When plans were announced to construct a dam on the indigenous Lenca people’s sacred Gualcarque River in Honduras, Berta Cáceres sprang into action to defend her homeland. She cofounded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras and organized a successful, year-long campaign to halt the Agua Zarca Dam project, which would have cut off the Lenca people’s supply of water, food and medicine. In 2015, Cáceres was awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize, and in 2016 paid the ultimate price for her activism when she was assassinated in her home.
Words of Inspiration
“We must undertake the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other spare or replacement planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action.” —Berta Cáceres
