(Euskara) (Castellano)
6 years later, the sentence against one of the murderers of the Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, the employee of the Atala family, Sergio Rodríguez Orellana, has been confirmed. The full Honduran Supreme Court of Justice has confirmed that he is guilty of aggravated murder of the crime against Berta Cáceres and has sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
However, the plenary court reclassified his responsibility as perpetration by inducement, i.e. following someone’s orders.
Thus, despite applauding this long sentence, the organisation of which the victim was a member, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH), reaffirms its demand for ‘the trial and punishment of all those responsible for the crime of Berta Cáceres and related crimes, as well as respect for the rights of the Lenca people’, and demands this from the Honduran state, which owns this responsibility. Because although it has taken six years for the murderer to be sentenced, the intellectual authorship of the crime has still not been fully resolved.
Sergio Rodríguez Orellana was the manager of the social, environmental and communications area of the company DESA (Desarrollos Energeticos SA) at the time of the murder and was the one who provided the information about Berta as a target. DESA is owned by one of the most influential families in Honduras, the Atala family. DESA owns the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project, a project opposed by Berta Cáceres’ community, Río Blanco, and COPINH because of the obvious social and environmental impacts.
Sergio Rodríguez Orellana kept the group ‘PHAZ Security’ (Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project) informed about the protest actions of COPINH and Berta Cáceres’ movements. He was, therefore, as COPINH denounces, ‘part of the criminal structure that terrorised the Lenca community of Río Blanco since 2013, with the intention of imposing the illegal Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, for the economic benefit of the Atala Zablah family. His role, disguised as environmental and social manager, was to infiltrate, alienate and attack the Lenca community and to monitor and identify the leadership as a target for attack by the Atala’s criminal enterprise’.
COPINH’s COMMUNIQUE:
COMMUNIQUE N°1 2025: Supreme Court of Justice confirms the sentence of Sergio Rodríguez Orellana, employee of the Atala family, as the author of the murder of Berta Cáceres and sentences him to 30 years in prison.
After more than 6 years of waiting, the plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras has confirmed the conviction of Sergio Ramón Rodríguez Orellana, confirming that he is guilty of aggravated murder for the crime against our sister Berta Cáceres and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. The plenary has reclassified his responsibility as perpetrator by inducement.
On 29 November 2018, Chamber I of the Sentencing Court found Sergio Rodríguez guilty as a co-perpetrator of the murder of Berta Cáceres. During the trial, undisputed evidence was presented of his communications extracted from his phone and call records that evidenced his mastery of the criminal act through the identification, surveillance and harassment of Berta Cáceres, actions indispensable to the commission of the crime.
In November 2024, his case was brought before the plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice due to the lack of unanimity on the ratification of the sentence, after a sentence in which magistrates Nelson Mairena and Walter Miranda, sentenced with benefits in favour of the murderer. Today, his guilt has been confirmed.
Sergio Rodríguez is part of the criminal structure that terrorised the Lenca community of Río Blanco since 2013, with the intention of imposing the illegal Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, for the economic benefit of the Atala Zablah family. His role, disguised as environmental and social manager, was to infiltrate, antagonise and attack the Lenca community and to monitor and identify the leadership as a target for attack by the Atala’s criminal enterprise.
From COPINH, we reaffirm our commitment to justice in Honduras and the vindication of the rights of indigenous peoples for which Berta Cáceres fought. We will not lower our guard until all those responsible for her assassination, including the Atala family, face the consequences of their crimes.
COPINH demands that the State of Honduras fulfil its obligations and prosecute and punish all those responsible for the crime of Berta Cáceres and related crimes, and that the rights of the Lenca people are respected.
Berta lives, the struggle continues!
Given in La Esperanza, Intibucá, on the 7th day of February 2025.
‘With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica we raise our voices full of life, justice and justice for the Lenca people.
