Berta Cáceres
(1971-2016)
Berta Cáceres was a Lenca Indigenous
leader in Honduras and co-founder and
coordinator of the Council of Popular and
Indigenous Organizations of Honduras.
A hit squad murdered Berta Cáceres for
her work in defense of mother earth and
Indigenous rights on March 3, 2016.
"True movement building happens in
the concrete opportunity that struggle
and resistance give us. We don’t see it
any other way. The moment when we
are struggling and resisting is the best
opportunity for movement building. I
also must say that we find it important
to understand both the structural
challenge and the vast struggle that
means standing before this structural
challenge that, in our communities,
organizations, and movements, we
still don’t fully understand.
We also have strengths, and one of
them is the accumulation of historical,
old, ancient resistance that continues
to express itself in so many ways.
We act historically as Indigenous
peoples, as communities, regardless
of the borders that have been drawn
between us, in the historical solidarity
of the Central-American people. This
has been shown during the times of
armed insurrection, and it’s now
showing in the struggle in defense
of water, forests, and land. We don’t
see this as something that divides
us, but as something that unites us,
with strategic lines of struggle in our
region."
From her speech at the 7th International
Workshop on Emancipatory Paradigms
(Havana, Cuba, 2007)
https://capiremov.org
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