Honduras: After Berta…

In March the award-winning Honduran environmentalist, Berta Caceres, was gunned down at home. Of indigenous Lenca origin, for years she was a prominent critic of the government, and campaigned against the Agua Zarca hydro-electric project in the western highlands. Honduras is the most unequal nation in the Americas, but it is rich in minerals with an enormous capacity for the development of hydro-electric power. Since a coup in 2009 removed the left-leaning President, a business-driven government has granted dozens of concessions for the exploitation of precious national resources. But the race for development is creating bitter – and murderous – disharmony: Honduras has become the most deadly nation on earth to be a land or environmental activist. For Assignment, Linda Pressly, explores how the murder of Berta Caceres is emblematic of profound divisions in Honduras. (Image: A graffiti image of Berta Caceres on a wall in Honduras)