The assassination of Berta Cáceres
and the infrastructures of
dispossession in Honduras

La Esperanza, Intibucá, HND
2026

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The assassination of Berta Cáceres, which occurred on the night of March 2, 2016, serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle of Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations and communities for over five hundred years to defend their territory.

We supported the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) of Honduras and the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), developing a web platform and video accompanying the report submitted within the framework of the international mandate for reparations and non-repetition.

Based on the GIEI's investigation, we translated its evidence and conclusions into a web-based research platform that allows for cross-referencing data on transactional information, territorial defense, and individual or collective damages at the national level related to the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project (PHAZ), promoted by Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA) on the banks of the Gualcarque River.

The research and platform developed by re/presentare seek to spatialize the territorial control derived from criminal business logic, whose ultimate expression was the assassinations of COPINH members, including Berta Cáceres, the movement's leader. For journalists and the public, this means access to a narrative supported by organized evidence, which helps trace the path of responsibility beyond the perpetrators.

Thinking about and investigating a crime from a spatial perspective allows us to understand the dynamics of control and movement of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities, as well as the forms of territorial appropriation and surveillance systems. Thus, the repercussions of decisions that, at first glance, appear purely bureaucratic or business-related, when visualized on the ground, reveal tactics employed by both the State and DESA to reduce the space for political and social action by Indigenous groups and their defense of the territory, creating a hostile and dangerous environment for its inhabitants.

To carry out this investigation, in addition to systematizing thousands of data points contained in the GIEI Honduras investigation, re/presentare conducted a spatial analysis comparing satellite images and geographic information produced over the last fifteen years. By studying and comparing the images, we were able to locate and map the different parts of the dam, the purchased properties, and their interaction with the Gualcarque River and the surrounding villages. By comparing them against property records and internal DESA reports, we detected and highlighted a series of irregularities in the development of the Agua Zarca I and II projects, as well as a number of information gaps that raise important questions regarding how concessions are granted, and how development projects are approved and monitored.

Geographic and contextual layers can be activated on the map, allowing users to explore events (damages, infrastructure, communications, transactions) and navigate a timeline that reveals relationships between state, corporate, and community actors.

The narratives organize the findings along six axes—from the financial network to the impunity mechanism—and continuously link to the map to offer a structured understanding of how the risk against Berta and the Lenca communities was configured.

Based on this approach, the platform has been designed to cross-reference thousands of data points in space and time to facilitate its use as a research tool. Likewise, the narratives section has been structured by building the history of the struggle against the Agua Zarca dam project within a context of corporate and state dispossession of indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples, articulated through specific events located in time and space.

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