Good afternoon, and thank you very much for inviting me here. As you know, I was a witness at Berta's murder. I was also the subject of an assassination attempt.
My stay in Honduras afterwards was horrible. There was a systematic violation of my human rights. From the beginning, I saw a number of irregularities and also unconstitutional actions on the part of the Honduran authorities.
They refused to give me copies of my ministerial files, or to hand them over to me. They refused to give me recordings of what I had said. They also refused to give me a copy of my statement to the judge and the recording of that statement.
With regard to my clothing, which was full of blood, the DNA examination of that clothing was badly done, and the evidence was badly collected. I was not treated as a victim and as a protected witness, but I was treated more like a piece of evidence.
There was also an attempt to accuse me of preventing them from getting to the bottom of the investigation.
They asked me about Berta. They asked me about the military. They asked me about the death squads that had been hired to murder Berta Cáceres. There have been four people who have been put in prison and who have been accused of actively participating in the murder. They are the manager of DESA, an active member of the military forces, a former member of the military, and a hired killer. They have all been put in prison.
As I was trying to help in the investigation, and as I was getting ready to leave the country and go back to Mexico, I was detained illegally at the airport without receiving any explanation. No document was given to me. No summons from the judge was presented to me to request further assistance in the investigation.
The ambassador and the consul were there. The police surrounded us. There were prosecutors. There were ministerial police officers. I was told I could not leave the country, without any kind of legal supporting documentation or explanation.
When I had to go back to the Mexican embassy, at the order of the Mexican ambassador, I was prevented from leaving the airport. I consider that to have been a case of kidnapping because there were Honduran government authorities there, but they did not let me leave the airport, and they would not let me leave the country.
Those are some examples of the irregularities and illegal actions. The judge stated that my lawyer had to be professionally suspended from exercising as a lawyer.
It was completely illegal. It is not up to a judge that is sitting to make an unconstitutional decision in a context where the judiciary council of Honduras has been dissolved. There is great corruption. There is a legal void and a state structure void. There is a void when it comes to protecting human rights, as well, and this leads to a systematic violation of human rights, my human rights, and the rights of all the people of Honduras.
There is no mechanism for me to avoid being left completely in the lurch and without a lawyer because the judge decided that my lawyer could no longer be a lawyer. All of the work being done by the legal system was aimed at preventing me from actually helping the investigation.
Later, the judge decided on a migratory alert against me to prevent me from leaving Honduras for another 30 days, without any explanation. At certain times, international human rights instruments were used by the judge against me, and they were used in the context of treating me as an accused person. They prevented me from leaving the country without telling me why and without even informing me of what I had to do. It was a complete violation of my human rights.
It's important to specify that there is no law for victims in Honduras because there is a lack of will to give rights to victims in a country where there are so many victims. There are murders every day. More than 10 people who have received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have been murdered, like Berta. There are no regulations for protected witnesses. There are no regulations for the act to protect human rights defenders and journalists. There is no structure to guarantee the safety and the human rights of Hondurans.
Procedures were systematically violated. Even with regard to habeas corpus, the government simply ignored it and didn't resolve that challenge at all. According to the constitution, it has to be dealt with immediately. Up until now, there has been no movement on the part of the state or the Honduran judiciary to the habeas corpus that was presented by my lawyer.
They also prevented me from going to Washington to make a statement to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Honduran government refused to allow me to go to that meeting.
There is no doubt that the Organization of American States has launched a mission to fight corruption and impunity in Honduras, and this shows how significant the problem is in Honduras. There are systematic violations. There is a lack of legislation and of legal institutions and tools to ensure the protection of human rights in Honduras.
As Bertha was saying just a few minutes ago, there have been over 100 murders of environmental activists. Over 10 of the people who had received precautionary measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have been murdered. It shows to what extent there is impunity in Honduras, and to what extent there is a lack of political will on the part of the government to guarantee human rights and to avoid that level of impunity in the country.
That is what I had to say to you. Thank you very much for having listened to me. I hope I didn't go too long.