[The following is an email sent to some movement listservs by Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto from his place of detention in the Public Ministry, La Esperanza, Honduras, the day after gunmen shot him twice and killed Berta Cáceres, leaving him as the sole witness to the assassination.]
Dear friends, family, and allies in the fight,
From this land where we saw the birth and death of our dear Berta, incredible friend, a loyal and exceptional woman, I would like to give you all thanks for your solidarity and care. Little by little, in moments when I can receive messages, I see that everything [in the movement] is moving out there.
The signal here is not good, but the signal is also not good when it’s carried by a thousand ministerial declarations.
Here the waters are a whirlwind. The assassins that murdered Bertha and who intended to assassinate me remain in impunity, while the government sets out to undermine the memory of Berta, the honor, and the magnificent fight that COPINH has done for years in defense of life, territory, and human rights.
I saw Bertha die in my arms but I also saw her heart planted as a seed in every fight that COPINH has waged, and in all the people that we knew. Not even the rain can match all the tears poured out over her departure. There is no force that resembles the fight of the Lenca people day by day, inch by inch, defending their territory against the large transnationals. They maintain an unwavering fight against more than 40 hydroelectric projects, against tens of mining projects, and recover their territories in more than 50 parts of their beautiful, Honduran ancestral region. COPINH marches, walks, protests, recovers, and extends its hand in solidarity with the movements. This was what Bertha did, too.
The assassination of Bertha could signify, for many businesses and interests, the opportunity to advance upon the Lenca territories. But COPINH is stronger than ever and it will need everyone’s solidarity to join in the struggle, with solidarity and with the memory of Bertha.
The hit men already know I did not die, and I'm sure that they are committed to accomplishing their assignment. Meanwhile, the Mexican consulate immediately came to my aid, and they have not left my side, along with patrols and police. But this does not mean my life is no longer in danger, and it's something the Honduran government does not want to see, intending to this day to detain me in order to control the information of my declarations. They threaten that if I go to Tegucigalpa for my security, they will send orders for preventive apprehension. Or if I leave without their consent, there will be no security on our behalf.
I did not commit a crime, as I have already declared. The rest of the formalities [in the investigation], I can do from within my country.
It hurts me enormously to be enclosed, alone, in the same city where thousands congregate only a few blocks away to say goodbye to our beloved Berta. But I want to tell everyone that I'm with you, crying for the loss of Bertica, but also being thankful for having known her and having been inspired by her.
But I know I must go, and the government is still preparing to present their deception to the public: that the assassination of Berta was due to internal conflict, when there were lawsuits against those who had wanted to assassinate her, linking them to the hydroelectric company that is protected by the state. They only wanted to ask [me] about the internal matters of COPINH in order to tear apart and finish off one of the most emblematic fights in Honduras of the last 20 years.
It is true that my declarations get in the way of placing the blame on the ones they truly want to put in jail. I did not hear cars arrive or leave during the assassination; the scene of the crime was modified and altered; the blood tests and other tests left blank lines that can later be altered; they are calling in most of the people of COPINH to give their [legal] declarations, but they are not calling in those previously suspected of planning to assassinate Berta.
Until today, I have not received official medical attention for my wounds, but a family and another doctor saw to my wounds out of solidarity. All yesterday morning and well into the night, I could [not] change my bloody clothing. They held my suitcase and wouldn’t give it back to me. In fact, I was in a total fast, until [this] afternoon when they offered me something to eat. I hadn’t had anything to eat until today, I was just answering questions, taking tests, and anything else that occurred to them. It appears that they have forgotten that I am a victim, and in 48 hours I have not closed my eyes, I have been without rest responding to their formalities. However, the most wonderful thing is that there have always been people from COPINH outside, in the waiting room at all times, watching out for my security, silent, attentive, marvelous. One can feel human warmth and tremendous solidarity. One feels safer with them than with a thousand policemen.
Last night, after leaving the Public Ministry and going to the court to testify as a protected witness, dressed in a black tunic to the heels and a black hood, I returned for more tests and questions. Finally, they gave me a chance to change my clothes and they brought my suitcase, but they took it away again. The consul found a hotel, while many hundreds were arriving to the city to say goodbye to Bertica. Once again in the morning, we finally arrived at a hotel room to rest a few hours, for today we were to go to Tegucigalpa. But they came to show me photos and videos and to identify the assassin that I met face-to-face. Lamentably, all the videos and photos they showed me were of COPINH marches, and they asked me to point out who the assassin had been. But they have not shown me the owners of the companies or their assassins. Instead of two hours, it was four hours of more photos and more of the same questions.
Finally today we were to leave, and we disturbed the hornets’ nest. Right when we were about to get in the consul’s armored pick-up truck to take us to Tegucigalpa, there arrived from that city the high functionaries of the office of the attorney for crimes against life, and from the Technical Agency of Criminal Investigation, and they asked me to stay, to help them with reconstruction of the facts. I thought about it and decided to stay, but on the condition that they allow me to go to Berta’s wake with the people. They have agreed. Oh! And may they have coffee during the long hours of the reconstruction of the facts, because I hope to be able to finish and get through the reconstruction of this assassination and calamity.
I hope that this is the last thing this government asks of me, because even though I do not like it they are likely to detain me preventively because I am the only witness. But confusion does not reign only in our hearts, crushed for having had to bury Bertica before her time; it also reigns in this public ministry and in its dependencies.
Well, I agreed to help in this difficult task of the reconstruction of the facts. For Bertica, for COPINH, because some day justice will be done and the projects of death and destruction will be expelled from these territories.
Thank you to so many for your solidarity, for being attentive to these brave people. Thank you, my sincere thank you. It has brought me even more to tears to see that my work team, that my friends, and that so many people have been so concerned about denouncing this situation.
Thanks to Amelia Ousley and William Fischer for translating this letter.