On March 3, a group of gunmen barged into indigenous activist Berta Cáceres‘ home and killed her. And at her funeral on Saturday, it became clear that what she meant to the Lenca community and Honduras won’t be forgotten. As Lenca indigenous people carried Cáceres coffin on their shoulders through La Esperanza, people chanted “the struggle goes on and on” and “Berta Cáceres is present, today and forever,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hundreds of people attended her funeral, with some marching more than six miles from her home to the church that held the mass. Her ex-husband, Salvador Zuniga, asked for her forgiveness.”Forgive me for not understanding your greatness,” he said.
Related: Remembering Slain Indigenous Rights Activist Berta Cáceres’ Most Inspirational Speech
Her mother hopes the international attention will make impunity impossible. Online, people are using the hashtag #JusticiaParaBerta to further push the Honduran government to take action.
The day after the funeral, two FBI agents landed in Honduras to collaborate with five other groups investigating Cáceres’ death. An agent who’s part of the investigation said that the FBI agents have “reviewed the measures we have taken so far. They will support us to obtain conclusive evidence,” according to La Prensa.
As questions arise about what happened on March 3, Gustavo Castro Soto – an activist who witnessed the crime – said the government has tampered with evidence. He doesn’t doubt that the same gunmen that went after Berta will go after him.
“While the Mexican consulate has immediately come to my aid and they haven’t left my side, on top of giving me extra security, it doesn’t mean that my life is no longer in danger,” he wrote in a letter, according to La Prensa. “And it’s something the Honduran government doesn’t want to see, as they try to keep me here so they can control what I say. They haven’t given me copies of my statement. To keep me safe, they have threatened a preventative arrest if I go to Tegucigalpa. If I leave without their consent, I won’t have any security and what happens will be on me. I have not committed any crimes.”
Castro Soto added that the government has forgotten that he is a victim as well. They have taken his luggage and didn’t let him change out of his clothes for days. For four hours, the government showed him pictures of people, but “they didn’t show me the faces of the owners of the company or of their hitmen.” Before her death, Cáceres worked to stop a company from building a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River.
Amnesty International is urging people to write to the Honduran government so that Gustavo doesn’t have to return to the same place where Berta’s murder happened. To learn more about how you can help Gustavo, visit Amnesty International’s site here.