{"id":298270,"date":"2017-03-09T09:43:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T08:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-will-not-be-change-as-long-as-us-sends-military-aid-to-honduras-counterspin-interview-with-beverly-bell-on-berta-caceres\/"},"modified":"2017-03-09T09:43:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T08:43:03","slug":"there-will-not-be-change-as-long-as-us-sends-military-aid-to-honduras-counterspin-interview-with-beverly-bell-on-berta-caceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-will-not-be-change-as-long-as-us-sends-military-aid-to-honduras-counterspin-interview-with-beverly-bell-on-berta-caceres\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There Will Not Be Change as Long as US Sends Military Aid to Honduras\u2019 &#8211; CounterSpin interview with Beverly Bell on Berta Caceres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Janine Jackson interviewed Beverly Bell about the first anniversary of Berta C\u00e1ceres&#8217; murder for the <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/norman-solomon-on-trump-and-the-press-beverly-bell-on-berta-caceres-work\/\">March 3, 2017, episode<\/a> of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5585586\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BeverlyBellPic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5585586\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BeverlyBellPic.jpg\" alt=\"Beverly Bell\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Beverly Bell: &#8220;Until there is a change in the actions of the Honduran government, and a respect for lives, human rights and democracy, indigenous and other environmental actors will not be safe.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrapperMI_0\" class=\"wrap-mjp  \" style=\"padding:5px 0px 40px 0px;margin:0px;width:100%\">\n<div class=\"Eabove-mjp\" id=\"Eabove-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"subwrap-MI\">\n<div class=\"jp-innerwrap\">\n<div class=\"innerx\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerleft\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerright\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innertab\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"interface-mjp verdana-mjp\" style=\"height:71px\" id=\"interfaceMI_0\">\n<div class=\"MI-image Himg right-mjp\" id=\"MI_image_0\" style=\"width:auto;height:71px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T_mp3j_0\" class=\"player-track-title left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bars_holder\">\n<div class=\"loadMI_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"poscolMI_mp3j\" id=\"poscol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"posbarMI_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"P-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-play-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T-Time-MI_0\" class=\"jp-total-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"statusMI_0\" class=\"statusMI\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"transport-MI\">\n<div class=\"play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_0\">Play<\/div>\n<div class=\"stop-mjp\" id=\"stop_mp3j_0\">Stop<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"buttons-wrap-mjp\" id=\"buttons-wrap-mjp_0\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-popout-MI\" id=\"lpp_mp3j_0\">pop out<\/div>\n<div id=\"download_mp3j_0\" class=\"dloadmp3-MI\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mjp-volwrap\">\n<div class=\"MIsliderVolume\" id=\"vol_mp3j_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt1\" id=\"innerExt1_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt2\" id=\"innerExt2_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebetween-mjp\" id=\"Ebetween-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"listwrap_mp3j\" id=\"L_mp3j_0\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<div class=\"playlist-colour\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<ul class=\"ul-mjp darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp\" id=\"UL_mp3j_0\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-sleeve\">\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_gif_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-gif\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_txt_0\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-txt\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-close\" id=\"mp3j_finfo_close_0\">X<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_dlf_0\" class=\"mp3j-dlframe\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebelow-mjp\" id=\"Ebelow-mjp_0\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [<br \/>\n\t{ name: &#8220;1. CounterSpin Beverly Bell Interview &#8220;, formats: [&#8220;mp3&#8221;], mp3: &#8220;aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mYWlyLm9yZy9hdWRpby9jb3VudGVyc3Bpbi9Db3VudGVyU3BpbjE3MDMwM0JlbGwubXAz&#8221;, counterpart:&#8221;&#8221;, artist: &#8220;&#8221;, image: &#8220;true&#8221;, imgurl: &#8220;&#8221; }<br \/>\n];<\/p>\n<p>MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list:MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0, tr:0, type:&#8217;MI&#8217;, lstate:true, loop:false, play_txt:&#8217;Play&#8217;, pause_txt:&#8217;Pause&#8217;, pp_title:&#8217;FAIR&#8217;, autoplay:false, download:true, vol:80, height:71, cssclass:&#8217; &#8216;, popout_css:{ enabled:true, \t\t\tcolours: [&#8220;#fff&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(201,207,232,0.35)&#8221;, &#8220;rgb(241,241,241)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(245,5,5,0.7)&#8221;, &#8220;rgba(92,201,255,0.8)&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;transparent&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#525252&#8221;, &#8220;#768D99&#8221;, &#8220;#47ACDE&#8221;, &#8220;&#8221;, 600, 200 ],<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssInterface: { &#8220;color&#8221;: &#8220;#525252&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssTitle: { &#8220;left&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;right&#8221;:&#8221;16px&#8221;, &#8220;top&#8221;:&#8221;8px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssImage: { &#8220;overflow&#8221;: &#8220;hidden&#8221;, &#8220;width&#8221;:&#8221;auto&#8221;, &#8220;height&#8221;:&#8221;71px&#8221;  },<br \/>\n\t\t\tcssFontSize: { &#8220;title&#8221;: &#8220;16px&#8221;, &#8220;caption&#8221;: &#8220;11.2px&#8221;, &#8220;list&#8221;: &#8220;12px&#8221; },<br \/>\n\t\t\tclasses: { interface:&#8217; verdana-mjp&#8217;, title:&#8217; left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp&#8217;, image:&#8217; Himg right-mjp&#8217;, poscol:&#8221;, ul:&#8217; darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp&#8217; }} };<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fair.org\/audio\/counterspin\/CounterSpin170303Bell.mp3\"><strong>MP3 Link<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5576896\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Berta_Caceres-e1457112684327.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5576896\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Berta_Caceres-e1457112684327.jpg\" alt=\"Berta Caceres (image: Goldman Environmental Prize)\" width=\"351\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Honduran environmental activist Berta Caceres (image: Goldman Environmental Prize)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Janine Jackson: \u00a0<\/b>March 2 marks a year since the killing of Honduran indigenous rights and environmental activist Berta C\u00e1ceres. The private and state actors believed responsible for her murder never made any secret of the threat they saw from C\u00e1ceres and her group COPINH, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras\u2014the threat to the ability of extractive industries to steal land and water out from under indigenous people with state sanction. Such predations and the accompanying violence have been exacerbated by the 2009 coup in Honduras, a coup that the US, critically, supported.<\/p>\n<p>If history is guide, what coverage you may see of the anniversary of C\u00e1ceres\u2019 death will acknowledge her as a human rights leader but won&#8217;t discuss <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/us-contribution-to-death-of-honduran-activist-goes-unmentioned-in-us-coverage\/\">US complicity in her fate<\/a>, and that of many others killed, attacked or jailed in Honduras for standing up for themselves and their communities.<\/p>\n<p>Beverly Bell is coordinator of the group <a href=\"https:\/\/otherworldsarepossible.org\/\">Other Worlds Are Possible<\/a>, and associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She worked and traveled with Berta C\u00e1ceres and COPINH for many years. Welcome back to <b>CounterSpin<\/b>, Beverly Bell.<\/p>\n<p><b>Beverly Bell:<\/b> Thank you, Janine.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Well, in May of 2015, when we <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/her-life-hung-by-a-thread-because-of-this-work\/\">spoke to you last<\/a>, corporate media in the US were largely overlooking Berta C\u00e1ceres and COPINH being awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, a sort of &#8220;green Nobel.&#8221; And we talked about that as a missed chance to bring to light connections between US-based corporations and US aid dollars, and the violence against indigenous communities and environmental advocates, among others, in Honduras. I remember that at the time, you said that because of her work, Berta\u2019s life \u201chung by a thread.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, that missed opportunity to talk became an ominous silence, it seems, just as it\u2019s been made painfully clear how important it is to make just those connections. I\u2019d like to ask you to tell us about Honduras since the assassination, and what still stands in the way of justice for Berta C\u00e1ceres and for all of those others.<\/p>\n<p><b>BB:<\/b> The first thing that stands in the way of justice is that the Honduran government continues to be an imposed government, and completely unaccountable. It reigns with full impunity, as have the administrations which preceded it, ever since 2009\u2014when, as you say, the US very strongly backed a coup d\u2019etat against Manuel Zelaya, who was the last elected government of Honduras. Since then, there have been two other elections, and both have been total shams. They were certified by both the US and Canada, but very few other governments. And so the government pretends to be a democracy, and is certainly touted as such up here, but it is in fact a dictatorship, and acts like one.<\/p>\n<p>The group Global Witness, a very well-known and well-respected international human rights group, just put out another report saying that Honduras continues to be the most dangerous country in the world to be an environmental activist, and certainly the record of the last year proves that to be true. There have been dozens and dozens of assassination attempts, and at least six high-level indigenous activists\u2014just indigenous activists\u2014have been killed or almost killed, just in the past year since Berta C\u00e1ceres was killed.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent was on February 20, when Jos\u00e9 de los Santos Sevilla, who was a leader of the Tolupan indigenous people, who are fighting their own battles against the theft of their land and resource extraction, was killed. So he is only the last. I don\u2019t even have all the figures; they haven\u2019t even all been tracked.<\/p>\n<p>But what we know is that until there is a change in the actions of the Honduran government, and a respect for lives, human rights and democracy, indigenous and other environmental actors will not be safe. And we know, furthermore, that there will not be this change, vis-a-vis the Honduran government, as long as the US continues to send many, many, many millions of dollars of military aid to Honduras every year.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> When Berta C\u00e1ceres was killed, papers like the <b>New York Times<\/b> covered it, and they talked about how the coup, in fact, had made Honduras more dangerous for activists, but then they left out the US role in the coup. Well, since then, US media have gone, if you will, further. They\u2019ve actually worked to sell a whole different idea to US citizens about the role that the US has played and is playing in Honduras. What can you tell us about that?<\/p>\n<p><b>BB:<\/b> Well, you mentioned the investigation into the events of March 2 a year ago, which is when Berta C\u00e1ceres was assassinated. Also that night, also in her house, a guest from Mexico, a very powerful indigenous and environmental defender in his own right, Gustavo Castro Soto, was shot and was almost killed. One bullet just missed his skull by a millimeter, and took off part of his ear instead. He was also shot in the hand. He was then held illegally by the Honduran government and tortured for one month. And we do know, we actually have corroboration from the State Department in a written email, that they were part of that investigation. Gustavo escaped just by a hair with his life, and he and his family are now living in exile in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>So both Gustavo and the family of Berta C\u00e1ceres have been trying to have a fair investigation. This investigation, much like Berta\u2019s own killing, is really a window into the role of the United States government. And I\u2019ll just spin that out for you a little bit, because it\u2019s part of the story that has been kept from the US public, and certainly the Honduran public.<\/p>\n<p>So these two entities, one of them a direct survivor\u2014Gustavo Castro Soto from Mexico; he\u2019s actually the director of Friends of the Earth Mexico in Chiapas\u2014and then the family of Berta C\u00e1ceres, have been trying to gather evidence. The Honduran government has blocked them at all turns, and then last September actually disappeared every shred of evidence that those two parties had spent six months collecting. Every document, every photograph, every scrap of paper that had the name of a lead, all disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, the Honduran government said that it was a theft. Of course, we know that it wasn\u2019t. Furthermore, the Honduran government has refused to share any information with these players, including with Berta\u2019s very own daughters, and they have refused the offer of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to help out and to come in as a neutral player. That is not at all surprising.<\/p>\n<p>And then what the US has done is only surprising in how far it goes. It\u2019s so egregious; what the US did has been to arrest, through a special unit that is deployed to the Honduran government, the US has made arrests at strategic times of suspects, and then has gone to the US Congress\u2014we know this for a fact\u2014and said, oh, no no, you can\u2019t cut off US military aid to Honduras, because then there will be no way to go forward with the investigation into Berta C\u00e1ceres\u2019 killing, because the US is the only team that is doing anything serious.<\/p>\n<p>The US began doing this immediately after Keith Ellison introduced into Congress last year the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/114th-congress\/house-bill\/5474\">Berta C\u00e1ceres Human Rights Act<\/a>, which called on all US military aid to be cut until there was significant improvement in human rights. And so it was immediately in response to this bill going into the US Congress that we then saw the US being so duplicitous, and convincing Congress that US aid had to continue flowing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5582373\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NYTHonduras-e1471457986224.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5582373\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NYTHonduras-e1471457986224.png\" alt=\"New York Times: How the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Got Safer\" width=\"350\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The web version of the <strong>New York Times<\/strong> piece (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/14\/opinion\/sunday\/how-the-most-dangerous-place-on-earth-got-a-little-bit-safer.html?_r=0\">8\/11\/16<\/a>) offering Honduras as an example that should bolster &#8220;faith in American power.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> That would seem to dovetail nicely with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/14\/opinion\/sunday\/how-the-most-dangerous-place-on-earth-got-a-little-bit-safer.html?_r=0\">piece<\/a> that some listeners may remember from August of last year in the <b>New York Times<\/b>, which was about how the US is involved in Honduras and making things safer in Honduras. I mean, \u201cHow the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Got Safer\u201d was the headline over this Week in Review piece, and the subhead, I thought, was very interesting: \u201cPrograms Funded by the United States Are Helping Transform Honduras. Who Says American Power Is Dead?\u201d This seems to me to fit precisely with this effort to fight back against any plans to stop aid by saying, no, no, no, the US is actually the force for justice here\u2014including justice for Berta C\u00e1ceres.<\/p>\n<p><b>BB:<\/b> Yes, that piece that you mentioned that came out last August is really extraordinary, and the same journalist did one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/08\/11\/489661968\/american-investments-help-reduce-violence-in-honduras\">the same week<\/a> on <b>National Public Radio<\/b>. And both of them show one tiny little micro example of a little community where apparently\u2014who knows if it\u2019s true, I doubt it, but\u2014where apparently US government funding helped one small community center. And so this journalist extrapolated, and said that all of Honduras is getting better\u2014as you say, Janine\u2014thanks to US funding.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s extra interesting about those two pieces is that they appeared just weeks after the president of Honduras, in response to the Berta C\u00e1ceres Human Rights Act moving forward in the Congress, the president had come up to Washington to do a big PR blitz to ramp up the Honduran government\u2019s image, using the convenient tool of US media.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> We\u2019ve been speaking with Beverly Bell of the group Other Worlds. They\u2019re online at <a href=\"https:\/\/otherworldsarepossible.org\/\">OtherWorldsArePossible.org<\/a>. Thank you so much, Beverly Bell, for joining us this week on <b>CounterSpin<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>BB:<\/b> Janine, I\u2019m delighted to speak with you, and I hope that all US people listening will take responsibility for our government, such as it is, and get in touch with their congresspeople to push for this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/114th-congress\/house-bill\/5474\">act<\/a> that can truly make a difference for all Hondurans.<\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/there-will-not-be-change-as-long-as-us-sends-military-aid-to-honduras\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Beverly Bell about the first anniversary of Berta C\u00e1ceres&#8217; murder for the March 3, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. &nbsp; Beverly Bell: &#8220;Until there is a change in the actions of the Honduran government, and a respect for lives, human rights and democracy, indigenous and other environmental [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}