Lenny Bruce often said that the only obscene four-letter word he knew was D-e-a-d. In this case I entirely agree with him; Berta’s assassination was an obscenity in a long line of them in Honduras, and among Indigenous land defenders around the world. Given that truth, I decided to show her to you in her coffin, bless her wonderful, courageous heart.
Rest in Power, Berta Cáceres. Your martyrdom will soon become epic to the cause.
““Hondurans are being shot dead in broad daylight, kidnapped, or assaulted for standing in the way of their land and the companies who want to monetise it,” said Billy Kyte, campaigner at Global Witness. “These are not isolated incidents – they are symptomatic of a systematic assault on remote and indigenous communities by a collusion of state and corporate actors. Urgent action is needed to protect those in the firing line, and bring perpetrators to justice.”
‘Assassination of Berta Caceres Sparks Outrage in Honduras’, Telesurtv.net, (includes a photo array)
“Renowned Honduran environmental activist and Indigenous leader Berta Caceres was assassinated March 3, 2015 when gunmen broke into her home at 1:00 a.m. local time after she had gone to sleep. Her murder has sent shockwaves across Honduras, where she was a key figure in the national resistance movement as well as local struggles in the Rio Blanco community through the Indigenous organization she founded known as COPINH. Caceres had received a barrage of death threats, threats of kidnapping, sexual harassment, and threats against her family as a result of her resistance against unwanted corporate development projects in the community and against the injustices of the Honduran government. According to Global Witness, Honduras is the most deadly country in the world for land and environmental defenders.”
Greg Grandin doesn’t mince his words in: ‘The Clinton-Backed Honduran Regime Is Picking Off Indigenous Leaders’; The names of Berta Cáceres’s murderers are yet unknown. But we know who killed her.
“Hillary Clinton will be good for women. Ask Berta Cáceres. But you can’t. She’s dead. Gunned down yesterday, March 2, at midnight, in her hometown of La Esperanza, Intibuca, in Honduras.
Cáceres was a vocal and brave indigenous leader, an opponent of the 2009 Honduran coup that Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, made possible. In The Nation, Dana Frank and I covered that coup as it unfolded. Later, as Clinton’s emails were released, others, such as Robert Naiman, Mark Weisbrot, and Alex Main, revealed the central role she played in undercutting Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, and undercutting the opposition movement demanding his restoration. In so doing, Clinton allied with the worst sectors of Honduran society. [snip]
“Since Zelaya’s ouster, there’s been an all-out assault on these decent people—torture, murder, militarization of the countryside, repressive laws, such as the absolute ban on the morning-after pill, the rise of paramilitary security forces, and the wholesale deliverance of the country’s land and resources to transnational pillagers. That’s not to mention libertarian fantasies, promoted by billionaires such as PayPal’s Peter Thiel and Milton Friedman’s grandson (can’t make this shit up), of turning the country into some kind of Year-Zero stateless utopia. (Watch this excellent documentary by Jesse Freeston on La Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguán Valley.)
“Such is the nature of the “unity government” Clinton helped institutionalize. In her book, Hard Choices, Clinton holds up her Honduran settlement as a proud example of her trademark clear-eyed, “pragmatic” foreign policy approach.”
New from TRNN: ‘Jesse Freeston, the director of the documentary “Resistencia,” tells us how Berta Caceres has become a martyr in the struggle against the Honduran post-coup regime and how the Obama administration bears responsibility for the current situation in Honduras.
Mark Weisbrot’s 2014 essay that Grandin linked to above is breath-taking: “Hard choices: Hillary Clinton admits role in Honduran coup aftermath”; ‘Clinton’s embrace of far-right narrative on Latin America is part of electoral strategy’
A teaser:
“First, the confession: Clinton admits that she used the power of her office to make sure that Zelaya would not return to office. “In the subsequent days [after the coup] I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere, including Secretary [Patricia] Espinosa in Mexico,” Clinton writes. “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.”
(Irrefutable proof, contra several comments below the Tweet.)
Related: ‘F*cking the Haitian 99%: Another Clinton Family Project’, Café Babylon
In other Imperial asshattery news:
For Berta and all First Americans, aboriginals, and allies anywhere who fight for justice for all, including this once-beautiful big blue-green ball of a planet, Xavier Rudd says it right:
Keep fighting for your culture,
now keep fighting for your land
I know its been thousands of years and
i feel your hurt and i know its wrong and
you feel youve been chained and broken and burned
and those beautiful old people
those wise old souls have been ground down
for far too long by that spineless
man that greedy man that hearless
man deceiving man government hand taking blood
and land taking blood and land and still
they can but your dreaming and your
warrior spirit lives on and it is so so so strong
in the earth in the trees in the rocks in the water
in your blood and in the air we breathe…
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
other areas on indigenous struggle for land rights and against further eco-destruction; there are soooo many others:
meanwhile, in Tegucigalpa, honduras:
Hellary Caused the HILL (of bodies) In Honduras:
http://rinf.com/alt-news/latest-news/hillary-clinton-caused-the-hell-in-honduras/
and Libya, & Syria, et al !
yes, and that specific guardian piece actually did name clinton’s SoS as part of the coup support that led to this, yes? he is possibly even more dangerous than her hubbie, but that’s due to the times (a dying hegemonic loose cannon), i believe.
libya and syria were aided by quite a few compromised deep-state NGOs, including ‘humanitarian’ organizations’ for the Imperium, as well.
hope you’re well, bruce.
and so many merkins think HRC is sooooooo courageous. ugh. cuz she aspires to keep the serfs in line at the national wal-mart. here’s some real courage right here. thanks for sharing.
zounds: a second comment! thank you jason. this one made me weep. i was peeved that amy goodman had berta’s great friend beverly bell of ‘other worlds’ on, and she mumbled something about not knowing what part clinton had played. complete equivocation, if you know the site.
they report that berta’s comrade and “Other Worlds’ board member, Gustavo Castro Soto remains in protective custody in the Mexican Embassy in Honduras. He was the sole witness to Berta’s murder, and as such is an impediment to the Honduran government’s plans for distorting responsibility for the crime.”
then when i saw this via news revo to seneca lake, i was reminded that i hadn’t yet done another post on
fraudulentcorporate-funded NGO 350.org.mr. media star does catch-and-release again. last month, popular resistance sent a photo of him ‘chained to a bulldozer’ all by his lonesome’ with accompanying homage text. do media come when he whistles, or does he bring his on media team with him, then shop the photos and ‘events’? well, i just checked back to his account, and he’s selling this brave piece: ‘The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone’. yeppers, keep it in the ground, go full-tilt wind and solar, never mind that in terms of ppm it’s a wash for climate change. public/private alliances and green consumerism.
hillary is a feminist, but of the neo-con variety, too, dontcha know?
who needs that kind of feminism? let’s let black female cops do all the urban youth shooting & call it…gender & racial equality! the next thing you’ll be telling me that Bank of America has sponsored a fairy tale of “self-improvement & empowerment” = social justice as narrated by a black harvard prof named H.L. Gates that purports to be the story of the civil rights movement…oh wait, that was broadcast last night on Howard frickin’ University’s local PBS station.
ah, gates was give that pbs sinecure because: friend of obama was challenged by pigs at his front door. but wait: didn’t he lose his gig cuz he helped hide some celeb’s family’s racist past? sticks in my mind that it’s so. (his show is the genealogical equivalent of ‘antiques road show’, imo.)
;-)
as an aside, that may have been the sole time that O ever stepped out and actually reacted…gasp…in anger…with solidarity towards a brother.
hell, wouldn’t it be lovely if all feminists weren’t of the soulful, live-giving/nurturing kind? and yet: maggie thatcher, indira gandhi, ayn rand…you know the list better than i.
thank goodness it will be down to third-world women who lead us out of this insane morass…if we collectively have the wisdom to let them.
p.s. i might be a little bit more er…with it…had i not spent the day in discussion on #brexit, #grexit, at NC, and over yonder at C99%, oh my.
sleep well, my friend.
more back on target, it’s early & off to work so can’t look at it or link to it but NYT World section has a piece on the resurgence of the contras…just in time for another “great” woman’s death, Nancy…
ack! the Head on the Red Stick is dead?
here’s the link; i’ll read it in a bit myself. thanks for the heads-up. but it may not be a true hit piece, sorry to say at first blush.
but she transformed the office of 1st Lady!!!! or…something…for the dutiful service of helping to transform Drug Use (=blacks, more or less) into a weaponizable, ever lucrative threat, she will be accorded all honors of state. it’s a wonder she didn’t win the peace prize.
lol, i swear i saw a headline about her fashion sense, ay yi yi. was her first ‘lady’ project just say no, then? oof, yes, the reagan revolution by way of astrologers (her best attribute, imo).
haven’t read the nyt contra link again, but this analysis may be sadly close to right. 2 intellectual for my common tongue, but…
i did ask an irish citizen at naked capitalism if petras had gotten the ireland paragraph right, and the longish answer was: kinda/sorta.
oh, and anita alvarez for ‘failure to prosecute black killings, even unarmed’, black female cops who zip on the uniform of the empire, then…powers and sammy rice as ‘feminists of the neocon sort’.
sanders himself. “socialist” neocon. HRC: senator from wal-mart…who cares about workers & that other thing…what is it? sustainable shopping? eco-consumerism? (ok, technically sanders may not be a neocon. fine.)
the bern’s not a neo-con, but still an Imperialist, although he dodges it quite successfully. but he’ll be so busy enacting paradisaical domestic programs that he won’t have Time for foreign misadventures, ya great idjits wd and jason!
i ♥ ‘sustainable shopping’, tho. next up will be ‘sustainable eating’, too bad about all those lazy no-goodniks who’re about to lose their SNAP benefits at the end of the year cuz they can’t find work or ain’t willin’ to do volunteer work x hours a day…thanks, billy bubba. glad your clinton global initiative is goin’ sooooo well for your pocketbooks, though.
see below.
hint: the answer is yes; why do they ask it as a question?
O/T: over yonder at c99% over a hundred refugees from great orange satan have joined since a recent purge against sandernistas. having read what they believe the larger site should turn into, i’m half inclined to offer some questions for consideration. i likely will resist, but when post O re-election, different sites performed ‘anatomies of ‘leftist’ blogging and why it made no better difference to the socio-political zeitgeist, i did try to explain at least to ian welsh and his commentariat.
the short answer is, of course, that all are white, relatively affluent, could care less about workers’ rights, global indigenous rights, sincere poverty, anti-capitalism, anti-Imperialism, etc. i’m sure there’s a longer list, but…wth? the ‘oh, yes, let’s create a new party if the bern loses’ or whatever…just slay me.
NATO is also celebrating international womens’ day:
NATO celebrates Int’l Women’s Day!? can you feel the solidarity?
yeah. those words weren’t nearly dark enough for such BS.
nato ♥s gender parity, hooray! first nato general saluted! meanwhile, this is what peruvian women did ‘in honor’ of the day: ‘Keiko Fujimori Denies Forced Sterilization on Women’s Day’
the center photo is unforgettable, imo. the weasel word question, ya mean below? and did they send ya home from work?
bill & melinda…nice comment from Peter Buffett in the Vice article.
buffet: “only the rich fauxlanthropists can save you from what you’ve created!” is he singin’ the ‘left hand in’ hokey pokey inide his cranium?
i should remember ‘philanthrocapitalists’, though. noblesse oblige ain’t what it used to be…
Wendy, given that I am uselessly wordy, here’s what I wrote for another web site.
Did Hillary Clinton Know Berta Caceres of Honduras?
The answer to this question is of no consequence, in today’s political realm, since Caceres was killed in her own bed in her home town in Honduras. And when looking back at Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State and with a capable ‘hands on’ experience with and for our nation’s Latin America affairs, Honduras was and still is at the forefront of our political approach and mindset for National Security and Defense. Thus, the aspirations for War and not Peace, continues apace, even for today.
And Greg Grandin, writing for The Nation, and with his wide-ranging experience in Latin America affairs, provides his assessment, and which starts with a history or pivot point after President Zelaya was deposed, and eventually expecting to be reinstalled into the Presidential Salon, or until the United States, ‘agitated’ that Zelaya should not be reinstalled. To wit, the following:
“Since Zelaya’s ouster, there’s been an all-out assault on these decent people—torture, murder, militarization of the countryside, repressive laws, such as the absolute ban on the morning-after pill, the rise of paramilitary security forces, and the wholesale deliverance of the country’s land and resources to transnational pillagers. That’s not to mention libertarian fantasies, promoted by billionaires such as PayPal’s Peter Thiel and Milton Friedman’s grandson (can’t make this shit up), of turning the country into some kind of Year-Zero stateless utopia.”
And
“Berta Cáceres gave her life to fight that government. She was the general coordinator of the COPINH (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras), a group that has had many of its leadership murdered in the last few years. Last year, Cáceres was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work opposing a major dam project.”
In closing, I too have my bias toward Hillary Clinton and our nation’s foreign policy. In her book, “Hard Choices” she patted herself on the back for being successful, although, folks like me, think she waylaid the Honduran democracy and which is just another egregious projection of Bush and Cheney’s proud tout in 2003 for “We don’t do ‘nation building’”.
Thus, the continued influx of undocumented immigrants into the United States, is quite understandable, given that these Honduran citizens are fleeing their nation’s twin vice of Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission, and concretized as political violence and governmental corruption.
Jaango
it’s an excellent essay, jaango, and thank you for bringing it here. No, US Exceptionalism seems to mean ‘nation destruction and resource plunder and western banana republic puppet governments’, and the alleged Exporting of Democracy is about keeping the US and its puppets as the sole Superpower.
i haven’t kept up, sadly, but this is the Twitter hashtag for what’s going on with and for #GustavoCastro .
Too many hideous global stories about Indigenous ecocide resource plunder an assassination to even mention; i just chose a very few.
‘Hillary Clinton Forgot That She Supported a Coup in Honduras’, telesur english
“Her campaign said the accusation that she “routinized” hell in Honduras was “simply nonsense.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign seems to have a selective memory when it comes to the Democratic presidential candidate’s track record with Honduras.
When asked by Latino USA if the former secretary of state “is still proud of the hell she helped routinize in Honduras” as a result of the country’s 2009 coup, a spokesperson responded that the accusation in the question is “simply nonsense.”
“That charge is simply nonsense,” Director of Hispanic Media Jorge Silva wrote in an email to Latino USA. “Hillary Clinton engaged in active diplomacy that resolved a constitutional crisis and paved the way for legitimate democratic elections.”
(Video): “Caceres herself in a 2014 interview said that the admissions of Clinton in her autobiography showed a “bad North American interference” in Honduras.
When will it stop?
“Nelson Garcia, a member of the same Indigenous rights group as murdered activist Berta Caceres, has been assassinated in Honduras, local media reported Tuesday.
Less than two weeks after Caceres was gunned down in her home by unknown assailants, Garcia was killed after being shot four times in the face in the Rio Chiquito community.” telesur english