 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome back to Around the World in 8 Minutes, where we bring you stories of working class struggle from across the globe. This week, we will be discussing the latest updates in the fight for justice for Bertha Cáceres. Five and a half years have passed since Bertha Cáceres was assassinated in her home in La Esperanza Honduras. Bertha was the co-founder and coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, Copín. Following the Culetán 2009, she had emerged as an important national leader in the movement for the Re-Foundation of Honduras. Before her assassination, Cáceres had been subjected to a campaign of threats, intimidation, criminalization, and acts of physical violence by members of the Honduran Security Forces as well as private security guards and members of the Desarrollo Energéticos SA de esa company. This was due to her active role in the resistance to the construction of the hydroelectric project Aguazarca on the Gualcarque River that is sacred to the indigenous Llanca people. In these five and a half years since her assassination, Copín has waged a tireless struggle to achieve justice for their comrade and leader Bertha. In November 2018, after a long drawn-out trial which saw the exclusion of Copín's legal representation, seven people were convicted of participating in the murder of the social leader environmental activist Bertha Cáceres. The convictions and sentences were hailed as a partial victory, but for the organization achieving justice goes far beyond the convictions of the hitmen that were paid to pull the trigger. They believe that justice involves bringing those to trial who are involved in planning and financing the operation. They have maintained that there is already evidence pointing to the members of the powerful Atala Zabla family who held positions on the Board of Desa as well as key shares of the company. Following the convictions in November 2018, Copín had said that justice must involve the trial and conviction of all those involved in the plot, persecution, harassment and threats that brought about the assassination of Bertha Cáceres. As of now, the key advance towards reaching the upper echelons of the Desa company and untangling the criminal structure behind this assassination was the arrest on March 2nd, 2018 of David Castillo. Castillo, trained at West Point Military Academy United States, is a former military intelligence officer and was the president of the Desa company. He was arrested when he was trying to flee the country for the United States where he bought a $1.2 million house eight months after Bertha's murder. Records show Castillo coordinating with members of the Atala Zabla family about Bertha and maneuvers to threaten Copín's determined resistance the hydroelectric project. Since his arrest, his legal team had filed numerous petitions in the court to delay the proceedings. The pandemic imposed lockdown put this process in greater risk, especially given that his preventative detention was set to expire March 2nd, 2020. Finally, on April 7th, 2021, the trial of David Castillo began. In this trial, the complicity of the state with criminal structures has been made glaringly clear. Copín has noted that the trial has revealed that the public prosecutor's office of Honduras had, through investigative proceedings, obtained evidence clearly showing the illegal actions committed by the criminal structure called Desa, but refused to act. The evidence presented in the trial against Castillo himself has shown that he planned the assassination of Bertha Casares while he was the general manager of Desa under the command of the Atala Zabla family and in coordination with other convicted employees of the company. The hundreds of records, chats, and audios presented by the expert witnesses of the public prosecutor's office have demonstrated the clear role of Castillo and his bosses in years of harassment, monitoring, and criminalization of Bertha Casares and members of Copín. Copín and members of Bertha's family, such as her two daughters Bertha and Laura, have also testified in the proceedings. They spoke firsthand about the campaign of persecution faced by their mother and shared that on several occasions she expressed fear over what actions David Castillo and members of Desa would take against her and members of Copín. Copín's struggle for justice is making history. It is revealing the role of economic groups, the extractive industry sector, and the highest echelons of the state in murders like that of Bertha's. It is setting a precedent not only for Honduras but for the entire region. It is as Copín said, a historic moment in an opportunity to tear down the walls of impunity. In this sense, the legal team of Copín and the family of Casares have reiterated their calls for justice and called on the court to not ignore the evidence and convict Castillo. We share words by Bertha Casares on the necessity to defend the planet against capitalist extraction and the need to continue the struggle for justice. We have been held up by the fact of being only contemplating the self-destruction based on the capitalist, racist and patriarchal depredation. Río Hualcarque has called on us, just like the others who are seriously threatened all over the world. We must hold up. The motherland militarized, approached, poisoned, where systematically violated rightful elements, demands us to act. We then build societies capable of coexisting in a fair way, worthy and for life. Join us and let's continue with hope, defending and taking care of the blood of the land and its spirits. That's all we have time for and keep watching People's Dispatch.