Beverly Bell

Honduran singer-songwriter Karla Lara, shown beside altar for her slain friend Berta Cáceres, will soon tour 20 cities in the US. Photo: Beverly Bell.

“Your bullets won’t kill our dreams.” From the 24^th anniversary celebration on COPINH’s liberated territory, Utopia. Credit: Beverly Bell

Vásquez in front of shrine to Berta Cáceres. Photo: Beverly Bell

Introduction

The march against Trump’s Muslim ban in New Orleans, on January 29, concluded at the towering Robert E. Lee monument. Below the Confederate general, the circle bearing his name gives way to wide, oak-lined St. Charles Avenue, the central boulevard of white, elite culture.

Fifteen hundred people from at least 22 countries convened in Honduras April 13-15, 2016 for the “Peoples of ¡Berta Vive!” International Gathering. They came to honor slain global movement leader Berta Cáceres and to commit themselves to keeping her legacy alive.

The sole eyewitness to Honduran social movement leader Berta Cáceres’ assassination on March 3, 2016 has gone from being wounded victim to, effectively, political prisoner. Now Gustavo Castro Soto may also be framed as the murderer of his long-time friend. 

I began writing a eulogy for Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores years ago, though she died only last week. Berta was assassinated by Honduran government-backed death squads on March 3.

On the last day of his life, popular radio advocate Sony Estéus was to attend the opening of Voice of Ile-à-Vâche Community Radio (Radio VKI by its Creole acronym), the newest in an expanding network of grassroots stations throughout Haiti.

BEVERLY BELL: Please give us your vision of power.