Four arrested over Honduras activist killing
May 2, 2016
The arrests on Monday came almost two months to the day after the murder of Caceres, an award-winning 43-year-old activist who had fought to stop the construction of hydroelectric plants and mines on indigenous territory. She was gunned down by two masked attackers at her home in La Esperanza.
Local media reports said one of the four suspects detained worked for Desarrollos Energeticos (DESA), an electricity company involved in the construction of a $50 million (43.4 million euro) dam that Caceres campaigned against.
The hydroelectric dam threatened to displace hundreds of indigenous Lenca people.
Caceres had won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for her efforts to prevent the dam's construction. Before her death, she said she had received threats from DESA for organizing local resistance to the project.
An armed forces spokesman told reporters that one of the accused was a soldier on active duty and another a retired official.
Thousands of mourners attended Caceres' funeral in La Esperanza on March 5.
tj/jm (AFP, Reuters)