Honduras: After Berta

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In March the award-winning Honduran environmentalist, Berta Caceres, was gunned down at home. Of indigenous Lenca origin, for years she was a prominent critic of the government, and campaigned against the Agua Zarca hydro-electric project in the western highlands. Honduras is the most unequal nation in the Americas, but it is rich in minerals with an enormous capacity for the development of hydro-electric power. Since a coup in 2009 removed the left-leaning president, a business-driven government has granted dozens of concessions for the exploitation of precious national resources. But the race for development is creating bitter – and murderous – disharmony. Honduras has become the most deadly nation on earth to be a land or environmental activist. Linda Pressly, explores how the murder of Berta Caceres is emblematic of profound divisions in Honduras. (Photo: A graffiti image of Berta Caceres on a wall in Honduras)