Hello, my name is Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores but you can call me Berta. Would you like to know a secret about me? I'm not actually alive. This is just a story about how I died. Crazy right, well let me tell you the story.
I spoke up for women, the LGBTQ+ community and their rights, for an honest government, the well-being of Pachamama, and for an end to tyranny by a transnational capital. There were some people who would say I was a great fighter while others disliked me for my beliefs. But that's okay, it's not my intention to force my opinion on anyone else.
Anyways now that we have some information on me let's start the actual story. In 2015, before my Goldman speech I received a random text. The contact name was “Unknown” so I opened the text to see what it had said, it was a disheartening message, telling me “Stop helping others they don't deserve rights.” I immediately closed my phone and left it alone.
The week before my Goldman speech I received a threat “ Don't give that speech or bad things will happen to you.” Once again I closed my phone and went on with my day. It was now the day that I give my Goldman Speech.
Only one hour till I go on and yet again I get another message “DON’T GO ON THE STAGE OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!” I then replied with “Leave me alone im not scared of you” I then closed my phone, went on stage, and gave my speech. That night I went home so proud of the speech I had just given out.
A year passed and it was March 2, 2016, I had received yet another message from this Unknown person “You have made a GRAVE mistake” they said “I have told you this once and I'll say it again I'm not scared of you, you can leave me alone now.” I messaged back.
It's the next day and I get a knock on my door. I get out of bed and walk over to the door to answer it. It's a man, I'm a little confused Because I have never met this man before in my life. “Do I know you?” I asked “I told you not to give that speech,” The man had said.
I slammed the door shut, locked it, and rushed to my room and then locked my bedroom door. I put my dresser in front of the door. I was terrified for my life. The man then kicked the door open and shot me.
He had looked at me. “Why?” I said “Because I warned you and you didn't listen to me.” the man said. As I laid there on the floor in my own room all I could do was cry. I tried to get my phone from my nightstand to call the police but the man had already smashed my phone after seeing me try to crawl to my phone.
My room was my safe space too so to be killed in there was really devastating and heartbreaking. I really wish I could have talked to him and tried to change his mind about killing me. Now he is in jail and most likely for the rest of his life.
Thank you for listening to my story. I'm Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores and that was my story about my death. I hope you enjoyed it!
I am Berta Cáceres. I was born in 1971, and I’m an environmental and human rights activist. It’s the year 2006, and I’m going to confront some people about the threats on the indigenous Lenca people. Their territories are in danger of being destroyed due to a huge dam being built. I live in Honduras where there are a lot of new projects being made that will destroy the environment and many indigenous peoples lands. The dam project that I am confronting right now is a joint project between Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), and Sinohydro, one of the worlds best bridge builders. This dam is called Agua Zarca Dam. This project will be difficult to stop, but they started building without consulting the Lencas, which is literally illegal. That dam will stop them from getting food, water, and medicine. In 1993 I co founded the National Council of Popular and indigenous organizations of Honduras, or (COPINH). The other activists in this organization could probably help this cause, and spread it around a lot.
The river they are building over is a spiritual place for the Lenca people, so the first thing I do is start a campaign against DESA. Many local community members help boost the campaign, and get many people to see it. We also filed complaints to the government and local mayors. However, every complaint we sent got ignored. Seeing this, I reached out to the international community, where we brought this case to the Inter American Human Rights Commission, and even lodged appeals against the project funders, the International Finance Corporations, or IFC. Recently, I led a peaceful protest where we demanded a rightful say in the project. However, despite this, they still continued to build the dam. In April 2013, I decided to organize a road blockage, to stop DESA from getting to the dam site. This worked for over a year, although there were some deaths resulting from this. These deaths were caused by the Honduran armed forces and security conductors. One of the most major deaths that happened was the murder of Tomas Garcia. He was shot and killed during one of the peaceful protests. Many others were killed during peaceful protests from machetes and torture, while the lucky ones were only detained. However, these were not for nothing, as soon after, SinoHydro left DESA in the dam project, because of the outrage of Tomas's death. Finally, the Agua Zarca project came to an end when IFC stopped funding it, due to human rights violations. The Lenca´s lands were still there.
I received many death threats from ending this project, and even 1-2 years later they still continued. I thought they were just empty threats. However, one day, when I was in my house with another environmental activist, Gustavo Castro, men entered uninvited. It took me a few seconds to realize that they were armed, and wanted to kill. I froze, scared for my life. Gustavo was in a different room, so I knew it was the end. They shot me, and I watched them run to the room Gustavo was in. I tried to yell out as a warning, but I was in too much pain to manage the words. I heard the gunshot and I thought he was dead, but after the intruders frantically left he ran into the room and quickly got on the cellphone for 911. He was the last thing I saw before I passed.