On August 30, 2019, the Due Process of Law Foundation, Guatemala Human Rights Commission, International Platform Against Impunity, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and School of the Americas Watch released a report which profiles Roberto David Castillo and related companies. Castillo is a former Honduran military intelligence official, former government official, and businessman charged with the murder of internationally recognized Indigenous and social movement leader Berta Cáceres. The report brings together information that implicates Castillo in a pattern of human rights violations and corruption to benefit companies with which he was associated.
Evidence suggests that the murder of Berta Cáceres was part of a pattern of violence, corruption, intimidation, malicious prosecution and impunity orchestrated by Castillo and others at DESA, who appear to have functioned as a criminal structure. Evidence admitted in the first trial for the murder of Berta Cáceres suggests that Castillo and his associates and employees enlisted the support of key agencies of the Honduran government, using improper influence in the Ministry of Security, police, military and the Honduran judiciary, seemingly to advance efforts to intimidate, persecute, and neutralize Berta Cáceres and COPINH’s opposition to the Agua Zarca project. The report also sheds light on the role of international actors, including development banks and investor.
Read the report here: www.soaw.org
