Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (March 4, 1971 – March 2, 2016) was a Honduran indigenous leader, feminist and environmental activist. She cofounded the COPINH (Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) with her husband, Salvador Zúñiga, to fight for the rights of the Lenca people and for the defense of the environment in Intibucá, for its land and rivers and for its culture. She was the daughter of Bertha Flores, a midwife, a nurse and the first female mayor of La Esperanza and of Honduras. She fought with the guerilla in El Salvador.
In her environmental activism, she was particularly vocal against the privatization of rivers and the hydroelectric dam projects with international investors, especially in her fight against the Agua Zarca dam project at the Gualcarque River and against the exploitation of the minerals and wood. She also opposed different oligarchic governments in Honduras, which, according to the NGO Global Witness, is the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activism, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
Berta Cáceres had been reporting the harassment, the serious violence and death threats made against her and her family, and against members of the COPINH, for years. Due to the persecution, her mother and her children had to leave the country, while she herself took extreme precautions: every night she would sleep in a different place, she rarely communicated by telephone and she always travelled with another person.
At almost midnight on March 2, 2016, Berta Cáceres was in La Esperanza, at her home, when her murderers entered, shooting her and a fellow environmentalist from Mexico, who was wounded.
Thousands of people attended her funeral, celebrated on March 5, 2016 in La Esperanza, a funeral that turned into a local tribute. The ceremony was led by Priest Ismael Moreno Coto and Father Fausto Milla. After the ceremony, her daughters led a march through the entire city, demanding justice and speaking out against the impunity for the murderers of environmental leaders in Honduras. Most of the people proceeded to La Esperanza Cemetery, where Berta Cáceres’ remains were laid to rest.
Today she has become a mythical figure and is seen as a symbol in America and many European countries.
She won the Goldman Environmental Prize, the highest distinction in the world for environmental activists.
There have been two short films and one full-length movie made about her life.
LIBERPRESS MEMORIAL AWARD 2019
BERTA CÁCERES is remembered with the LIBERPRESS MEMORIAL AWARD 2019 for having fought her entire life for justice and oppressed people, trying to improve the lives of indigenous people and gaining respect for them, especially the Lenca; for speaking out against the abuses committed by the Honduran governments and international companies, the theft and destruction of the water resources, land and environment. She lost her life in this noble fight, having become a referent and world symbol.