Honduras arrests suspect in murder of environmental activist

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Honduras arrests suspect in murder of environmental activist

Sun Mar 27, 2016 1:40pm EDT

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras has arrested a suspect in the murder of an environmental rights activist and colleague of recently slain award-winning indigenous leader Berta Caceres, officials said on Sunday.

Didier Enrique "Electric" Ramirez was apprehended for his alleged role in the killing of Nelson Garcia, 39, who was shot dead earlier this month by at least two assailants following a dispute with local landowners, authorities said in a statement.

Garcia was killed near his house in the San Francisco de Yoyoa region, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Caceres, a 43-year-old teacher, was shot and killed earlier this month by two men at her home in La Esperanza, Honduras, 112 miles (180 kilometers) west of Tegucigalpa.

Read more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKCN0WT0LL?rpc=401

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This kid is allegedly the suspect, Didier Enrique "Electric" Ramirez [/center]

[Judi Lynn]

1. Nephew of murdered Honduran activist Cáceres: 'The atmosphere is terrifying'

Nephew of murdered Honduran activist Cáceres: 'The atmosphere is terrifying'

Silvio Carrillo grew up alongside Berta Cáceres, a leading campaigner for human rights. After the deaths of hundreds of campaigners in Honduras in the span of a few years, he believes his aunt was targeted for her efforts

David Smith in Washington
Wednesday 9 March 2016 06.30 EST

Silvio Carrillo holds a creased black and white photo of a three-year-old girl, frowning at the camera and clutching a doll, and fights back the tears. The girl grew up to be his aunt, Berta Cáceres, a fearless human rights activist and heroine to indigenous people in Honduras. Last week, she was shot dead in her home, a day shy of her 45th birthday.

Cáceres had long complained of death threats from police, the army and landowners’ groups over her opposition to one of Central America’s biggest hydropower projects. She won the 2015 Goldman environmental prize, regarded as the world’s top award for grassroots environmental activism.

Carrillo, 43, told the Guardian he believed she had been targeted for her work. “She pissed a lot of people off … She was a major threat to the establishment.

“She was a moral leader. She was put on this grand stage and that multiplied when she won the Goldman prize. If you heard her speak, she was powerful. She was near becoming impossible to take down,” he said.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/berta-caceres-honduras-activist-murder-nephew-silvio-carrillo-interview

[Judi Lynn]

2. Fellow Honduran activist Nelson García murdered days after Berta Cáceres

Fellow Honduran activist Nelson García murdered days after Berta Cáceres

The murder of another member of Berta Cáceres’ activist organisation Copinh comes amid growing fears for the safety of her colleagues and family members

Nina Lakhani in Mexico City
Wednesday 16 March 2016 15.34 EDT

Another indigenous activist has been murdered in Honduras amid an escalating wave of repression against the relatives and colleagues of renowned campaigner Berta Cáceres, who was murdered less than two weeks ago.

Nelson García, 38, an active member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Copinh) was killed on Tuesday after a violent eviction carried out by Honduran security forces in a nearby Lenca indigenous community.

García was shot dead in the face by unidentified gunmen as he returned to his family home in Río Lindo, north-west Honduras – about 100 miles south of La Esperanza where Cáceres was murdered at home on 3 March.

García spent the morning with the Río Chiquito community where more than one hundred police and military officers helped evict dozens of families from land which local politicians claim doesn’t belong to them. Their simple timber houses and crops were destroyed using heavy machinery yesterday morning, according to Copinh.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/16/berta-caceres-nelson-garcia-murdered-copinh-fellow-activist

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Nelson Garcia[/center]

[JudyM]

3. Ugh.

[jhart3333]

4. What does this mean?

Are feeling the heat? Also, with Caceres being threatened by the police and army I have no confidence in this kid being in on it.

[Judi Lynn]

5. I agree with you. What would a young man like him have against an environmental activist?

He has nothing to gain, but the wildly corrupt, violent government, serving the big money interests certainly does.

[jhart3333]

6. I'm just surprised that they arrested anyone at all. What gives?

[MisterP]

7. arrest the hired gunman and nobody else--it completes the circle

and pressing the case further can be depicted as a smear campaign--"there's no impunity here!" as the deaths keep going

[jhart3333]

8. Okay. Got it.

I do think they are feeling the heat.

[MisterP]

9. yes, the militarization surge is dependent on US funding and we've fallen ass-first right into the

same "mistakes" that fed the unified PRI-protected One Big Cartel in the 80s, until Ollie North's illiterate buddy gave us Red Ribbon Week

thing is, the Caceres murder came after hundreds and hundreds of others, but it was the "breakout" story even more than the wave of unaccompanied minors in 2014--and it's hit at the primary race now, because before she had to wind up the pandercane, she'd bragged about facilitating the 2009 coup and her "tough on democracy" stance and sending them back to teach them a lesson

Caceres directly named Clinton as one of the key causes of the coup that completely unleashed hell on her country
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/11/before_her_assassination_berta_caceres_singled

[flamingdem]

10. Sigh, a kid

I hope he talks

[cprise]

11. Uh, oh. May be time for some more regime change.

[Sunlei]

12. looks like they beatup whoever they arrested.