April 16, 2026

Berta Caceres Part 3

Berta Caceres Part 3
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Berta Cáceres was a Lenca indigenous leader, an environmental activist, and a human rights defender. But she was also so much more than that: a beauty pageant queen, a revolutionary (she joined the FMLN during the Salvadoran Civil War), and a mother. In part three, Cristina tells Carmen about the conditions that led to the Agua Zarca Dam Project.

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Sources

Who Killed Berta Caceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet by Nina Lakhani
https://archive.ph/BsiZB#selection-3399.94-3399.248
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres
https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-02/berta-caceres-and-the-resistance-that-was-born-under-an-oak-tree.html
https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/03/04/planeta_futuro/1457113234_162700.html
https://www.gaipe.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Represa-de-Violencia-ES-FINAL-.pdf
https://www.internationalrivers.org/news/remembering-river-defender-berta-caceres/
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/honduras-berta-caceres-killed
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/berta-caceres-name-honduran-military-hitlist-former-soldier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#Zelaya's_detention_and_exile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_Lobo_Sosa#U.S._drug_trafficking_case_against_Fabio_Lobo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Orlando_Hern%C3%A1ndez


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WEBVTT

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Hi everyone. This is Carbon and Christina and this is

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the Study as Unknown, a podcast where we talk about

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Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with heavy

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topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that,

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it's also about resistance, power and community. Okay, well, first

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I have to say it feels weird not recording every week. Yeah,

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it does like I'm missing something, you know. Anyway, we

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left off part two of Alberta Cassettes episodes with Coping

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growing into what it became, and then their protests of

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sorry you can hear my child, and then their protests

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of the proposed PPP, the Plan Buebla Project. I think

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it's what it was stood for again by or supported

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hugely by Vicente folks, which ultimately brought the Awaka damn

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to Lenkat Lands. Now we're going to get into Copen's

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fight against this dam And when I wrote this intro,

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I said we were going to get into the murder

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of Bertacas. It is, but we're not. We're not. So

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there's gonna be part five. Yeah, wait, is this part

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three or part four? This is this is part three,

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isn't it? Oh? Okay? I think this is part three

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so it's gonna be a part four, okay, because I

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could have finished this, but I have to study for

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a test tomorrow. Yeah. So yeah, we're not getting into

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the actual day of the murder and like the aftermath

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of all that in this part. This is now like

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Awa Sarka and the dam and all that. So before

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I talk about the day she was murdered, there was

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a series of events that led up to that day.

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We already went a little bit into a part two

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with the PPP and all that. But the other event

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that led to her murder, or would lead to her murder,

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is the overthrow of Celaya. And I'm not going to

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get into the intricacies of his government, nor am I

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saying that he was a perfect president or anything like that,

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because he was a president of a nation state after all.

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So but to say that a coup did not happen

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would not be factual. The Hunduran government has always denied

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US involvement in the coup itself, but the US did

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legitimize the coup after it took place, oh I see,

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And this legitimization, of course made things worse. So when

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the coup occurred, people naturally took to the streets to

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protest during the coup. Selaya was woken up early in

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the morning on the twenty eighth of June two thousand

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and nine, and then he was forced onto a plane

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by US. Sorry, just like inserting the US. He was

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forced on to a plane by soldiers. And I want

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to say these were like Special Forces soldiers probably yeah,

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part of the first battalion trained by the US. That's

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why I was accidentally going to say US soldiers. They

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were US trained soldiers, because all the special forces in

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all these Latin American countries are usually trained by the US.

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So yeah, he was forced onto a plane by them.

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This plane was heading to Costa Rica. He was like

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still in pajamas, walking up by gunpoint and forced onto

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this plane. He attempted to return to Hondunas three times,

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and each time he was prevented from entering because if

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he entered, he could continue his presidency, was the thought

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in the second attempt. Erta's husband and I know the separator,

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but I don't know when, so I don't know if

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they were still married at this point. But they continue

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to work together in both co parenting and in coping anyway,

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because they were the founders of Coping, but Sarwalro Suniga

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and another Copeing leader named Sotero Chavarria led several hundred

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people to escort the ousted president from Nicaragua into Hoduras

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and they made it back but only to the Brazilian embassy.

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No sorry. The third attempt is when they made it

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back but only to the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. And

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he remained cooped up in the embassy for three months.

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And the embassy is where most of the protests were

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taking place. And these protests were getting more and more

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violent as the days went on. Beta's own sister, Agustina Flores,

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she happened to be getting coffee when a protest turned violent.

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The police and soldiers fired both rubber bullets and live

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bullets at crowds. Wow, they were beating women and the elderly.

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She herself was almost hit by a grenade. It just

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missed her. Damn passed down, Yeah, a full ass grenade.

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She passed out when this happened, and when she woke up,

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she was surrounded by police who were punching her and

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beating her with their clubs. The hell then she and

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at least one hundred protesters were taken to the National Stadium,

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which was being used as a makeshift detention center. When

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Berta was finally able to visit Agustina, she was severely beaten, bruised, swollen,

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and she was being held for quote crimes against the state. Wow,

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there was no crimes against the state during this time period.

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People were beaten, tortured, jailed illegally, and disappeared. It was

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very soon after this coup that rumors of a hit

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list began, and Berta was on this list. So was

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Mediam Miranda, who we talked about in the last episode.

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I don't know if you remember that she was her bestie,

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her garifuna bestI. And you might be wondering how the

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US was involved, if they didn't like officially back the coup,

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like they didn't cause the coup, because again the government

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maintains that the US was not involved in the actual

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planning of the coup, and in fact, when it first happened,

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Obama gave a press conference or address a nation whatever

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it's called, where he stated the coup was not legal

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and that President Celaya remains a president and that quote,

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it would be a terrible precedent if we started moving

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backwards into the year in which we are seeing military

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coups as a mean of political transition rather than democratic elections.

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End quote. You know what that quote was missing, but

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stating when we are seeing US backed military coups. Despite that,

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the then Secretary of State Miss Ilaria Hillary Clinton, I

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was like, Ladia, Yeah, Hillary legitimized the coup by not

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declaring it a military coup, because this is ringing bells

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for me. I remember this, this should be Yeah, it

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was pretty big when it happened, and they were being

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asked to call it a coup, a military coup officially,

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but she didn't. She refused to do it. If it

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had been declared a coup by the US, it would

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have this would have allowed them to cut off aid

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to Honduras to not help this like illegitimate government. They did, however,

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eventually cut off aid, but from two thousand and nine

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to twenty eighteen they provided two hundred million dollars in

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military aid and police aid. The aid that was cut

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off was like non military, like road improvements and things

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like that, things that could actually help. And of course,

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the choice to fund their military and police in a

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time when they were repressing the people. Yeah, yeah, and

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there was a growth in human rights violations and violence

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by them. It was a US very US. Yeah. And

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while it's always been dangerous to be an activist in

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Honduras and all of Latin America for that matter, it

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was after the two thousand and nine coup that it

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became extra dangerous. Because I made a real and TikTok

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video about Berta CAAs. It is where I mentioned it.

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It became way more dangerous after the two thousand and

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nine coup. And someone commented it was always dangerous, and

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it's like, okay, but like it legitimately became way more

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dangerous after the cup. You never said it wasn't that.

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I don't understand people's comments sometimes that okay, Yeah, So

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I just want to here to emphasize it's always been dangerous,

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but after the two thousand and nine coup and Ondudas,

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it became way more dangerous. So in August two thousand

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and nine, the interim government passed a law allowing the

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privatization and so interim government meaning after the coup, passed

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the law allowing the privatization of the country's water resources.

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Of course, then just days before the election of Portfitio

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Lobo Sosa, who went by pepet Lobo. Side note about

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pepet Lobo, his son is in prison right now in

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the US for twenty four years for conspiring to import

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cocaine into the US and his wife. Pepet Lobo's wife

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was founder guilty of three counts of misappropriation and eight

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counts of fraud. She was acquitted of some of the

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money laundry and embezzlement of public funds, but she was

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sentenced to fifty eight years and a fine of one

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point two million lempidras. There was a retrial which she

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was found guilty again for fraud and sentenced to fourteen

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years for using twelve point two million limpidras meant for

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low income children on her own children's school fees, for

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real estate and for personal credit card payments. Wow. And

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pepet Lobo himself has some corruption allegations also some well yes, corruption,

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oh okay. Side note ended. So why did I mention

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him in the first place? After my side now, I

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already forgot. Just days before his election. Just before just

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days before his election, the interim government, which was led

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by Roberto Micheletti, overturned a long standing ban on commercial

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projects in protected water reserves. It's almost like this was

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the purpose. Almost, but it has to be a coincidence, right,

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mm hmm hmm. And this overturning of this long standing ban,

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they did it in secret so groups like COPING wouldn't

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have an opportunity to oppose or vote against this or

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call this out. You know what this reminds me of.

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I'm surprised you didn't comment it. It reminds me of

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the overturn of mining. Oh yeah, they're very similar, I guess.

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Mud Mara ownA, a historian, said, this is from the book,

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but quote after the coup, you got the impression that

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the Hundurian elites were willing to facilitate the almost total

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destruction of the country to increase their wealth end quote.

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The author of the book that is my main source

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wrote after this quote, this was done by imposition, not

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consultation end quote. And that's when I asked you what

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I position meant? Okay, it makes sense being forced upon

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the people. Yeah, I was forced upon them. And this

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was kind of the final step to the birth of

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the Agua Sarka Damn. Hoduras was declared open for business

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to quote the book again because it explains it the

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mest quote. There were three steps. One Michelletti removed the

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legislative bad lucks as the international community condemned the coup.

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Two Lobo declared Onduna's open for business and the international

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community forgot about the coup. Three Congress approved a series

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of laws, concessions, and contracts by taking advantage of the

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party's majority. One thanks to the election boycott, which persuaded

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international banks and businesses to make the most out of

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the coup. It was after all, this Abert that was

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given a list of rivers to be secretly sold off

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by Congress. And this selling off included the approval of

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dozens of hydro electric dams and and this list of

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rivers was the sacred Guaalkatka River. This list was leaked

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to her, no one outside of those making this deal,

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No one was ever supposed to see it. When she

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saw this list, she led Coppin on a march to

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the presidential Palace down. They were just trying to hide everything.

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Huh yeah, thank god for whistleblowers. Seriously, this was on

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July twenty six, twenty eleven. They had illicted demands which

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included suspending several dam projects, including Awasarka, and two days

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after the march, Pebe Lobo, the President, nine ministers, and

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Berta signed a memorandum affirming the state's duty to comply

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with international conventions protecting the rights of Indigenous and Afro

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descendant peoples, which was all backed by the ILO one

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six nine. If you remember that from like episode one,

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the Lobo administration specifically agreed that no dams or other

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high impact projects would take place on Linka territory without

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consultation and approval by the Linka, which is what they're

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supposed to be doing already, but this agreement would be violated. Specifically,

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in twenty twelve, there was a vote about model cities.

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Do you know what these are? I feel like of them?

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I think you have Model cities were like private cities

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inside of Ondudas that would have their own like cops, laws, governments,

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and tax systems. Yeah, there's like a one in Adudas

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that Dawn what's it called? I know, I know, yeah,

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I know these prospera Prospera yes, yes, the tech bro

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uh Paradise or whatever the fuck. Yeah, So naturally, the

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five judge panel ruled against this because this would violate

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the Hunduran Constitution. They specifically argued, quote the foreign investment

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expected to be received by the State of hondudas implies

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transferring national territory, which is expressly prohibited in the constitution

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end quote Like this wasn't allowed, So four judges in

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this five judge panel voted against it. In response to this,

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the government dismissed the fourjudges who voted against this at midnight.

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That is so sketchy. Yeah, and a secret midnight session

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chaired by Ernandez. And yes, this is the same drug

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trafficking Juan Orlando Ernandez that was pardoned by Trump in

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twenty twenty five. Oh yeah, Also what abu move? Oh yeah,

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that's who I was thinking of as you were talking about. Yeah,

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this is just a dictatorship. Uh one oh one, If

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you will filed the class. All the things that they

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have been doing since the school was is a part

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of that class like steps towards a dictatorship or of

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a dictatorship. Those judges that were fired were replaced by

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ones that were friendly to the government, thus allowing them

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to do whatever they wanted. Guillermo Lopez Lone, one of

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the ousted, judges told the author of Who killed Berta

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Casen is my main source quote the coup marked before

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and after in the country. At first I thought it

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was a move against Selnaya, but actually it was a

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political decision to expand the economic model and the rollout

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of extractive industries, which is reforms threatened. Congress plotted the

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coup and then approved the concessions, and then when threatening

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the model had to be sent a message Berta was

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a threat to the model and quote and yeah she was.

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In fact, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights published

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a list of people under threat during the two thousand

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and nine coup, and Berta Casserez was on their list

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and they were like she must be protected. Damn. Yeah. Okay,

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now that's kind of setting up the context. But we

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have to talk about Desa, the people, uh building the

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Aguasarka down the dam. Okay, this I was created on

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May twentieth, two thousand and nine, Pacific to develop the

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Awasarka Dam project. The owner and he's he's named the

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owner in the book, but in other places he's named

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the president of DESA. But David Castillo is his name,

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and yes, he's in jail right now for the manor

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of Berta. Yeah, he was an employee of the e

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n EE, the National Energy Company. On the day of

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the coup, the army raided the e n e E headquarters,

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removing files and computers from the director's office. DESA had

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been created in two thousand and nine, but David Gastillo

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remained at e n e E until twenty twelve. During

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this time, he had access to long term studies assessing

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the suitability of rivers for hydro electric dams, including the

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Guadgarke River. Then DESSA submitted its feasibility study for that

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river after the e n EE had been granted permission

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to undertake the study. So the e ENE was supposed

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to be the ones to do this, and these studies

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are supposed to last at least three years to establish

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if the river has adequate flow to generate power during

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the dry season. This in like way less time, probably

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because David Gastillo stole the information from e n EE down. Yeah,

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and there's other shady things that went on with Thissa,

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David Gastillo, and the e NEE that included straight up

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fraud that I'm just not going to get into because

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It's a little dry for me and a little hard

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to understand, but basically it was shady how THESA eventually

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got the environmental license for the dam. This fifty year

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license was approved without the informed consent of the Linka community,

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which is required by the ratification of the ILO one

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sixty nine. In twenty twelve, this has submitted an application

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to expand the dam's energy capacity. Again, they didn't have

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permission to build this dam. But then they also applied

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to expand dam's energy capacity, which would leave the river dry. Wow.

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If they did this, and they knew this because an

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official environmental risk study informed them that the river would

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end up dry if they did this, and yet they

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downgraded the project's risk category which allowed them to expand

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the dam's generation capacity without consulting Congress, let alone the

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Lanka people. They never once asked for permission. Wow. And like,

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I feel like it's not necessary to emphasize, but I

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will anyway. If the river went dry, it would affect vegetation, wildlife. Yeah, yeah,

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I mean horrible things. But of course these companies and

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corporations put profit over the literal well being of the

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earth and the rest of us, because what happened to

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the earth affects us, right, It's like that judge said

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that I mentioned. Oh no, it was a historian that mentioned.

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And it's like the elite of Ondudas were willing to

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do this, just destroy the country just to pocket a

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little money for a lot of money, but a lot. Yeah.

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So Desa did all of this, but they still needed

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a construction permit from the municipality or the local mayor's office.

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But the Rio Blanco community voted four hundred and one

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to seven against the dam, which should have stopped them. Yeah,

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but the then mayor of Indibuca, Martiniano Domingez, threatened to

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jail community leaders who tried to stop construction and then

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issue the permit anyway. In response to this, Berta Casserez

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reported this to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Ethnic Groups

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and Cultural Heritage, which was like one of the smallest

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and most underfunded teams in the public ministry. Of course

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it was yeah, and the then chief prosecutor of that

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office was the only one Berta trusted because they had

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gone up together on the same street in Lasperanza. Her

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name was Johnny Delcid, and Johnny delci that her team

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charged the mayor with abuse of authority for issuing the

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construction permit, but then it was dismissed illegally by a

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local judge, and then I went to an appeals court

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where it was killed, and then it was revived again

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after Redta's murder due to international pressure with a journey,

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and I haven't seen what the status of this is now.

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The fight against the dam continued. Protests continued. In twenty thirteen,

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Berta had written to the Dutch Development Bank FMO because

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they were rumored to have been considering investing in the

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al wesid God Dam. In her letter, she detailed the

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multiple I one sixty nine violations, along with the violence

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and criminalization they faced for protesting the dam. She asked

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the bank to withdraw from the project because this bank

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claimed to pride themselves on social responsibility, that's what they

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said on their website. But the bank refused. It was

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only after her murder that they withdrew from the project.

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It's like, what's the point, Yeah, like the ultimate harm

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has already happened. Yeah. She also believed that the World

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Bank Group was involved, but she could improve it before

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her death. I'm sure they were, yeah, she was right.

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There's a lot of confusing money details. The most basic

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version of this is that Camillo Attala Varrachh a Hunduran

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elite like think you know the fourteen families of Ensa Rador,

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the oligarchs, but Hoduras He's part of one of the

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richest families. So his Figosa Financial Group expanded their banking empire.

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He then became Central America's richest banker. Then Ficosa, his

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financial group, received a seventy million cash injection from the IFC,

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the International Finance Corporation, which also held a ten percent

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equity share in Ficosa Onduras until twenty eighteen. So because

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they had this ten percent equity share and they gave

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them that much money, every Fikosa loan was basically an

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IFC loan. So Berta Casidz went to the IFC so

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they could investigate whether the World Bank money had been

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invested in Aguasarka, and they denied it. But phone data

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that was uncovered during the murder investigation shows that Figosa

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was involved. Because because Fikosa was involved, by default, the

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IFC is involved because it's their money too. We'll get

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into it later in the next part, but there was

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a new even more detailed report done by GIEI on

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Duras that is five hundred and thirty pages long, which

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shows that the money used to fund her murder came

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from international banks. And this five hundred three already report,

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five hundred and thirty page report also implicates the Atala

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family And this is new, like twenty twenty five, this

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report came out and I hate to do this, but

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I already said it at the top. I have a

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test tomorrow. I have to study for that, So I

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ran out of time to actually get to her murder

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not a cliffhanger, yes, and so we're going to get

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into that in part four and then like obviously her

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legacy and the aftermath and the situation with the dam

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and this could have been like one really long one

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and a half hour episode, but we can't do that anymore. Yeah,

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or we have time crunches now, yes, yes, So anything

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you want to add before we in the episode, I guess.

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Just a reminder we are here every other week now,

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not weekly, so we will see you in two weeks,

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not one week for the last part of this episode. Yes,

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thanks from that reminder, Thank you for listening, and we

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hope this was one less Estoria Unknown for you. Bye Bye.

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Astoria Unknown is produced by Carmen and Christina, researched by

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Carmen and Christina, edited by Christina. You can find sources

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00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:19.640
for every episode at estoriasunknown dot com and in our

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00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:22.119
show notes. Creating the podcast has a lot of work,

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00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:24.079
so if you want to help us out financially, you

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can do so by supporting us on Patreon at Patreon

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