Investors pull funding from contested Honduran hydro project

[Judi Lynn]

Investors pull funding from contested Honduran hydro project

by: Sarah S. Forth
June 14 2016

European investors announced late last month they have pulled funding from the contested Agua Zarca hydroelectric project in western Honduras.

Finnish and Dutch development finance companies, FinnFund and FMO respectively, had suspended activities in Honduras following the March assassination of Berta Cáceres, an Indigenous Lenca woman and founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras: COPINH).

COPINH has been at the forefront of a multi-year campaign to stop the Agua Zarca project on Río Gualcarque, which they consider sacred and vital to Lenca survival. In 2015, Cáceres was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for leading that struggle.

Early in May, five men were arrested for Cáceres' murder. Two had direct ties to DESA, the Honduran development firm behind the hydroelectric project: Sergio Rodríguez, DESA's social issues manager, and Douglas Bustillo, retired military officer and DESA's former deputy chief of security. Two other military officers, one active and one retired, also were arrested, along with a gang member accused of being the hit man hired for $2,200.

More:
http://peoplesworld.org/investors-pull-funding-from-contested-honduran-hydro-project/

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