Berta Cáceres: Lenca Defender of Water, Land, and Indigenous Resistance

By: Troy Gee

Berta Cáceres was a Lenca environmental and human-rights activist who was an empowering symbol of indigenous resistance. She was born in 1971 in the city of La Esperanza, Honduras and died of gunshot wounds in her home of her birth city because of her defense of the Lenca’s people access to food and water by posing opposition to the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam which threatened to block the Gualcarque river– which was sacred to the Lenca people. 

While she was in the university in 1993 she co-founded the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras) which was an organization created to help protect indigenous peoples from colonization and neoliberal pushes from certain companies, governments and more. Throughout her life she protested against neoliberal colonization encroachments into the land of her people and continued to speak against such policies, unfortunately she had received many death threats due to this. While she defended the Gualcarque river she was also protecting against other similar projects that hurt native peoples and her death left a legacy that was able to put a halt to the construction of the dam when the government and Desarrollos Energeticos (the primary company that put forth the construction of the dam) were intimidated by the movement. 

There are many inspiring and impactful Indigenous leaders out there, but I believe the assasination of Cáceres in particular goes to show how many obstacles or tragedies these leaders of resistance have to face, and it makes me think that we have to stand up against these corporations that hurt the people of the land. By protesting the dam Cáceres inspires many others including myself that if we decide to stand together as a community to protect the land we can stop the neoliberal desires of settlers and protect the traditions, health, and wellbeing of not only native peoples but everybody. We must remember Berta’s message is beyond politics, it is spirituality and she knew that the rivers spoke and were crying for help– water is the blood of the Earth and building a dam is like a clog in the artery, when we take care of the land it will take care of us. Cáceres' strong fighting spirit is deeply inspiring and creates greater awareness within me of where our electricity, food, or products we use may come from and the potential communities that are impacted locally.