'm not gonna
431
00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:16.039
go on that ranch anyway. Later that year, in November
432
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:19.839
twenty fifteen, Berta and her dear friend and activist Medium,
433
00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:22.799
who I talked about a couple of years ago. Yes,
434
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:28.440
they received the Osgarro Metal Award, Oh my god, for
435
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:38.039
inspiriting his beliefs from the Rothcoe Chapel in Texas, Okay.
436
00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:41.640
And then they went on like a three week speaking
437
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:46.079
to her after receiving that award. From them and Medium
438
00:30:46.279 --> 00:30:49.200
said in the book, we talked about our families, our organizations.
439
00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:52.519
She told me the damn company had spies and coping
440
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.400
leaking information. We talked about what we do next. We cried,
441
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.640
drink beers, laughed together, We had fun. That trip was
442
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.400
our farewell tour. We just didn't know it then. Oh
443
00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:10.680
my god, I just got chills. It's just yeah, it's terrible.
444
00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:14.160
I mean, well also there to say it's horrible. It
445
00:31:14.279 --> 00:31:17.359
took me longer to put these notes together because I'm
446
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.680
just like I paused to just like I don't know,
447
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:23.160
think about how Sad did it, and you know what,
448
00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:25.319
like it made me think too of all the other
449
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:31.039
women who fought against oppression and for human rights and
450
00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.279
were survelled by the state and killed by the state,
451
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.880
ultimately being funded by the United States in the name
452
00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:39.640
of the state and capitalism. Like I'm thinking of Midna
453
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:45.759
matt Chain, I'm thinking about like another person who infiltrated
454
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:52.640
the group, like in Asusana's case, her organization refriended her
455
00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:59.039
and then participating in her disappearance, her murder. Really but
456
00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:04.559
you know, yeah, yeah, it's infuriating. Yeah, but yeah, that
457
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:06.559
would be the last time they got to hang out
458
00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.839
like that, but like what a memory. Yeah, for that
459
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:12.279
to have been their last I read in the book
460
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:15.799
there was a part where they went to a bar
461
00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:18.240
and they were like somewhere in the US after for
462
00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:20.480
this tour, and they went to a bar and they
463
00:32:20.519 --> 00:32:22.759
were like, let's practice our English to order a beer.
464
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:25.200
And they were like trying to practice the very broken English,
465
00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:27.599
and then they didn't need to because the bartender was
466
00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:31.640
from Ondudasus. Yeah, and they were like, oh my god,
467
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:36.200
another person from on Dudas and so wow, yeah, like,
468
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:39.319
it's nice that this was their last time together, because
469
00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:45.720
it was joyous and yeah. The following month, in December
470
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:49.160
twenty fifteen, Berta had told her sister Agustina, that she
471
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:54.200
was in danger, that the messages and harassment never stopped,
472
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:58.440
and that she was under constant surveillance. She told her sister,
473
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:01.799
those sons of bitches are going to kill me. They
474
00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:05.680
don't care that I have children. She told her daughters
475
00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:09.000
the same thing. She didn't allow them to visit anymore
476
00:33:09.079 --> 00:33:12.279
because she was afraid that they would be heard too. Yes.
477
00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:17.960
In February twenty sixteen, Tomas Membregno, the same person who
478
00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:20.480
was with her in the car when they found a
479
00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:24.920
fake gun, he received a text from Douglas Bustillo, who
480
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:27.799
I mentioned at the top. I think his name has
481
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:31.240
come up, but he is the ex security chief of Thissa. Okay,
482
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:33.799
he was a security chief at this point. He was
483
00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:37.680
supposedly fired and the ex security chief, but I don't
484
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:39.480
think he was ever fired. No, I think he was
485
00:33:39.559 --> 00:33:42.599
fired on paper. But still was he like a spy
486
00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:49.680
then infiltrated organization. No, No, he was harassing her and
487
00:33:49.799 --> 00:33:53.359
bothering her and pain paining spies. He was part of
488
00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:59.400
the people employing the spies in Copin. So Bustillo told
489
00:33:59.559 --> 00:34:02.759
Tomas Regno in a text message that Copine didn't have
490
00:34:02.839 --> 00:34:05.160
the same support as I used to, that Berta was
491
00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:08.599
only using them for that prize and for the prize money,
492
00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:12.159
and that she the people could tell that she was
493
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:16.280
just using them. And so Tomas for this message to Berta,
494
00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:19.679
who only told Bustillo, are you never are you not
495
00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:22.360
tired of being a front man for this ah repeating
496
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:25.239
everything they say, And Bustillo was like, I'm no frontman.
497
00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:28.119
I've forgotten about that company because he was fired supposedly,
498
00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:31.960
but he really wasn't I see. And yeah, like a
499
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:35.239
little bit after this conversation, like a day, Berta was
500
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:40.519
followed by two SUVs with tinted windows clearly of this vehicle.
501
00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:46.880
Then on the twentieth of that month, February two sixteen,
502
00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:50.840
so February twenty, twenty sixteen, Bertha led another protest to
503
00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:55.159
the Wildcake River. Coppein's vehicles were stopped and searched while
504
00:34:55.239 --> 00:34:58.599
police and military took pictures of the protesters. At the
505
00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:02.960
same time, approched crowd had gathered to throw rocks at
506
00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:05.679
the stop, coping vehicles and the members who were you know,
507
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:10.000
pulled out of the vehicles. The deputy mayor was among
508
00:35:10.039 --> 00:35:14.119
the crowd throwing Coping embarrassing behavior to cape so hard
509
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.039
for fucking capitalism that you're pro Damn, I know. It's
510
00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:23.119
throwing rocks at people that are like, by defending their land,
511
00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:28.519
they're also defending your right to water. Yeah, if they
512
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:31.320
don't see that, they're fighting for your rights and you're
513
00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:34.559
throwing fucking rocks at them. Yeah. They believe the lies
514
00:35:34.599 --> 00:35:37.360
about how the river won't be affected, and they took
515
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:40.559
all them money and so they don't care. At that
516
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:44.679
same protest, this as community and Environmental manager approached Bertha
517
00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:47.119
and told her there are armed men at the river.
518
00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:50.159
We won't be responsible if something happens to you. My God.
519
00:35:51.039 --> 00:35:53.079
And another thing that this I would do, which was
520
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:57.400
later confirmed by during the trial with text mates messages
521
00:35:57.400 --> 00:35:59.920
that were released. But like Coping, members would tell them, Okay,
522
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:02.840
we're moving, we're moving, We're on the go to the protests.
523
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:05.119
So then police would arrive to stop their vehicles and
524
00:36:05.159 --> 00:36:08.599
search them. They would like like if there was a
525
00:36:08.639 --> 00:36:10.440
bridge that had to be crossed for them to get
526
00:36:10.519 --> 00:36:13.280
to the location they're going to protest that they like
527
00:36:13.480 --> 00:36:17.039
went out and destroyed the bridge, but Coping just rebuilt
528
00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:23.000
the bridge. They would block roads on purpose to make
529
00:36:23.039 --> 00:36:25.920
them go a longer way, but Coping continued, and so
530
00:36:26.119 --> 00:36:29.199
like on this specific protest, the road to the river
531
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:31.280
was blocked and they couldn't get their cars through, and
532
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:35.480
so they had to walk a pretty long walk. And
533
00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:38.360
along the walk there was private security and police officers
534
00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:42.719
like aiming their guns at them, including the Tigres, which
535
00:36:42.840 --> 00:36:46.920
was a US trained elite unit. Wow. A drone was
536
00:36:46.960 --> 00:36:49.559
flying by taking pictures of all of them, but the
537
00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:53.719
group continued. A week after that, a man with the
538
00:36:53.800 --> 00:36:58.119
military hairca was seen asking around for Bertha near Coping offices,
539
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:01.000
but when he was asked to identify himself, he sped off.
540
00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:04.840
And so because of things like that, Berta wasn't even
541
00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.960
like sleeping at her home anymore. She was staying at
542
00:37:08.039 --> 00:37:17.000
Compeigne's training center in La Esperanza. Then on March first,
543
00:37:17.559 --> 00:37:23.159
two thousand and sixteen, Bertha's daughter Laura, she was visiting.
544
00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:26.880
She had been visiting Bertha for a little bit and
545
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:29.599
Bertha was dropping her off. She had to go back
546
00:37:29.639 --> 00:37:33.559
to university, and so as Berta dropped off Laura at
547
00:37:33.599 --> 00:37:36.480
the airport. She told Laua to enjoy her life, make
548
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:38.880
the most of it, but to remember that she belongs
549
00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:41.079
in on Duras, fighting to make it a better place,
550
00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:43.559
and to not be afraid if anything happened to her.
551
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:48.719
And it felt like a goodbye, like an official goodbye.
552
00:37:48.800 --> 00:37:51.440
But Laura thought that her mom would always be safe
553
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:54.559
because she was so well known. She had met the Pope,
554
00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:58.320
she had received the Goldman Prize like she thought that
555
00:37:58.440 --> 00:38:04.000
the publicity would helper mm hmm. And as Launa was leaving,
556
00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:11.159
Gustavo Gastro, who we mentioned a few episodes ago, he
557
00:38:11.320 --> 00:38:14.159
was landing. So he's another environmental activist but from Mexico,
558
00:38:14.519 --> 00:38:19.559
and they had met in that protest where the PPP
559
00:38:19.800 --> 00:38:22.559
was announced. It was like that conference where we sent
560
00:38:22.639 --> 00:38:27.239
that folks among other others were there. Yeah, so he
561
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:29.480
was landing. He was going to stay at well, he
562
00:38:29.599 --> 00:38:32.800
was landing to like do things there with Copin and
563
00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:34.480
he was going to stay at a different place, but
564
00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:37.800
Berta offered for him to stay with her because her
565
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:40.800
internet was better anyway, and so he agreed. And then
566
00:38:40.920 --> 00:38:43.159
she texted Lauda and not to worry because she wouldn't
567
00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:45.800
be alone in the house that Gustavo had just arrived
568
00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:47.800
and he was going to be with her, and so
569
00:38:49.519 --> 00:38:51.800
they were doing like you know, coping things. During the day,
570
00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:55.440
she had a meeting where she told the finance coordinator
571
00:38:55.519 --> 00:38:58.039
of coping that they needed to update signatures because what
572
00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:01.639
if she was killed, And the cenator was like, don't
573
00:39:01.679 --> 00:39:03.679
be silly, like nothing's going to happen to you. But
574
00:39:03.800 --> 00:39:08.440
they did it anyway, And this is March first, twenty sixteen.
575
00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:13.519
Berta and Gustavo they did some more work. They went
576
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:16.400
over to another coping location where she did what would
577
00:39:16.440 --> 00:39:18.480
be her last interview, though this was like not known
578
00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:22.079
at the time. In the interview, she discussed energy as
579
00:39:22.119 --> 00:39:26.480
a political issue, how capitalism and energy threatened indigenous communities,
580
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:29.639
and what the Lenca people were facing in their fight.
581
00:39:30.760 --> 00:39:33.519
Then Berta and Gustavo left to have dinner and visit
582
00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:36.840
Berta's mom before she headed back to her place. She
583
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:40.320
had just bought this house in Nasperanza, and she bought
584
00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:43.360
it with the Goldman Prize money in a gated community.
585
00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:45.400
Her mom would later say, like, I don't know why
586
00:39:45.480 --> 00:39:47.920
she bought a house so isolated and far away. My
587
00:39:48.079 --> 00:39:50.840
thoughts is that maybe a gated community gave a sense
588
00:39:50.880 --> 00:39:55.039
of protection. She thought it would be safer, yeah, yes, yes,
589
00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:57.760
and so she had just bought this house and so
590
00:39:58.440 --> 00:40:05.280
they had it there. After visiting Berta's mom, a black
591
00:40:05.480 --> 00:40:08.000
suv with tinted windows and no plates was seen by
592
00:40:08.039 --> 00:40:11.559
her mom's house just before nine thirty pm. Berta and
593
00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:15.519
Gustavo got back to her place a bit after nine thirty.
594
00:40:16.719 --> 00:40:19.679
They talked on the porch for another half hour, then
595
00:40:19.719 --> 00:40:22.880
she went inside to finish some work. At least two
596
00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:26.320
cars had driven by behind the fence of her house
597
00:40:26.440 --> 00:40:31.239
at that point to like unmarked cars. Then Gustavo went
598
00:40:31.280 --> 00:40:35.360
inside two and now around eleven twenty five pm, Berta
599
00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:38.480
had sent a message to the police liaison officer who
600
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:41.519
was in charge of overseeing her protection because she was
601
00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:44.880
supposed to be under police protection. So his name is
602
00:40:44.920 --> 00:40:47.519
Juan Carlosquadz, and she wrote to him, wherever you are,
603
00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:50.800
It was she well, please be careful besels. Ten minutes
604
00:40:50.840 --> 00:40:54.480
after that, at eleven thirty five pm, Gustavo heard three
605
00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:58.800
loud wings. At first he thought it was Berta cleaning
606
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:02.599
or opening closing doors in the kitchen, but then he
607
00:41:02.679 --> 00:41:07.159
heard a louder, more dull thud. Then he heard Berta
608
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:10.639
yell out, who's there. Then within seconds of that, a
609
00:41:10.760 --> 00:41:14.559
gunman kicked open Gustavo's door and aimed the gun at him,
610
00:41:14.840 --> 00:41:19.360
a gun at him. Then as the gunman this gunman
611
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:23.599
did this, another gunman forced open Berta's door. It sounded
612
00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:27.079
like there was a struggle, and then Gustavo heard three shots.
613
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:30.760
Oh my god. Berta fell backwards, but she was still
614
00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:33.519
trying to defend herself. She scratched the gunman as he
615
00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:37.079
bent over, and then he stomped on her until she
616
00:41:37.199 --> 00:41:41.679
stopped fighting back. Oh my god, Gustavo when he heard this,
617
00:41:41.719 --> 00:41:44.400
because this all happened so fast, when he heard this,
618
00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:47.800
he jumped off his bed, I think forgetting that a
619
00:41:47.840 --> 00:41:49.960
gunman was pointing a gun at him, like he was
620
00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:54.079
just intending to rush to Reta. But then the gunman,
621
00:41:54.239 --> 00:41:57.400
so he jumped off the bed. The gunman fired, who's
622
00:41:57.400 --> 00:42:01.119
already there aiming at him? Fired at him the bullet
623
00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:05.119
he as As the gun was fired, Gustabo lifted his
624
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:09.400
arms up to like block it with his hands, and
625
00:42:09.920 --> 00:42:12.800
the bullet grazed his left hand and the top of
626
00:42:12.880 --> 00:42:15.880
his left ear, and he fell to the floor like
627
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:18.719
freaked out, obviously because either way he was so shocked,
628
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:20.719
even though it was a graze. But he fell to
629
00:42:20.840 --> 00:42:24.599
the floor, playing dead and he just didn't move, and
630
00:42:25.639 --> 00:42:27.920
the gunman like they believed it. He said, they didn't
631
00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:31.760
check on him. Then they he didn't hear when they left,
632
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:34.920
but they left at some point. Then he heard it
633
00:42:35.079 --> 00:42:37.000
that I yell out his name, and that's when he
634
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:41.400
got up, still bleeding, ran over to her, knelt down,
635
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:44.519
wrapped her in his arms and like you know, was
636
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.119
telling her, don't go over that, don't die, stay with me.
637
00:42:48.199 --> 00:42:51.679
But the wounds were too severe and she she was
638
00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:55.519
bleeding to death. She told him to get her phone
639
00:42:55.639 --> 00:43:01.800
and then said call and those were her last words, damn.
640
00:43:03.119 --> 00:43:06.039
And at this point it was now eleven forty five pm.
641
00:43:07.559 --> 00:43:13.119
He tried calling Talblor Domas Gomez Berta's lawyer, but no
642
00:43:13.199 --> 00:43:16.199
one was answering because it was late. He then sent
643
00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:19.559
messages to other friends and colleagues. He said, help, this
644
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:22.519
is Gustavo Berta has been killed. I'm hurt and alone
645
00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:26.320
in her house. Nobody knows. Please tell us Salvor. Finally,
646
00:43:26.480 --> 00:43:30.480
around one am. Karen Springs of the Hodura Solidarity Network
647
00:43:30.559 --> 00:43:33.400
saw the messages, called and said help was on the way.
648
00:43:34.239 --> 00:43:37.559
Then Tomas woke up, saw the messages also headed to
649
00:43:37.639 --> 00:43:40.360
her house. He was trying to call the same liaison
650
00:43:40.440 --> 00:43:42.559
that she had sent a message to at eleven twenty
651
00:43:42.599 --> 00:43:46.880
five pm. He was not answering. He stopped at the
652
00:43:46.960 --> 00:43:50.360
police station in Esperanza to inform them of Berta's death
653
00:43:50.400 --> 00:43:52.239
and they were just like not moving, and he was like,
654
00:43:52.280 --> 00:43:56.079
what the fuck. He then brushed back to his car,
655
00:43:56.320 --> 00:43:59.280
went and drove to Bertha's place and when he got
656
00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:02.840
there he had to honk and shout to wake up
657
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:06.320
the security guard so that he could be let into
658
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:10.320
Colonel which was the gated community where her house was located.
659
00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:13.280
And so he honked and honked, was finally let in,
660
00:44:13.960 --> 00:44:16.000
and then in front of her house he honked and
661
00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:20.000
Gustavo came out, You're still bleeding, covered in blood, and
662
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:22.239
in the car He's like, are you sure he's dead?
663
00:44:22.400 --> 00:44:25.800
She's dead, and Gustavo was like yes. They hugged, cried.
664
00:44:26.639 --> 00:44:29.840
They because they knew this wasn't like a safe place
665
00:44:29.880 --> 00:44:33.639
and the police wasn't on their side. All they left
666
00:44:33.800 --> 00:44:36.920
to head to Copying headquarters, but on the way they
667
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.199
ran into some other COPING members who were heading to
668
00:44:39.280 --> 00:44:42.760
her house after hearing the news. So they returned, giving
669
00:44:42.800 --> 00:44:46.280
these other people a right. When they arrived, the police
670
00:44:46.280 --> 00:44:48.960
were there. The security guard was nowhere to be seen.
671
00:44:50.679 --> 00:44:56.599
The scene was not like cordon. Have you say that word?
672
00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:01.119
I know you're saying they didn't secure. He was insecure.
673
00:45:01.639 --> 00:45:04.719
The press was already arriving. There's so many people like
674
00:45:04.800 --> 00:45:08.880
already in and out, so like already messing up the
675
00:45:08.960 --> 00:45:14.119
forensic investigation. Yeah, So Tero Cha Maria, another COPING member
676
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:18.360
who was ex military, also had arrived and was like
677
00:45:18.480 --> 00:45:20.639
looking inside because he was like this the police aren't
678
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:22.239
going to do anything. They're not going to properly do this,
679
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:24.840
and so he was like looking around. He noticed the
680
00:45:25.079 --> 00:45:29.079
footprints that had kicked open the door that or Gustavo
681
00:45:29.159 --> 00:45:31.639
was sleeping. He was like, that's a military issue bootprint,
682
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:33.719
like I because he's ex military, and he was like,
683
00:45:33.760 --> 00:45:38.639
there's no doubt in my mind. He was investigating. Yes, yes,
684
00:45:39.239 --> 00:45:42.400
the police insisted that it was a burglary. Nothing had
685
00:45:42.440 --> 00:45:52.159
been stolen. Dumb. Yeah. Around five am, Lito, who was
686
00:45:52.199 --> 00:45:54.320
now her ex they weren't together anymore. They had broken up,
687
00:45:54.360 --> 00:45:57.400
like at least a couple of months before this. Lito
688
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:00.760
and his dad arrived. They had driven through hours from
689
00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:03.320
their home to get there. Oh wow, she was still
690
00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:07.239
They got there, Yeah, they got there at five am. Johnny.
691
00:46:07.559 --> 00:46:10.440
Then sid who I mentioned, I want to say last episode,
692
00:46:10.519 --> 00:46:14.119
but she was the ethnic prosecutor who grew up with Berta,
693
00:46:14.239 --> 00:46:18.440
the only prosecutor Bertha trusted. She called Gustavo and told him, like,
694
00:46:18.519 --> 00:46:21.880
don't go with anyone police or military until I get there, Like,
695
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:24.840
do not go with them. And so Gustavo was with
696
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:27.159
another COPING member, like at all times, to not go
697
00:46:27.320 --> 00:46:30.000
with anyone. And so he was with another COPING member
698
00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:32.360
when he met with a sketch artist and he like
699
00:46:32.519 --> 00:46:35.039
described the sketch artists as sketch artist would show him
700
00:46:35.119 --> 00:46:37.039
and he'd be like, no, that doesn't look like the person.
701
00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:42.000
They drew wrong on purpose, Yeah, they drew wrong. He
702
00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:45.000
was like, no, they would redo it. And then by
703
00:46:45.079 --> 00:46:47.920
the point he was so tired, he was like whatever damn,
704
00:46:48.280 --> 00:46:50.719
because they kept doing it wrong. By the time that
705
00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:55.119
the sketch artist was done, it didn't look anything like
706
00:46:55.199 --> 00:46:59.079
the gunman that Gustavo saw, but it did look like Litton.
707
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:02.039
Oh my god, it's like they were already playing a
708
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:06.599
pinot on him. Yes, that's exactly what happened. Oh my god.
709
00:47:07.840 --> 00:47:12.159
Agents kept asking Gustavo Castro to look at pictures and
710
00:47:12.280 --> 00:47:15.840
videos of other COPEIN members, even though like he was like, no,
711
00:47:16.400 --> 00:47:19.119
this was an any one from COPIN, and they were
712
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:21.960
like look again, look again, not leaving him alone in
713
00:47:22.039 --> 00:47:25.960
that aspect. And then the security guard who was nowhere
714
00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:30.519
to be seen. When Thomas and Gustavo returned with the
715
00:47:30.599 --> 00:47:33.079
rest of the members, that security guard was gone. That
716
00:47:33.159 --> 00:47:37.599
same security guard then said that he had seen Litho
717
00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:44.920
and Tomas leaving Colonial Lebano at two fifteen am. But
718
00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:49.679
this was Gustavo and Tomas who were leaving when they
719
00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:53.159
found the other members and then returned, So that was
720
00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:57.639
not Litho. That was Gustavo in the car. So Litho
721
00:47:57.760 --> 00:48:01.519
was arrested based on this false, oh my god, witness statement,
722
00:48:02.360 --> 00:48:06.159
and the news ran with this story. And the report
723
00:48:06.199 --> 00:48:09.239
I'm going to mention at the end would confirm that
724
00:48:09.960 --> 00:48:15.400
Thissa flooded the media with money to publish this story. Wow,
725
00:48:16.519 --> 00:48:18.440
So they rang with the story, calling it a crime
726
00:48:18.480 --> 00:48:23.360
of passion. Other COPING members were treated like suspects, including
727
00:48:23.639 --> 00:48:27.320
Tomas Gomez, Lyria Lopez, who was that financial coordinator who
728
00:48:27.400 --> 00:48:29.239
was like, don't be silly, but nothing's going to happen
729
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:33.239
to you, and Gustabo Gastro himself was treated like a suspect.
730
00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:37.320
That's going Wow. The agent in charge of the investigation
731
00:48:37.599 --> 00:48:42.480
slash crime scene, it was Subcommissioner Rolando Casco Torres, who
732
00:48:42.559 --> 00:48:46.639
would regularly send officers against COPING protesters. Whenever this I
733
00:48:46.719 --> 00:48:48.599
asked for them, like he was like out there, they
734
00:48:48.639 --> 00:48:51.960
said jump, he jumped, They said sid he sat. This
735
00:48:52.159 --> 00:48:55.960
is who was in charge of the investigation. Wow. When
736
00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:59.079
the autopsy was to take place, the family requested for
737
00:48:59.239 --> 00:49:02.639
a medical observd to be present. That request was denied.
738
00:49:04.079 --> 00:49:08.840
On March fourth, Gustavo was returned to the crime scene
739
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:13.679
under the guise of helping investigators reconstruct the murder, and
740
00:49:13.800 --> 00:49:17.000
for some reason, the police also had Lito there. When
741
00:49:17.039 --> 00:49:20.400
Gustavo described what he remembered, which of course confirmed that
742
00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:24.119
Letho was not there, he was told he was free
743
00:49:24.159 --> 00:49:28.960
and he could return to Mexico. So now we're on
744
00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:33.519
March fifth, March fifth was her burial service and thousands
745
00:49:33.880 --> 00:49:38.000
thousands were there for her burial service. There was traditional
746
00:49:38.159 --> 00:49:45.440
maya linka and garifuna smoke ceremonies speeches. That same day, Olivia, Berta,
747
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:48.840
Laura and sal Berta's four kids gave a press conference
748
00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:51.480
in which they expressed a lack of confidence in the
749
00:49:51.599 --> 00:49:55.320
hun during government's investigation. They described Bertha's murder as a
750
00:49:55.360 --> 00:49:59.280
political act and called for an international investigation. So at
751
00:49:59.280 --> 00:50:01.519
the same time as that this was happening, on the
752
00:50:01.719 --> 00:50:04.519
fifth of March, Gustavo Castro was at the airport because
753
00:50:04.639 --> 00:50:06.400
they told him he could go. They said, you're free
754
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:09.960
to go, return to Mexico, like leave. So he was
755
00:50:09.960 --> 00:50:12.239
at the airport. We're doing that what he was sold
756
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:14.559
to do. When he was surrounded by police and then
757
00:50:14.679 --> 00:50:18.119
not allowed to leave for another thirty hours. Wow. They
758
00:50:18.159 --> 00:50:21.840
wanted him to testify against the guard Ismael Lemus, who
759
00:50:21.960 --> 00:50:24.039
said he had seen Lydo on the truck with Tomas.
760
00:50:25.039 --> 00:50:27.679
Gustavo gave his testimony which made that guard same and
761
00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:30.719
fall apart. Then Gustavo was told he could not leave
762
00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:35.280
on Dudas for another thirty days, which is like illegal.
763
00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:39.079
The guard on the other hand, was never seen again.
764
00:50:40.760 --> 00:50:43.679
If it weren't for the international pressure placed on the
765
00:50:43.719 --> 00:50:47.480
government of Honduras. Who even knows that Gustavo Castro would
766
00:50:47.480 --> 00:50:50.280
have been allowed to leave after those thirty days were up. Yeah,
767
00:50:50.960 --> 00:50:54.679
but he was eventually allowed to return to Mexico. Copin
768
00:50:54.840 --> 00:50:59.440
and Berta's family were publicly calling out for Berta's murder.
769
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:05.400
This made and her murder made international headlines. Even Leonardo
770
00:51:05.559 --> 00:51:10.400
DiCaprio tweeted about it. Sometimes he's an environmentalist, Yeah, Sometimes
771
00:51:10.840 --> 00:51:13.360
not when he's on a yawn and partying with bezos,
772
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:21.599
But yeah, exactly. Also Naomi Klein, the author of the
773
00:51:21.679 --> 00:51:30.599
shop Doctrine, Drenete Perez of Oh yeah, I forget, I
774
00:51:30.599 --> 00:51:32.960
always forget he has a real name. I'm like who?
775
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:40.840
And Nicolas Maduro Okay. There were protests around the world
776
00:51:41.760 --> 00:51:45.440
in response to this. In the meantime, this I was
777
00:51:45.519 --> 00:51:49.920
trying to distance themselves from everything, and they continue to
778
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:55.920
blame Letho for everything. When Nina, the author slash journalist
779
00:51:56.039 --> 00:52:00.239
of this book my main source, met with Julisa Duda,
780
00:52:00.320 --> 00:52:04.280
says chief forensic doctor, Julisa assured her that evidence pointed
781
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:09.480
toward Ario Molina, which is lit really Yeah? So she
782
00:52:09.679 --> 00:52:12.519
was like, he did it? We have evidence proving that
783
00:52:12.599 --> 00:52:14.960
it was him and it was not him, but there
784
00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:18.159
was for sure there was two people in the home. Yes,
785
00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.280
So who also are they saying was involved? They weren't
786
00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:26.159
the ridiculous they were just blaming Liton And of course
787
00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:28.880
it was like impossible for it to be him. He
788
00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:32.119
was three hours away when this happened. He got there
789
00:52:32.159 --> 00:52:39.360
at five am with his dad, So yeah, it wasn't him.
790
00:52:39.400 --> 00:52:43.639
He was finally like lego of all charges. About a
791
00:52:43.719 --> 00:52:46.760
month later, in mid April, community leaders gathered at the
792
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:51.280
stadium in Tegua for a Erta vive gathering, which they
793
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:55.159
still say like they get together at and it's like
794
00:52:55.199 --> 00:53:00.119
beautiful to hear. But during this gathering, Thisa coordinated with
795
00:53:00.320 --> 00:53:06.559
local police to attack the gathering and yeah, they were thrones.
796
00:53:07.159 --> 00:53:11.360
What are they called, smoke grenades? Wow? Things like that. Yeah.
797
00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:16.599
And despite the international attention on Honduras because of Berta's murder,
798
00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:20.679
another COPEIN member, Nelson Garcia, was killed thirteen days after
799
00:53:20.760 --> 00:53:25.360
Bertha really wow. And then three months after that, Lesbia
800
00:53:25.519 --> 00:53:30.599
Jannette Urgilla, who opposed the Aurora dam in San Josela
801
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:33.480
pass was so beaten to death after she left her
802
00:53:33.519 --> 00:53:34.239
house on her bike.
803
00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:34.679
Wow.
804
00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:38.199
So three activists in a short period of time. Yeah,
805
00:53:38.239 --> 00:53:42.000
fighting against the dam mm hmm. Yeah, but her the
806
00:53:42.119 --> 00:53:43.960
last one, she was it was a different dam. Oh
807
00:53:44.039 --> 00:53:45.960
I see, But there was because there was a lot
808
00:53:45.960 --> 00:53:49.679
of dams happening. Yeah, the Iowa Sarka dam was like
809
00:53:49.760 --> 00:53:52.400
two locations, Oh, I see, and then this other one
810
00:53:52.519 --> 00:53:56.599
was a different one completely. Berta's family continued to bring
811
00:53:56.679 --> 00:53:59.840
attention to the murder they traveled wherever they were invited
812
00:54:00.079 --> 00:54:04.599
to talk about Berta. In one interview, Bertita, who was
813
00:54:04.639 --> 00:54:08.119
twenty five when Berta was murdered, said, quote, it's very
814
00:54:08.199 --> 00:54:11.000
easy to pay people to commit murders in Honduras, but
815
00:54:11.119 --> 00:54:14.119
those who are behind this are other powerful people with
816
00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:17.800
money and an apparatus that allows them to commit these crimes.
817
00:54:18.719 --> 00:54:23.440
They paid assassins on several occasions to kill her. The
818
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:28.199
then president of Onduras who was recently pardoned by Donald Trump. Yeah,
819
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:33.800
this is the sime, the one that Hillary Clinton. What's
820
00:54:33.800 --> 00:54:34.760
it called the coup?
821
00:54:35.119 --> 00:54:35.159
No?
822
00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:38.239
No, no, that was Lobo or something. Okay, his the
823
00:54:38.360 --> 00:54:40.519
name was Lobo. I don't remember his name other than
824
00:54:40.639 --> 00:54:46.119
Lobo or Yeah, I think it was Lobo. Yeah. Anyway, No,
825
00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:51.480
Alvarado is the one that was pardoned by Trump, and
826
00:54:51.599 --> 00:54:54.239
he was president at the time of Berta cassid Is
827
00:54:54.280 --> 00:54:56.679
his murder, and he refused to meet with the family.
828
00:54:56.840 --> 00:54:59.400
Of course he didn't. He's a piece of chiah. Even
829
00:54:59.440 --> 00:55:05.639
after interne national pressure and Amnesty International actually said quote
830
00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:09.159
the fact that during President Kuan Orlando Nandez Avanado is
831
00:55:09.159 --> 00:55:13.559
still refusing to meet with Breta Gasidus's relatives, other human
832
00:55:13.639 --> 00:55:17.760
rights defenders and Amnesty International is simply inexcusable. Burying his
833
00:55:17.880 --> 00:55:20.000
head in the sand will only put the lives in safety,
834
00:55:20.039 --> 00:55:24.960
have more activists in grave danger. The family has spent
835
00:55:25.079 --> 00:55:29.079
so much time calling out DESA, and yet it wasn't
836
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:33.280
until one month after Bereta's murder that Unduran authorities announced
837
00:55:33.280 --> 00:55:39.159
they were searching DESA's offices. Then, on May two, twenty sixteen,
838
00:55:39.760 --> 00:55:44.360
four were arrested in a raid called Operation Janguar. These
839
00:55:44.480 --> 00:55:50.280
four were Douglas Bustigo, the executive chief, Seido Rodriguez, the
840
00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:53.800
community and an environmental manager at DESSA. So this is
841
00:55:53.880 --> 00:55:55.800
the guy who went up to her during that protest
842
00:55:55.840 --> 00:55:58.280
and said, we have gunmen at the river, and I'm
843
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:01.880
not responsible if anything happens that was him. These are
844
00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:05.480
names we've heard already coming go between the past three parts.
845
00:56:06.199 --> 00:56:11.679
The other two arrested were Eddylson Mesa, a former Army captain,
846
00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:16.159
and Mariano Dias, a special forces major and military police trainer.
847
00:56:16.880 --> 00:56:23.039
Emerson Dute, Messa's twin. Edilson, was later was arrested that
848
00:56:23.119 --> 00:56:26.840
same day, making him the fifth arrested that day, and
849
00:56:27.039 --> 00:56:31.039
a gun linking Emerson to the murder was found at
850
00:56:31.119 --> 00:56:36.719
his home. Then, in June twenty sixteen, an article with
851
00:56:36.800 --> 00:56:40.239
the headline Berta Cassell's name was on a Hunduran military
852
00:56:40.320 --> 00:56:45.239
hit list was released, which like made uh media rounds
853
00:56:45.320 --> 00:56:50.960
because like what a headline? Yeah. This was written by Nina,
854
00:56:51.079 --> 00:56:54.400
the author of the book. She had talked to an
855
00:56:54.400 --> 00:56:57.960
eyewitnessed an Army deserter who didn't just see the hit list,
856
00:56:58.920 --> 00:57:01.519
but was in the unit who was ordered to carry
857
00:57:01.599 --> 00:57:06.599
it out. He was Rodrigo Cruz, part of a sixteen
858
00:57:06.679 --> 00:57:10.320
man squad with the Military Agency tax Force Task Force
859
00:57:11.679 --> 00:57:15.000
in Iwuan. This is who I mentioned at the top
860
00:57:15.119 --> 00:57:19.719
who had committed that massacre. Yeah, this is them in Iwan.
861
00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:25.559
He chose to desert and flee the country a whistle blower. Yes,
862
00:57:25.679 --> 00:57:28.079
and we cannot get into it because of time. But
863
00:57:28.199 --> 00:57:32.199
this unit, the training of this unit was found to
864
00:57:32.280 --> 00:57:35.840
be like utterly brutal and humanizing. Of course, how else
865
00:57:35.880 --> 00:57:39.079
can you just do such horrible things like a massacre
866
00:57:39.559 --> 00:57:43.119
and killing innocent people. Right when he got to you know,
867
00:57:43.320 --> 00:57:46.400
his duty station, he was like, yeah, everyone here just
868
00:57:46.480 --> 00:57:50.199
does what they're told. It doesn't matter. But he began
869
00:57:50.320 --> 00:57:52.760
to see things that made him question everything, Like the
870
00:57:53.199 --> 00:57:56.159
training wasn't enough to mind wash him. You know, you
871
00:57:56.199 --> 00:58:01.480
couldn't be brainwashed. Yeah, yep, that's what mind That's that's
872
00:58:01.559 --> 00:58:05.599
the word. I was looking for a word for it. Yes, okay,
873
00:58:05.719 --> 00:58:09.760
So yeah, he saw torture chambers, the use of their
874
00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:13.719
unit and these torture chambers against campesinos, all in the
875
00:58:13.880 --> 00:58:16.000
name of it wasn't a damn out there, but it
876
00:58:16.159 --> 00:58:20.960
was another like a similar capitalistic project. Yeah, I don't
877
00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:23.199
remember what it was out there. It was a company though,
878
00:58:23.239 --> 00:58:26.639
I think obviously it was a company doing something. I
879
00:58:26.639 --> 00:58:30.119
don't remember what though. So, yeah, he saw his unit
880
00:58:30.199 --> 00:58:33.440
being used against the Campecinos fighting for their land. He
881
00:58:33.880 --> 00:58:38.199
saw the unit was responsible for hiding human remains like
882
00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:42.960
digging up holes, putting remains in the holes and burning
883
00:58:43.079 --> 00:58:44.360
these bodies. Like he saw this.
884
00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:44.719
Wow.
885
00:58:45.960 --> 00:58:48.719
He another time, there's like an instance of them feeding
886
00:58:49.519 --> 00:58:54.039
feeding human remains to alligators. Oh my god. And so
887
00:58:54.239 --> 00:58:57.480
this was already like too much for him. Then he
888
00:58:57.599 --> 00:59:00.440
saw some papers that fell out of his commanders vest.
889
00:59:01.239 --> 00:59:03.400
He picked them up and flipped through the pages and
890
00:59:03.480 --> 00:59:05.280
that's when he saw it was like a list of
891
00:59:05.519 --> 00:59:11.079
names and pictures Juan Gallindo, Jime Cabrera, Joni Rivas, and
892
00:59:11.239 --> 00:59:15.239
Berta Casseires, all activists. He picked them up the papers,
893
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:16.840
and the commanders like did you see the list? And
894
00:59:16.880 --> 00:59:18.119
he or did you see the papers? And he was
895
00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:20.559
like no. But this is when he began to question
896
00:59:20.719 --> 00:59:24.400
orders because he recognized Berta Gasidis's name as well as
897
00:59:24.480 --> 00:59:28.039
Quan Gallindo and Guangallindo was someone his family knew. And
898
00:59:28.119 --> 00:59:30.360
he's like, is this a hit list? And so at
899
00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:32.679
one point he told his commander that he was a
900
00:59:32.800 --> 00:59:35.400
Christian and he could not kill any more decent people.
901
00:59:36.440 --> 00:59:39.880
He was then placed on leave. During this leave, he
902
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:42.000
told his dad about the list he saw, and his
903
00:59:42.159 --> 00:59:45.599
dad convinced him to tell someone. So they went to
904
00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:48.840
activists in the area told him about the list, and
905
00:59:48.960 --> 00:59:53.679
after that he fled the country and then spoke to
906
00:59:53.920 --> 01:00:02.519
you know, the author of the book. On September eight,
907
01:00:02.559 --> 01:00:08.840
twenty sixteen, Elvin Comanche Rapallo Orellana was arrested. He was
908
01:00:08.920 --> 01:00:14.000
the sixth arrest for Beda's murder. Then Henry Jabert Ernandez,
909
01:00:14.079 --> 01:00:17.840
an ex Special Forces sergeant, was arrested on January twelve,
910
01:00:17.920 --> 01:00:21.840
twenty seventeen. He was found in Renosa, Mexico. Oh wow,
911
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:25.159
he was the seventh arrest and the only one who
912
01:00:25.280 --> 01:00:28.440
had admitted to being inside Breda's house that night. So
913
01:00:28.559 --> 01:00:34.039
how many people were in the actual home? Four? Oh? Hello, hello,
914
01:00:34.280 --> 01:00:37.000
this is editing Cristina from the future. I meant to
915
01:00:37.079 --> 01:00:42.400
say three. Three were inside the house. Three were sentenced
916
01:00:42.559 --> 01:00:45.760
for you know, being inside the house, and then four
917
01:00:46.079 --> 01:00:50.199
for being the masterminds or the organizers slash planners of
918
01:00:51.280 --> 01:00:54.119
the murder, which I think I clarify later, but I
919
01:00:54.159 --> 01:00:57.639
wanted to clarify here. It's three, not four. One of
920
01:00:57.719 --> 01:01:01.159
the twins will be found not guilty, So okay, back
921
01:01:01.199 --> 01:01:05.159
to the episode. One month later, Oscar Aroldo Torres was
922
01:01:05.239 --> 01:01:08.880
arrested and he is the one who matched Gustavo Gastro's
923
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:13.239
description of the gunman. In February, it was reported that
924
01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:16.000
three of the a who had been arrested were linked
925
01:01:16.119 --> 01:01:21.159
to US trained elite troops, and two Mariano Dias and
926
01:01:21.320 --> 01:01:25.719
Douglas Bustillo, were trained at the School of Americas. And
927
01:01:25.800 --> 01:01:28.800
then I haven't mentioned him, but Dave Castillo was trained
928
01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:33.639
for Benning, not not for Benning. Oh my god, what's
929
01:01:33.679 --> 01:01:37.920
the Collegeood? No, the college, it's like a college where
930
01:01:37.960 --> 01:01:42.280
lieutenants go. Yeah, West Point. I was like, just a
931
01:01:42.400 --> 01:01:44.079
p there's a P in it. But for some reason,
932
01:01:44.119 --> 01:01:48.039
I can only think of the pit. Did you start
933
01:01:48.039 --> 01:01:51.440
watching it? You know? Okay you should. I wasn't to
934
01:01:51.519 --> 01:01:55.239
say it, just I don't know what the word is,
935
01:01:55.320 --> 01:01:58.880
but like at this point, pattern recognition and just something
936
01:01:58.920 --> 01:02:02.920
obvious that the United States would be someone involved in
937
01:02:03.159 --> 01:02:06.119
horrible things like this, right, and like these yeah, uh
938
01:02:07.239 --> 01:02:16.480
military like special military uh units that kill and torture oppress.
939
01:02:17.440 --> 01:02:19.800
They're trained by the United States, and like we're always
940
01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:22.239
criticizing that, right, And then people for some strange reason
941
01:02:22.280 --> 01:02:24.800
and feel the need to defend the military of all things,
942
01:02:24.840 --> 01:02:27.159
in the United States, of all things, and they're like, oh,
943
01:02:27.320 --> 01:02:32.039
US trained, and I'm like, Okay, the United States around
944
01:02:32.079 --> 01:02:35.760
the world since the dawn of time and now are
945
01:02:36.559 --> 01:02:38.800
involved in horrific things, like why.
946
01:02:38.679 --> 01:02:41.960
Do you feel the need stop defending them? To defend this,
947
01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:47.519
like it's the indefensible, disgusting, and no one is wrong
948
01:02:47.800 --> 01:02:50.960
for criticizing the United States in this point. And I
949
01:02:51.039 --> 01:02:53.480
think I see a lot of times like, oh, the
950
01:02:53.559 --> 01:02:55.400
United States can control what they do, but like they
951
01:02:55.519 --> 01:03:01.920
literally train but also fund these organizations, the units, death
952
01:03:01.960 --> 01:03:08.760
squads whatnot through US foreign aid. Yes, and there's a
953
01:03:08.880 --> 01:03:13.480
process of utter dehumanization of the person going through this
954
01:03:13.639 --> 01:03:17.559
system where they believe that they are doing the right thing,
955
01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:19.960
that they are fighting quote unquote vermin.
956
01:03:21.880 --> 01:03:28.920
There's a process and so yeah, and I didn't include
957
01:03:28.920 --> 01:03:30.480
it in my notes for the sake of time, but
958
01:03:30.559 --> 01:03:33.679
now I want to mention it. Mariano Dass when the
959
01:03:33.760 --> 01:03:37.079
trial happened, well, when he was arrested and his family
960
01:03:37.159 --> 01:03:40.960
found out, his sister was devastated because she looked up
961
01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:44.360
to black acid. Wow. He was from like a poor
962
01:03:44.440 --> 01:03:47.280
area of Honduras. He joined the military and this is
963
01:03:47.360 --> 01:03:51.760
common too, right, like people from impoverished areas who have
964
01:03:51.920 --> 01:03:55.719
no means of you know, making their way through life,
965
01:03:56.000 --> 01:04:00.599
end up doing these sign up for these horribic groups. Yes,
966
01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:05.000
he joined the military initially because he liked guns, of course,
967
01:04:05.079 --> 01:04:06.880
for the reason when he was a teen, like a
968
01:04:06.960 --> 01:04:10.559
teen boy, you know, like eighteen whatever, and he rose
969
01:04:10.599 --> 01:04:13.079
up through the rings because he was, you know, despite
970
01:04:13.119 --> 01:04:16.480
his poor background, bright and smart and wanted to get
971
01:04:16.519 --> 01:04:18.239
to the top. And that's how he ended up in
972
01:04:18.320 --> 01:04:21.400
this like elite unit being trained by the School of Americas.
973
01:04:21.880 --> 01:04:25.559
But his sister was devastated and couldn't believe that he
974
01:04:25.599 --> 01:04:32.679
would do something like this. Wow. Yeah. So March twenty eighteen,
975
01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:36.840
David Castillo who his name has come up as well,
976
01:04:37.840 --> 01:04:41.079
was arrested accused of being the mastermind behind her murder.
977
01:04:41.760 --> 01:04:45.880
He was the executive president of Dessa Everyone and the
978
01:04:46.039 --> 01:04:49.480
ninth person to be arrested. The trial was set for
979
01:04:49.599 --> 01:04:53.719
the seventeenth of September of that year. Protests and counter
980
01:04:53.840 --> 01:04:57.760
protests were present, but the trial was postponed due to
981
01:04:57.840 --> 01:05:00.840
an appeal MADA made by the family who believe justice
982
01:05:00.840 --> 01:05:03.599
would not come with these current judges because of their
983
01:05:03.719 --> 01:05:08.079
history of corruption. Makes sense, Yeah, So the trial was
984
01:05:08.119 --> 01:05:12.039
back on on October twenty fifth, twenty eighteen. The defendants
985
01:05:12.079 --> 01:05:17.360
accused of planning the attack were Serjiro Rodriguez, Orejana Douglas,
986
01:05:17.440 --> 01:05:23.280
Giovanni Ustillo, Mariano Dias and Henry Hetnandez Rodriguez. I miss
987
01:05:23.320 --> 01:05:26.280
somewhere in here Davi Gacillo. Oh, well that with Gacio
988
01:05:26.360 --> 01:05:28.239
was charged separate from them. That's why, because he was
989
01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:32.239
the mastermind. Yeah, okay, So the defendants accused of shooting
990
01:05:32.400 --> 01:05:34.280
of the shootings. So these are the four that were
991
01:05:34.280 --> 01:05:39.440
involved in the planning. Now the four accused of the
992
01:05:39.519 --> 01:05:45.320
shooting of Cartres Velaskiz, Elvin Rapallo, Areana and Edilson and
993
01:05:45.679 --> 01:05:53.079
m Deerson the twins. Text messages revealed during the trial
994
01:05:53.239 --> 01:05:58.719
connect the defendants together and also implicate the powerful Atala family.
995
01:05:59.440 --> 01:06:01.039
And I think I'm entering them. I don't know when
996
01:06:02.199 --> 01:06:06.039
I want to say. It was earlier on Yeah, let
997
01:06:06.079 --> 01:06:08.599
me go to a page. I wanted to read some
998
01:06:08.760 --> 01:06:13.679
of these text messages. So, Danielle Atala, I got you.
999
01:06:13.800 --> 01:06:16.360
Motherfuckers just found out one of those copine sons of
1000
01:06:16.440 --> 01:06:19.440
bitches left the country asking for political asylum in Norway,
1001
01:06:19.679 --> 01:06:24.920
Lo Olson Mache. His name is a Leano do Miguez Lito,
1002
01:06:25.639 --> 01:06:28.119
a murderer. I like to have a face to face
1003
01:06:28.599 --> 01:06:33.119
le Monto, I fucked him up, I swear. Maria Fernanda replied,
1004
01:06:33.199 --> 01:06:38.199
A oh my god, d A or Danielata, I see
1005
01:06:38.280 --> 01:06:41.519
him in the street and I'll fuck him up. Maria replied,
1006
01:06:41.559 --> 01:06:45.360
stay away, don't even think about it. Danielattala replied, he's
1007
01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:50.639
leaving today. Madia replied, but that's good. They're scared. Danielle
1008
01:06:50.800 --> 01:06:57.119
replied for the three Berta and Tomas three meters and
1009
01:06:58.320 --> 01:07:03.199
she wrote, I Leana wants a wii wowkawi for no
1010
01:07:03.280 --> 01:07:05.800
no wow. I don't know what she means by that though.
1011
01:07:06.119 --> 01:07:08.800
I don't know, like can you see, oh yeah, I
1012
01:07:08.880 --> 01:07:16.039
call wi no. I don't know. H yeah, I don't
1013
01:07:16.039 --> 01:07:20.039
know what what that means now. But but why does
1014
01:07:20.119 --> 01:07:22.960
he want to leave because there's an arrest warrant. I've
1015
01:07:22.960 --> 01:07:24.920
spent a lot of money. Oh sorry, and now this
1016
01:07:25.159 --> 01:07:29.079
is Daniella Tala. I spent a lot of money and
1017
01:07:29.199 --> 01:07:32.199
political gain to get those three arrest warrants. So this
1018
01:07:32.360 --> 01:07:35.719
is about twenty thirteen. Was still yeah when they were
1019
01:07:35.760 --> 01:07:40.800
initially arrested for the uh supposed damaging of the equipment
1020
01:07:40.880 --> 01:07:43.679
of DESA's equipment and so here he literally sings, I
1021
01:07:43.719 --> 01:07:45.599
spent a lot of money in political capital to get
1022
01:07:45.639 --> 01:07:49.360
those three arrestaurants. And then he wrote, after seeing them
1023
01:07:49.800 --> 01:07:52.559
commit five hundred crimes, it's really something the problem of
1024
01:07:52.639 --> 01:07:59.920
impunity and adulas. He wrote that no, and he paid
1025
01:08:00.079 --> 01:08:03.599
for them to be charged with a false crime. Wow,
1026
01:08:04.159 --> 01:08:08.480
what the hell? Yeah, he thought nothing about what he
1027
01:08:09.039 --> 01:08:20.199
did exactly. But these these text messages like would eventually
1028
01:08:20.279 --> 01:08:23.199
connect everyone the way it was all planned out, going
1029
01:08:23.279 --> 01:08:26.039
back to like at least a year before the actual murder.
1030
01:08:28.920 --> 01:08:33.720
These text messages were also unsurprisingly full of racism. On
1031
01:08:34.880 --> 01:08:39.520
December four to thirteen, Daniela Talla wrote, these Indians think
1032
01:08:39.640 --> 01:08:43.479
that women will become infertile because of the damn. He
1033
01:08:43.640 --> 01:08:49.840
called them half breeds in twenty fourteen. He wrote in
1034
01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:52.159
March twenty twelve, I'm sitting at a table and to
1035
01:08:52.359 --> 01:08:55.119
indios came in to invade my space and there's twenty
1036
01:08:55.159 --> 01:08:58.199
empty tables, Like why are they sitting near me? So
1037
01:08:58.359 --> 01:09:00.239
that's just an example of the kind of link which
1038
01:09:00.319 --> 01:09:05.319
that he, you know, used, and I don't know. This
1039
01:09:05.520 --> 01:09:10.399
just goes to show I don't know the racism, machismo
1040
01:09:11.399 --> 01:09:13.840
and obviously money and capitalism, like all these things are
1041
01:09:13.840 --> 01:09:16.279
connected and all were at play when she was murdered.
1042
01:09:16.760 --> 01:09:21.760
I didn't like fully get into it here, but her
1043
01:09:21.920 --> 01:09:29.000
daughters called it a political femicide. Yeah, which absolutely, but
1044
01:09:29.319 --> 01:09:33.199
also like I wish I remembered which one because I
1045
01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:38.159
confused the two if it was Dabid Gastillo or Douglas Bustillo.
1046
01:09:38.760 --> 01:09:42.399
But one of them would like occasionally send like messages
1047
01:09:42.479 --> 01:09:46.920
like my life needs nothing without you. You mean so
1048
01:09:47.079 --> 01:09:50.359
much to me, Tuberta. I just don't know which one
1049
01:09:50.399 --> 01:09:51.720
of the two it was, but one of them for
1050
01:09:51.840 --> 01:09:54.399
sure was doing this and then towards the end of
1051
01:09:54.439 --> 01:09:58.560
her life, I think it was Castillo, not Bustillo, also
1052
01:09:58.720 --> 01:10:00.560
pretended to be like try and be her friend, and
1053
01:10:00.720 --> 01:10:04.640
they were not part of this anymore. But so yeah,
1054
01:10:04.680 --> 01:10:10.399
there was like some sort of like sexual component to them. Yeah,
1055
01:10:10.680 --> 01:10:12.920
I just I didn't write down which one of the two,
1056
01:10:12.960 --> 01:10:15.560
but for sure one of them. It's just their names
1057
01:10:15.560 --> 01:10:22.279
are so similar. The trial also revealed a previous plot
1058
01:10:22.319 --> 01:10:25.039
to kill her a month before, but it was aborted
1059
01:10:25.199 --> 01:10:29.079
because Laura and Bertita happened to be visiting Bertha. Since
1060
01:10:29.119 --> 01:10:31.199
we're still on the trial, I wanted to share Laura
1061
01:10:31.279 --> 01:10:38.960
and Olivia their victim statements. Also, Olivia had given birth
1062
01:10:39.039 --> 01:10:41.720
a month just a month earlier, so like, I don't know,
1063
01:10:42.039 --> 01:10:46.760
literally standing at that stage is painful, and yet there
1064
01:10:46.840 --> 01:10:49.039
she was. So both of them spoke, and I'm just
1065
01:10:49.119 --> 01:10:51.800
going to share their statements back to back. Let me
1066
01:10:51.880 --> 01:10:55.960
fix my ear, but it's slided out, okay. Berta Cantidents
1067
01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:58.960
was a person who struggled, who was rebellious, who confronted
1068
01:10:59.039 --> 01:11:02.600
the Awa Sarka hydroelectric project because they violated human rights,
1069
01:11:02.920 --> 01:11:06.960
a project that caused bloodshed in link Goad Territory. Today,
1070
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:09.399
it's up to me to speak something I don't want
1071
01:11:09.439 --> 01:11:11.439
to do because no one wants to talk after their
1072
01:11:11.479 --> 01:11:14.560
mother has been murdered. It's up to me to speak
1073
01:11:14.640 --> 01:11:18.039
because this justice system didn't allow us to participate in
1074
01:11:18.119 --> 01:11:22.720
this process. It expelled us. Oh yeah, their lawyers were
1075
01:11:23.680 --> 01:11:25.960
I don't remember what excuse the meta, but their lawyers
1076
01:11:25.960 --> 01:11:30.800
were fired and they had to use public defenders for
1077
01:11:30.960 --> 01:11:34.520
the trial. It had something to do with the caravan,
1078
01:11:34.800 --> 01:11:38.479
the huge caravan that was migrating, yeah to the US,
1079
01:11:38.560 --> 01:11:40.319
and they were like put a stack to this caravan,
1080
01:11:40.560 --> 01:11:44.399
and so the lawyers, I don't remember exactly, something about
1081
01:11:44.479 --> 01:11:46.680
like the military and police were sent down to the
1082
01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:49.800
caravan to stop them from leaving on Duras and then
1083
01:11:50.039 --> 01:11:53.600
everyone was being arrested without fair trials, and so somehow
1084
01:11:53.800 --> 01:11:58.079
the president basically forced these lawyers to leave the trial
1085
01:11:58.439 --> 01:12:02.239
to go help people in this caravan being like illegally arrested,
1086
01:12:02.319 --> 01:12:04.880
Well something like that. Just don't quote me, but it
1087
01:12:04.960 --> 01:12:06.800
was something like that happening. So yeah, they were left
1088
01:12:06.840 --> 01:12:09.680
without a lawyer team. Okay, let me continue this quote. Now.
1089
01:12:10.159 --> 01:12:12.960
Our lawyers should be here explaining the context in which
1090
01:12:13.000 --> 01:12:16.119
this murder occurred, how they hunted her down. From the
1091
01:12:16.159 --> 01:12:19.359
moment my mom was murdered, we were excluded from the process.
1092
01:12:19.800 --> 01:12:22.319
We've had to fight for information at every moment, every
1093
01:12:22.399 --> 01:12:24.760
step of the way. We didn't do it on a whim.
1094
01:12:24.920 --> 01:12:26.840
We did it because we were prepared to do everything
1095
01:12:26.920 --> 01:12:29.520
necessary to get the truth, because we understand that it's
1096
01:12:29.600 --> 01:12:32.439
our right, because we understand that it's the right of
1097
01:12:32.479 --> 01:12:36.119
the Hindant people. We've been meticulous. We have asked for
1098
01:12:36.199 --> 01:12:38.760
the court to be rescued, and we have even filed
1099
01:12:38.800 --> 01:12:41.960
a complaint against state prosecutors because we want the best trial.
1100
01:12:42.680 --> 01:12:45.079
This is an important moment to make legal precedents for
1101
01:12:45.159 --> 01:12:48.760
the people of this country, who are fleeing, who are bleeding.
1102
01:12:49.439 --> 01:12:52.000
This was the opportunity to do it. The struggle for
1103
01:12:52.279 --> 01:12:55.760
justice Forberta Cassidis does not end here. We are not
1104
01:12:56.000 --> 01:12:59.800
passive victims. We will act because Berta Cassids deserves it,
1105
01:13:00.199 --> 01:13:03.239
because the Lenka people deserve it, because they keep on
1106
01:13:03.359 --> 01:13:07.720
persecuting us even now, because this criminal structure that killed
1107
01:13:07.760 --> 01:13:14.000
Berta Cassides is still active. And they should have been
1108
01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:15.920
the last people to speak, but for some reason they
1109
01:13:16.039 --> 01:13:20.039
let the defendants speak after them, where they still Each
1110
01:13:20.119 --> 01:13:24.640
defendant was like, I'm anacing, but should the fuck go?
1111
01:13:26.800 --> 01:13:30.640
Even with the botched on purpose investigation, the evidence was
1112
01:13:30.800 --> 01:13:39.239
like so strong again, phone messages between the group, phone
1113
01:13:39.640 --> 01:13:45.680
records placing them at her house, you know, so so yeah,
1114
01:13:45.720 --> 01:13:48.439
the evidence was strong enough to convict and the trial
1115
01:13:48.560 --> 01:13:52.199
ended with the conviction of seven. One of the twins
1116
01:13:53.800 --> 01:13:56.800
was like, actually not guilty. I just don't know which
1117
01:13:56.800 --> 01:13:59.800
one right now, I wrote later, so this is now November.
1118
01:14:00.960 --> 01:14:03.840
Before that though, on Day of the Dead, members of
1119
01:14:03.920 --> 01:14:06.399
Copine were tear gas when trying to place an altar
1120
01:14:06.600 --> 01:14:10.760
Forberta at the courthouse. Oh wow. So when the verdict
1121
01:14:10.920 --> 01:14:14.039
was read, seven of the eight were found guilty. Oh
1122
01:14:14.119 --> 01:14:18.479
Emmerson Duarte, he's the twin who was not guilty, But
1123
01:14:18.600 --> 01:14:22.479
the rest were all found guilty. Friends and family, though
1124
01:14:22.600 --> 01:14:26.560
they didn't celebrate. Instead, they issued a call to revoke
1125
01:14:26.760 --> 01:14:30.279
this SA's license for the Awua Sarka damn so the
1126
01:14:30.359 --> 01:14:34.479
people of Rio Blanco could finally live in peace. They
1127
01:14:34.640 --> 01:14:36.760
said to the press and the crowds, we demand that
1128
01:14:36.880 --> 01:14:39.600
the masterminds behind the murder be brought to justice. We
1129
01:14:39.720 --> 01:14:43.399
demand justice Froberta Gaseides in a country with so much impunity,
1130
01:14:43.960 --> 01:14:47.000
not just for our family, but for the rest before
1131
01:14:47.079 --> 01:14:51.000
the Lennga people, for Hoduras and all the environmentalists who've
1132
01:14:51.079 --> 01:14:54.479
lost their lives. Our battle for dignity, truth and justice
1133
01:14:54.520 --> 01:14:56.920
does not end here. We will keep fighting, just like
1134
01:14:57.039 --> 01:15:00.840
Berta Gasids did. And so the sentence one of the seven,
1135
01:15:01.239 --> 01:15:03.800
even though they were found guilty, wasn't done until December
1136
01:15:03.880 --> 01:15:09.880
twenty nineteen. Oh wow. The four hitmen were sentenced to
1137
01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:12.640
thirty four years for the murder of Berta Cassides, plus
1138
01:15:12.720 --> 01:15:16.720
sixteen years for the attempted murder of Gustavo Castro. The
1139
01:15:16.840 --> 01:15:20.600
other three defendants received thirty year sentences for helping organize
1140
01:15:20.640 --> 01:15:24.640
the assassination. Then, in twenty twenty one, Da Vid Castillo
1141
01:15:25.840 --> 01:15:28.960
was found guilty of polotin the assassination of Berta cassides
1142
01:15:29.199 --> 01:15:32.760
by the Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling. This trial
1143
01:15:32.840 --> 01:15:36.920
lasted forty nine days. The ruling stated that Castillo had
1144
01:15:37.039 --> 01:15:41.039
used paid informants and military contracts to monitor Berta Casides,
1145
01:15:41.520 --> 01:15:43.960
and he was the one who coordinated, planned and obtained
1146
01:15:44.000 --> 01:15:48.920
the money to pay for the assassination. However, the family
1147
01:15:49.079 --> 01:15:54.000
continues calling for justice to this day because although he
1148
01:15:54.399 --> 01:15:57.159
was the mastermind behind the plan, he was not the
1149
01:15:57.239 --> 01:15:59.760
person at the top. The people at the top were
1150
01:16:00.319 --> 01:16:04.760
the Danielle Attala who I mentioned already, and another Atala
1151
01:16:04.840 --> 01:16:06.920
member I can't remember his name. But this is all
1152
01:16:07.039 --> 01:16:11.319
in the GIEI report, the long one, Yes, the five
1153
01:16:11.399 --> 01:16:15.119
hundred page report. They published it in January. Ooh, was
1154
01:16:15.119 --> 01:16:18.800
it January twenty twenty six or twenty thirty five? One
1155
01:16:18.840 --> 01:16:22.399
of those two very recently two recently honestly. Yeah. So
1156
01:16:23.199 --> 01:16:26.920
this is a group of specialists from different disciplines focused
1157
01:16:26.920 --> 01:16:32.960
on conducting independent and specialized investigations and in Onduras, I
1158
01:16:33.039 --> 01:16:36.800
want to say twenty twenty two was when they started
1159
01:16:36.880 --> 01:16:45.239
investigating Erta Casseres. Yeah, and so they in their report
1160
01:16:45.640 --> 01:16:51.720
they found that international banks and Hunduran elites were at
1161
01:16:51.760 --> 01:16:56.720
the center of herd murder. They used more than eighteen
1162
01:16:56.760 --> 01:17:01.000
point five million dollars provided by the Central American Bank
1163
01:17:01.039 --> 01:17:04.880
for Economic Integration, the b c i E and the
1164
01:17:05.119 --> 01:17:10.800
Dune Development Bank FMO for the Aguasarka hydro electric project
1165
01:17:11.239 --> 01:17:16.039
to pay for surveillance and intelligence operations and the assassination
1166
01:17:16.279 --> 01:17:22.039
Erda cassad is damn eighteen point five million dollars. That
1167
01:17:22.640 --> 01:17:26.720
is a shit ton, Yes, and this is the report
1168
01:17:26.800 --> 01:17:32.319
that specifically implicate implicates those two banks. And yes, Daniela Talla,
1169
01:17:32.439 --> 01:17:35.640
who I already named Jose Eduardo Atala as well, and
1170
01:17:35.720 --> 01:17:38.159
Pedro Atala and that's the two other names that I
1171
01:17:38.279 --> 01:17:41.439
was looking for. So there was a chat found by
1172
01:17:41.520 --> 01:17:47.199
this report specifically where you know, together Castillo, who is
1173
01:17:47.279 --> 01:17:51.079
already in sentence and in jail is talk is like planning,
1174
01:17:51.199 --> 01:17:58.039
plotting with Daniela Tala and Pedro Atala and out of
1175
01:17:58.159 --> 01:18:01.079
them like he's the only way in jail. Oh wow.
1176
01:18:01.840 --> 01:18:04.920
And this is a very rich, powerful like family who's
1177
01:18:04.960 --> 01:18:07.000
been super rich and powerful for a very long time
1178
01:18:07.079 --> 01:18:09.760
in Nondudas and so like they're basically in searchible, but
1179
01:18:09.880 --> 01:18:14.840
they were involved. And yeah, the report just like lays
1180
01:18:14.880 --> 01:18:18.079
out how this went down, all the messages, all the
1181
01:18:18.159 --> 01:18:22.319
transfer of money that happened, and how the plan to
1182
01:18:22.479 --> 01:18:26.880
like initially kill her was made two years before between
1183
01:18:27.000 --> 01:18:29.960
all of them they realized they had to like kill
1184
01:18:30.039 --> 01:18:34.199
Bertha too because without her coping, they believed, without her
1185
01:18:34.239 --> 01:18:38.439
coping would give up. And so the Atala family has
1186
01:18:38.520 --> 01:18:42.600
denied their role in the killing, but the financial trail
1187
01:18:42.680 --> 01:18:46.800
from the report makes it pretty clear and it makes
1188
01:18:46.840 --> 01:18:49.399
it quote very difficult to accept that they were unaware
1189
01:18:49.479 --> 01:18:55.279
of how those funds were ultimately used. So yeah, Castillo
1190
01:18:55.439 --> 01:18:58.479
was in direct communication with for sure Daniela Tala, but
1191
01:18:58.560 --> 01:19:01.800
the other three were our be like aware And in
1192
01:19:01.880 --> 01:19:05.720
twenty twenty three, prosecutors did issue in a rest warrant
1193
01:19:05.760 --> 01:19:09.439
for Danielle Atala, but he as of right now remains
1194
01:19:09.439 --> 01:19:14.840
a fugitive. But FMO the bank or the other Atala
1195
01:19:15.039 --> 01:19:18.319
Tea found members named in the report, they have like
1196
01:19:18.479 --> 01:19:22.199
yet to face any accountability for any of this, and
1197
01:19:22.279 --> 01:19:25.079
so they're calling, you know, for full accountability and that
1198
01:19:25.239 --> 01:19:29.439
like justice won't end until until everyone faces some kind
1199
01:19:29.439 --> 01:19:35.119
of charges or some accountability or something exactly. Yeah, and yeah,
1200
01:19:36.359 --> 01:19:39.520
that was the last part of Berta Casides. I did
1201
01:19:39.680 --> 01:19:43.880
leave out all of the recognition awards that she's received
1202
01:19:44.000 --> 01:19:50.359
since her death. They're endless and coping continues their fight,
1203
01:19:51.159 --> 01:19:55.079
still seeking justice for Berta Casaids as well. I found
1204
01:19:55.119 --> 01:19:58.800
something from twenty twenty two, but it hasn't been updated
1205
01:19:58.880 --> 01:20:02.800
since then, and it's a website that tracks dodgy deals
1206
01:20:02.840 --> 01:20:07.720
that banks make called bank truck interesting. Oh and they
1207
01:20:07.800 --> 01:20:12.640
have a page on Nahwasarka hydro project and it says,
1208
01:20:13.079 --> 01:20:16.520
following the death of Bettacasids and the ongoing human rights violations,
1209
01:20:16.560 --> 01:20:21.680
all financiers FMO, finfund and KAPI must immediately terminate to
1210
01:20:21.720 --> 01:20:24.159
support for the project and leave. And then it says
1211
01:20:24.239 --> 01:20:27.600
update July twenty seventeen, FML and finfund confirmed their exsit
1212
01:20:27.680 --> 01:20:30.880
from the project. So yeah, I mean it sounds like
1213
01:20:30.920 --> 01:20:34.560
the major backers financial backers backed out in twenty seventeen
1214
01:20:34.640 --> 01:20:38.279
after her murder. Yeah, I think that's what it is.
1215
01:20:38.399 --> 01:20:43.720
The Iwasaka project specifically was stopped because of the the
1216
01:20:43.960 --> 01:20:48.199
major funding pulled out and lighter her murder, but things
1217
01:20:48.600 --> 01:20:54.079
like it are still happening. Yeah, Okay, and now that
1218
01:20:54.319 --> 01:20:59.520
was the end of part four. Wow, wow, wow, finally
1219
01:20:59.560 --> 01:21:01.640
all the parts are in and I will listen in
1220
01:21:01.720 --> 01:21:06.399
a row. Yeah, in a row? No, I don't think so.
1221
01:21:06.520 --> 01:21:08.640
I guess a reminder to everyone, maybe we should say
1222
01:21:08.680 --> 01:21:10.039
at the top for anyone that doesn't get to the
1223
01:21:10.159 --> 01:21:13.600
end of the episodes that we are on in every
1224
01:21:13.640 --> 01:21:17.279
other week schedule now and for the foreseeable feature until
1225
01:21:17.399 --> 01:21:24.159
Miss Mama Let's research over here graduates. Yes, yes, and
1226
01:21:24.399 --> 01:21:26.760
you can still catch us though every week if you
1227
01:21:27.760 --> 01:21:31.560
are a Patreon member. Yeah. Or also if you if
1228
01:21:31.600 --> 01:21:35.840
you alternate your listens between the Spooky Toes and Studia's Unknown,
1229
01:21:36.039 --> 01:21:39.319
there'll be live toes every week. Yeah, it's one week
1230
01:21:39.439 --> 01:21:43.439
one and one week the other. So or a Patreon
1231
01:21:43.560 --> 01:21:46.079
like you said, where we yap about current events and
1232
01:21:46.239 --> 01:21:51.279
the horrible state of things. Sometimes fun stuff, yeah, yeah,
1233
01:21:51.319 --> 01:21:54.319
sometimes fun stuff. I forget what we talked about last so,
1234
01:21:54.720 --> 01:21:58.600
oh the thing at the White House Correspondent dinner. Oh yeah,
1235
01:21:58.680 --> 01:22:05.000
that thing? That thing? Yes, okay, Well, and if you
1236
01:22:05.039 --> 01:22:07.039
want to listen to that, yeah, head over to Patreon.
1237
01:22:07.119 --> 01:22:09.680
And other than that, we'll catch you next time. And
1238
01:22:09.960 --> 01:22:12.439
we hope this was one less Estoria Unknown for you
1239
01:22:13.079 --> 01:22:19.640
Bye Bye. Estoria Unknown is produced by Carmen and Christina,
1240
01:22:19.800 --> 01:22:23.000
researched by Carmen and Christina, edited by Christina. You can
1241
01:22:23.039 --> 01:22:25.760
find sources for every episode at estoria's unknown dot com
1242
01:22:26.079 --> 01:22:28.600
and in our show notes. Creating the podcast has a
1243
01:22:28.640 --> 01:22:29.880
lot of work, so if you want to help us
1244
01:22:29.880 --> 01:22:32.800
out financially, you can do so by supporting us on
1245
01:22:33.039 --> 01:22:36.119
Patreon at Patreon dot com. Slash studio as an own
1246
01:22:36.119 --> 01:22:36.520
podcast