BERTHA ZÚNIGA CÁCERES: [translated] I think that the role of the coup is, well, the reason for the deaths of hundreds of activists and defenders of life, because at the root of the problem that the indigenous peoples are facing is this, for it’s since the coup that hundreds of concessions were given for hydroelectric exploitation, for mining. Model cities were established, also sales of oxygen and a number of projects aimed at dispossessing the population. So, we are actually experiencing the coup d’état now with the establishment of a whole series of projects that are strengthening an economic model that represents the pillage of the common goods of nature. So it is very significant, and we are seeing the consequences in the situations we’re now experiencing.

AMY GOODMAN: Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most dangerous places in the world. A few days ago, we were speaking to Greg Grandin, who is a professor of history at New York University, and asked him about what Berta Cáceres said about Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2009 coup, when she was secretary of state. In this clip, we hear Berta Cáceres and then the response by Greg Grandin. Juan González and I were interviewing him. Cáceres appeared on the Argentine TV program Resumen Latinoamericano.

BERTA CÁCERES: [translated] We’re coming out of a coup that we can’t put behind us. We can’t reverse it. It just kept going. And after, there was the issue of the elections. The same Hillary Clinton, in her book, Hard Choices, practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the meddling of North Americans in our country. The return of the president, Mel Zelaya, became a secondary issue. There were going to be elections in Honduras. And here, she, Clinton, recognized that they didn’t permit Mel Zelaya’s return to the presidency. There were going to be elections. And the international community—officials, the government, the grand majority—accepted this, even though we warned this was going to be very dangerous and that it would permit a barbarity, not only in Honduras but in the rest of the continent. And we’ve been witnesses to this.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres speaking in 2014. She was murdered last week in her home in La Esperanza in Honduras. Last year, she won the Goldman Environmental Prize. She’s a leading environmentalist in the world. Professor Grandin?

GREG GRANDIN: Yeah, and she criticizes Hillary Clinton’s book, Hard Choices, where Clinton was holding up her actions in Honduras as an example of a clear-eyed pragmatism. I mean, that book is effectively a confession. Every other country in the world or in Latin America was demanding the restitution of democracy and the return of Manuel Zelaya. It was Clinton who basically relegated that to a secondary concern and insisted on elections, which had the effect of legitimizing and routinizing the coup regime and creating the nightmare scenario that exists today.