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On this day the Honduran environmental activist, anti-capitalist, feminist and indigenous leader, Berta Cáceres was assassinated.

Berta is renowned for her persistence in the face of constant threats of violence and eventual martyrdom for her activism.

She led and won a campaign against the Agua Zarca dam company DESA which cost the company more than $3 million. They were building a dam that would encroach on indigenous land and damage the Gualcarque River sacred for the Lenca people. After the campaign she faced criminal charges and constant death threats and on March 3rd, 2016, she was murdered by seven men in her home.

Cáceres co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and was at the heart of battles against environmental abusers like corporations, plantation owners, dam companies and illegal loggers to protect indigenous lands and resources.

The investigation into her death found that DESA had hired the hitmen that murdered her.

The seven men who perpetrated the attack were convicted in 2018, for planning and carrying out the murder. However, the family and attornies in the Caceres case have for now only managed to link one person as the "intellectual author" of the murder. David Roberto Castillo Mejia, DESA's president and a US-trained former military officer, will go to trial next month, five years after the killing of Berta Caceres.

As part of Women's History Month, we honour Berta Cáceres, who would've turned 50 on March 4, for her inspiring life.