On June 8, PBI-Honduras posted about “the importance of international observation to ensure due process” in the trial of one of the alleged intellectual co-authors of the murder of Indigenous Lenca land defender Berta Caceres.

That same day, COPINH tweeted: “We are facing a political trial, where misogyny, institutional racism, contempt for indigenous peoples are evident and above all where it is felt that our beloved Berta was being judged rather. She was not a criminal, she was a defender of life!”

PBI-Honduras further notes that Melissa Cardoza will testify (via a live feed from the Honduran Embassy in Mexico City).

The Utne Reader has reported:

Many of Cáceres’ friends and colleagues hoped the Goldman Prize would help protect her. “They gave her the Goldman, and I went with her [to the ceremony],” said Melissa Cardoza, a feminist organizer and writer who was a close friend of Cáceres’. “And I thought, OK, she’s in the clear. This is going to back her up. Because for a long time she told me, ‘They are going to kill me because they won’t be able to put up with our winning this struggle.’”

“Her life’s work was insurrection,” said Melissa Cardoza, the feminist organizer, and writer. “One day I was with her when she was being arrested. The police were taking down her information, and I was with her. And the cop asked her, ‘What is your profession?’ And she said, ‘I’m a professional agitator.’ The cop said, ‘I can’t put that down.’ And she asked why not? ‘Because it doesn’t exist,’ the cop said. And so she turns to me and says, ‘You tell them. I’m a professional agitator.’ And so I told the cop, ‘Well, it’s true. That’s what she does.’

For updates on the trial, please see the COPINH Twitter feed.

Photo from Miriam Miranda.

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