Berta Cáceres Murder: Activist Colleague Gustavo Castro Soto Prevented From Leaving Honduras After Surviving Assassination

The lone survivor of the shooting that killed prominent Honduran activist Berta Cáceres has been barred from returning to safety in his native country of Mexico for 30 days. Gustavo Castro Soto was stopped in the Tegucigalpa airport after days of questioning by Honduran law enforcement, according to a statement from Otros Mundos and Friends of the Earth Mexico, two environmental and human rights groups affiliated with him and Berta Cáceres. Activists, journalists and family members close to Cáceres say that Gustavo Castro’s life is in imminent danger.

Jeff Conant, an International Forests Campaigner with Friends of the Earth U.S. who has known the Mexican activist for nearly 20 years, spoke tells the Latin Times that Gustavo knew he was at risk even before the March 3 attack that left him wounded and Cáceres dead. He says that the activist only survived the attack by lying prone on the ground, leading the gunmen to leave him for dead.

“We’re extremely worried about Gustavo at the moment,” says “One of the last conversations I had with Gustavo was [about] developing stronger security protocols to protect at-risk environmental defenders.”

Conant nominated Cáceres for the Goldman Environmental Prize, which she won in 2015 for organizing indigenous people in Honduras to stop the construction of the Agua Zarca dam. Now Conant and his colleagues are “extremely worried” that an internationally recognized human rights leader is so vulnerable to and open assault by gunman.

Their wider concern about the health and safety of environmentalists in the region is now consumed with the fight to free Gustavo Castro from Honduras and a potential second assassination attempt. According to Conant, Gustavo's wife, Nieves, is waiting for him at their home in Chiapas, Mexico.