Just yesterday another Honduran activist was murdered. Lesbia Urquia worked alongside Berta Cáceres, the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, to stop the Agua Zarca dam project in Honduras that would destroy their community's land.
This is a pattern of extrajudicial killings of Honduran human rights activists to protect corporate profits by the Honduran government, so there's been no justice in these tragic murders.
But all that can change if we take action. Right now, Congress is considering a bill that would halt U.S. military aid until Honduras cleans up its human rights record.
We know we can win. In the past few months, over 180,000 SumOfUs members successfully pushed FMO Development Bank to exit the Agua Zarca dam project after Berta's death.
If we reach 50,000 signatures, we will deliver this petition to Rep. Johnson so he can tell congress that tens of thousands of Americans stand with Berta.
Let Congress know that voters stand with Rep. Johnson and demand the U.S. end its complicity in Honduras' human rights abuses.
Cáceres was murdered by four men in March, two of whom are linked to the company building the Agua Zarca dam Cáceres had rallied against. Such killings are often linked to corrupt police and security forces, says the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Hank Johnson.
Honduras is the world’s most dangerous country for environmental rights defenders, according to the NGO Global Witness. And in cases like the murder of Berta Cáceres, it is clear to see the how foreign corporations and corrupt government and police officials conspire to clamp down on activists.
Cáceres’ successor, Tomás Gómez Membreño, continues to speak out against the injustices Cáceres died fighting. He says that her death is tied to “capitalist neoliberal policies” that allow foreign corporations to exploit the resources of indigenous Hondurans. And the U.S. is not free from blame -- it was a major global player that validated the legitimacy of the Honduran government that wrested power from a duly elected president in 2009.
Together we’ve been coming together to continue the fight against corporations trying to profit off our lands. And tens of thousands of us stood by fellow Goldman Environmental Prize winner Maxima Acuña, in her fight against mining giant Newmont. And we won! Newmont Mining dropped the Conga Mine after years of campaigning by Maxima and our partner groups.
We now have the opportunity to push our own government to do the right thing and end military aid to Honduras until human rights violations -- like the murder of Berta Cáceres -- are properly investigated.
Sign the petition to tell Congress you support the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras bill.
More information
Democracy Now. 15 June 2016.