Abstract
This chapter explores the power of spirituality as a driving force behind the process of civil resistance of the Lenca people of western Honduras against a World-Bank-financed project to build a hydroelectric dam on their sacred river. It looks at the key role played by environmental activist Berta Cáceres in successfully organizing the Lenca community through her organization, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), to resist the dam project. It also examines the achievements of the Lenca’s civil resistance campaign, which eventually led to the withdrawal of the World Bank and the Chinese Sinohydro company, the largest hydroelectric company in the world, in 2013.
In Memory of Berta Cáceres
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Notes
- 1.
Cáceres was murdered at her home just before midnight by heavily armed gunmen; her colleague visiting her at the time, Gustavo Castro, was the sole witness, surviving an assassination attempt against him. In April 2016, two military officers and two employees of the Honduran firm Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. were charged with the murder of Cáceres.
- 2.
Besides the Lenca people, other indigenous groups in Honduras include the Miskitu, Tawahka, Tolupan, Pech and Chorti.
- 3.
Translation into English of all Spanish texts by Mónica Maher.
- 4.
LGBTI referes to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people.
- 5.
H.R. 5474 Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, introduced 14 June 2016, by Representative Henry Johnson, Jr., 114th US Congress (2015–2016). See: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5474.
- 6.
For further description of the roles of Afro-descendent and indigenous spiritualities, ceremonies and rituals in the Honduran resistance movement, see Maher (2015a).
- 7.
I have argued this previously in the context of Honduras (see Maher 2015b).
- 8.
At the 2016 International Women’s Day Protest at the United Nations in New York City, for example, women from around the world attending meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women sang this song in French, Spanish and English in demand for justice for the assassination of Cáceres and other women activists.
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Maher, M.A. (2019). A Rebellion of Spirituality: On the Power of Indigenous Civil Resistance in Honduras. In: Mouly, C., Hernández Delgado, E. (eds) Civil Resistance and Violent Conflict in Latin America. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05033-7_3
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