A shocking new investigation has concluded that the state and an energy company plotted and carried out the murder of internationally-recognized Honduran environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres.

The International Advisory Group of Experts, or GAIPE for its initials in Spanish, consists of five lawyers from the US, Guatemala, and Colombia picked by Berta Caceres's indigenous rights organization.  They worked independently of the Honduran government's probe.  Their report (.pdf link) cites evidence that the plot involved state agents and went all the way to the top of the Honduran energy company Desarrollos Energeticos (DESA) behind the Agua Zarca Dam that Berta Caceres opposed because it threatened to contaminate the Lenca community's water supply from the Gualcarque River.

Berta Caceres

Ms. Caceres was murdered on 2 March 2016 by gunmen who forced their way into her home in the middle of the night.  Gustavo Castro Soto, a Mexican activist, was wounded.  Eight people including members of the security force are charged in the murder, and the government considers them to be the originators.  But the independent investigators say the plot began four months earlier. 

"Despite the secrecy of the Public Prosecutor's investigation, GAIPE has been able to establish the participation of executives, managers and employees of DESA, of private security personnel hired by the company, of state agents and parallel structures to State security forces in crimes committed before, during and after the day of the assassination," the report said.  "Those crimes remain unpunished," it continued. adultarea

GAIPE did not accuse any specific DESA executive of involvement in the killing.  And DESA has repeatedly denied involvement in the murder or any other illegal actions, and accused anti-dam protesters of property damage.