WEBVTT - Part 1: The Witness 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:09.920 Congratulations to the winners of the two thousand fifteen Goldman Prize. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.720 It's the biggest prize and environmental activists can get, and 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:19.040 this is the awards ceremony. Thousands of people are packed 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.840 into San Francisco's Grand Opera House, and in the middle 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.279 of the front row, tonight's big winner is waiting for 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:34.760 her name to be called. Berta Casarengs from Honduras. It's April, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.360 and Berta Cassras is being honored for her fight against 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:44.479 a proposed hydro electric dam in western Honduras. Foreign investors, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.400 the Honduran government, and some of the wealthiest business leaders 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.800 in the country have backed the project. Barta has worked 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.240 with a native community known as the Linka to oppose it. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:00.240 They've filed legal complaints arguing the damn will destroy aid 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.200 their way of life. They've stacked logs and stones on roads, 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:09.319 blocking construction equipment from reaching the work site, and Berta 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.840 has been credited with driving the world's largest hydro electric contractor, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.680 China's Sino Hydro Corporation, to pull out of the project. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.319 It's been a grizzly battle. Protesters and security guards have clashed. 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.480 A couple of people have been killed. A few more 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.240 have been wounded and scarred. Bart To herself says she's 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:37.039 been constantly harassed. Threatening text messages have popped up on 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:42.000 her phone. Strangers have followed her, mysterious vehicles have tried 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.280 to drive her off the road. But on this night, 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.960 as she walks onto the opera house stage, none of 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.280 that seems to rattle her. She unfolds her speech at 0:01:52.320 --> 0:02:00.080 the podium and adjust the mic when I'm familiar on 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.800 her closest friends have never seen her like this. The 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.359 bear To, they know, wears jeans and T shirts. Tonight 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.720 she's wearing a sparkling, pale rose gown, but her smiles 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.760 the same. And that smile is something her friends and 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.880 colleagues have always talked about, how the smile has a 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.119 way of making people feel comfortable, and how as soon 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.960 as that happens, there to switch his things up tries 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:31.919 to make those same people feel a little uncomfortable. Agitation, disruption, provocation, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:44.600 that's what she's going for, despertemos temple. It's a call 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.720 to action, she says. The world needs to wake up. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.160 It's running out of time, she says. Greed, racism, and 0:02:52.240 --> 0:03:04.480 old patriarchal systems are destroying us. Racis theatre art has 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.079 been delivering that message in different ways for decades. As 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.520 a kid, she tag along with her mom to protests. 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.200 She co founded her own human rights organization when she 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.560 was just twenty two. Now, at forty four years old, 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:26.040 she's reached the pinnacle of her career, the request Premio 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:36.080 al Puelo linca Ario Lenco alcop. She closes the speech 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.040 by dedicating the award to all the rebels out there, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:44.320 to her mother, to the Linka indigenous community, and lastly 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.520 to all the martyrs who have lost their lives defending 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:58.040 natural resources. In a lot of stories, this would be 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:03.440 the end a grassroot environmental activists achieves international acclaim after 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.520 years of struggling for her cause. But this isn't one 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:12.160 of those stories. Tonight's award puts a spotlight on Barton. 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.960 The anger and resentment she's inspired over the years, intensified 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.160 under its glare. Barton will go back to Honduras after this. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.560 She'll continue to speak out against the dawn, but in 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:36.320 less than a year she'll be silenced. A prominent environmental 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.400 rights activists was shot dead in Honduras on Thursday. She 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.839 was killed like well the one hundred other activists. It's 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.080 two thousand and ten and what's become the deadliest country 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:51.719 in the world for environmental defenders. My name is Monte Real, 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.960 an investigative journalist for Bloomberg Green. This is Blood River. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.320 It's the story of a murder, a murder her in 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:06.159 a place where murderers thrive. We're about of all killings 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:12.440 are left unsolved and unpunished, where environmental activists have become 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:38.760 irresistible targets. The homicide investigation was full of surprises from 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:43.640 day one. Now, more than four years on, it keeps 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:48.800 revealing new twists. We think it's quite possible that there's 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:53.520 more to this crime then has been exposed so far. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.280 I always felt like the government wouldn't dare to touch her. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.520 I always felt that she would be threatened and she 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.880 would be famed, and they try and sender to prison. 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.000 But I never actually thought that the government would dare 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:11.880 kill her. We'll dive into those accusations, will follow strands 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.880 of evidence on a zig zagging path that will lead 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:20.039 towards some of the most powerful institutions in Honduras. Before long, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.599 foreign governments and international investors will have to confront the 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:30.279 same question, who in the end is really responsible for 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.440 the death of Bear to Cassarus, And as more people 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:37.400 get drawn into that mystery, more blood will be shed. 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.040 It's not a good situation when people can literally get 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.880 away with murder. Convicting people previously thought to be untouchable 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.040 of serious crimes and having them pay the consequences can 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.560 send a very very important message. This is a test case. Yeah, 0:06:52.600 --> 0:07:12.080 this is so important. This. I'm walking up to the 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:16.800 house where Berta was killed. It's early, almost four years 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.120 after her murder. She had bought this place with some 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.760 of the one and seventy dollars she was awarded for 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.320 winning the Goldman Prize. At the time of her murder, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.560 she hadn't fully moved in yet, She was only staying 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.160 here a couple of days a week. The subdivision sits 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.120 at the far south end of the city of La Speranza. 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.840 It's a new development, flat, treeless, with plenty of lots 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.360 that remain empty. Her house is small and simple, a 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:53.120 green stucco exterior, white trim red metal roof. A six 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.320 ft high chain link fence surrounds it. From the front door, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.640 you look across a dirt road and over a Aaron Fields. 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:13.480 It's a subdivision that's very isolated and abandoned, with very 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.720 few houses. That was Gustavo Castro's first impression of the place. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:22.520 He's an environmental activist from Mexico. Barta invited him to 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:27.040 Las Baranza in March to speak at a conference she organized. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.320 She told me, no, don't worry because anyway, I don't 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:36.440 sleep here all the time. It's not like it's my 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:43.600 permanent fixed address lexio Ica Tempo. That didn't put him 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.760 at ease, especially when Berta started telling him how nasty 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:52.160 her fight against the Awazarka Damn Project had gotten at 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.520 one protest. Security guards for the Damn shot and killed 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:01.520 a demonstrator. They claimed self defense. Bear To herself had 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.959 recently been getting threats, cryptic messages saying she should watch 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.439 her back, that sort of thing. She filed a complaint 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.360 to the Organization of American States. It's sort of like 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:17.800 the United Nations for the Americans. That organization declared that 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.760 the Honduran government had a responsibility to provide security for 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:29.600 bart To. She chatted a lot about the attention she 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.960 was getting the threats, about the complaint she had filed 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.439 and how about how sometimes the police officers that were 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:44.560 supposed to be protectively weren't protecting. During that conference in 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.080 La Esperanza, Gustavo had planned to stay at the house 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.040 of another activist, one who lived in the center of 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.680 the city, but when he saw Barta's place and how 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.600 vulnerable she seemed there, his plans changed. Barta said he'd 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.160 be well come to stay with her, so Gustavo lugged 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:10.720 his suitcase into the house and settled into the spare bedroom. 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.000 The next evening, they grabbed dinner in a restaurant in town. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.959 It was about ten o'clock when bear To drove them 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.240 back to the house. She passed a little security booth 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.640 in front of the subdivision. A guard watched them pull 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.760 up an older man in his seventies. Maybe he raised 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.600 the crossbar that blocked the entrance road. The man nodded 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:39.240 at Barta as she passed. After that, upon arriving at 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.520 the house, we grabbed chairs and sat out on the 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.160 front porch to talk. I had a drink and smoked 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.319 a cigarette, and we stayed out there talking until maybe 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:54.000 eleven o'clock or so. Mostly it was small talk. Mostly 0:10:54.480 --> 0:11:00.319 it had been a long day, and she was very hired, 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.920 and she said, okay, let's get some rest. I'll show 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.200 you to your room, and so we went in for 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.320 the night. I did a little work on my room 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:13.680 in the computer. You. Yes, I don't know if she 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.600 was already asleep, but I heard some noises coming from 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.080 around the house or inside the house, and I thought 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:28.080 maybe she was doing something like Yeah. By now, it 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.400 must have been a little past eleven thirty. That's when 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:38.000 he heard a much louder noise, good a bag, very loud. 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.319 I thought maybe Bait had dropped something in the kitchen, 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:44.880 and I was getting ready to get up to go 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.560 help because it sounded very loud. But immediately the door 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.040 of my room was kicked open, and at the same time, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:59.280 bit yells from her room, who's out there? Everything happened 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.280 at once. Gustavo her gunshots coming from bear To's room, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.640 and when he looked up, a man was standing in 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.439 his room, no more than six or seven feet away. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.560 He looked young, nineteen twenty years old, a thin guy, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.600 dark complexion, black hair, wide eyes, and he was holding 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:24.240 a gun. Nquist told Mann, I threw myself towards the 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.440 side of the bed, in my room to protect myself, 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:43.360 and the gunman shot me in the head side. I 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.160 think it was a miracle because when I saw his 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.079 eyes and saw his decision to shoot me, I instinctively moved, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.200 and the gunman evidently thought that the shot had caused 0:12:54.200 --> 0:13:02.560 that scar. Gustavo had thrown his hand up in front 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.080 of his face a protective reflex. The bullet tore through 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.679 the skin of his hand, then it buzzed the side 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:13.000 of his head, clipping a piece of his ear. Gustavo 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:22.959 fell to the floor, stunned, bleeding and still betoas okay. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:28.440 He evidently thought that I was already dead. Gustavo sprawled 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:34.559 on the floor, heard footsteps retreat down the hallway, then silence. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:41.880 No more than a minute passed, maybe as I was 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:51.480 down on the floor and be yelled for me. So 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.960 I realized that she was alive and got up to 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.320 go to the room to help her. She was there 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:02.440 on the ground bleeding. I couldn't tell where the gunshots were, 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.480 only a lot of blood. Little by little, she was 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:16.160 drowning over the thing. Gustavo was kneeling over bear to 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.600 in shock. Somehow, just before beart to faded out. She 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:26.280 managed to mouth the final message to him, call Salvador. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:31.200 She said that was her ex husband. They'd split years before, 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.760 but he's the father of her four children and he 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.720 remained a major presence in their lives. Gustavo was searched 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.800 for bear to cell phone and found it on a table. Yeah, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.000 I also had a lot of It was a very 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.360 modern phone, one that I didn't know how to use 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.960 very well. And with all the nerves and and and 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.920 the tension, I was trying to search for familiar telephone numbers, 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:02.400 but nobody was answering. Gustavo look back at Barton. She 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:14.560 was gone. Now he was alone, terrified that the killers 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.600 might come back. He grabbed his own phone to make 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.600 the calls. Sometimes he left voicemail messages, and sometimes he 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.520 didn't wait. He just punched in another number from his room. 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.520 He also sent emails to friends and colleagues in Mexico, 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.280 begging them to contact anyone in Honduras who might be 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:34.320 able to come to the house and help him out. 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.840 I was lying in my bed at one in the 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:43.240 morning on March three, and I was into Goosey Galpa, 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:50.760 and I received a phone call from Ann number. Karen 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.840 Spring is a Canadian human rights activist who lives into 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.920 Goosey Galpa, the Honduran capital. It's about a four hour 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.960 drive from Las Beranza. So I was alone in the 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.960 house and I received this phone call and then I 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.040 was like, okay, well that's weird. I wonder who's calling me. 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.440 And then somebody else called me again, and so I 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:12.080 was like, okay, that's weird. I'm gonna listen to the voicemail. 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.600 That first call had been Gustavo. He didn't leave a voicemail. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.400 The second caller was an activist in Mexico who had 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:25.200 received a panicked message from Gustavo. The activist called Karen 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.080 to see if Karen might be able to help him. 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.760 And so when I listened to the voicemail, my friend, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:36.280 who is very active in the you know, mining networks 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.800 in Mexico, was just saying Berto is dead and Gustavo 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.120 is in her house and he shot and he really 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:49.400 needs help. And I was like, holy shit. I listened 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:50.480 to the voicemail and I was like, oh my god, 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:51.960 Oh my god. And I just picked up the phone 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.240 and called Bert to phone number, not even you know, 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.160 thinking thinking twice about it and and I was just 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:02.680 Gustavo like like, are you okay? It is Bertha dead? Yeah, 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.160 she's dead. I'm like, are you sure? You know? Are 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.720 you are you sure? And he's like, yeah, she's she's dead. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.040 Karen was the first person to speak directly with Gustavo 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:16.040 that night. She could hear that he was crying, and 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:17.680 I asked him if he was okay, and he said, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:22.440 that is dead, and um, she's and and I'm I'm okay, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.800 but I'm bleeding and can you please find help. I've 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.480 been calling people and nobody's been picking up, and you know, 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:29.280 can you send people to the house. I don't know 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.119 what to do. And then he asked me if he 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.040 should call the police, and I said, don't call the police. Um, 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:36.919 you know, because calling the police and Honduras is like 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.720 calling the mafia to a crime scene and you can't 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:50.920 trust them. It might sound kind of crazy you witness 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.520 a murder, you're alone with the body, and then you 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.240 go out of your way to avoid calling the police 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:03.320 for help, But in Honduras it's not that crazy. A 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.960 few months before Berta was killed, a survey funded by 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.160 the US government suggested that a solid majority of Hondurans 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.760 simply assumed the police officers were on the payrolls of 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.520 assassins and other bad guys. Almost no one trusted the cops. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.480 These institutions were not at the service of the people. 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.400 They were at the service of some other interest, uh 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:31.080 financial or criminal. James Neilon was appointed US Ambassador to 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:37.200 Honduras in his priorities had been clearly outlined for him well. 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.560 I arrived in Honduras in August of two thousand and fourteen, 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.199 and if you'll recall, that was the height of the 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.480 of the first so called unaccompanied miners crisis, when there 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.520 were New York Times headlines and and cable news reports 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:58.959 of huge numbers of Central Americans unaccompanied children streaming across 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.680 our Southwest order and my marching orders as I headed 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.400 down to Honduras or to or to do something about that. 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:09.879 He believed the driving force behind the migration was violence. 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:15.320 In Honduras set a world record. This was the deadliest 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.119 place ever if you didn't count countries at war for 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.080 several years in a row. The country's murder rate was 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:27.679 about sixteen times higher than in the United States. Honduras 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.280 wasn't only the murder capital of the world at that time. 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.600 But I guess you could also label at the impunity 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.440 capital of the world at that time, because very few 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:40.919 murders were actually successfully investigated to a conclusion. In other words, 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.240 it was very rare for someone to actually go to 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:49.200 jail for committing murder. In Honduras, everyone knew the Honduran 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:54.159 National Police had a corruption problem. Local newspapers were full 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:58.360 of stories about uniformed officers getting tangled up in drug deals, 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:03.439 or stealing cars, or even committing murders. Calls for reform 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:08.639 were gathering steam both inside and outside of Honduras. Just 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.080 before Berta was killed in twenty sixteen, the U. S 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.000 Embassy threw its weight behind an effort to purge the 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:20.480 Honduran Police of its dirty cops. The Honduran government called 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.399 it the Special Commission for the Purge and Transformation of 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.000 the Honduran National Police. The Commission met for the first 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:33.200 time after Berta's murder. Over the next two years, from 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.080 twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen, the Honduran government ended up 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:41.639 firing almost half of its national force. More than five 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:47.160 thousand officers out of about thirteen thousand were expelled. Most 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.920 were accused of corruption or ties to criminal groups. It 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.359 wasn't just the rank and file. Of the nine top 0:20:55.440 --> 0:21:00.439 officers in the National Police, six were pushed out. Forty 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:05.600 seven active police commissioners, about half were fired. Today there's 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.480 still a lot of controversy over that purge, but it's 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.639 not that the commission went too far. It's that they 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.560 might have been too easy on the police. Each of 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.520 the three top ranking police commanders appointed after the purge 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.440 would later be accused of meeting with drug traffickers who 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:29.959 paid the officers to protect their shipping routes. However you 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.280 interpret the end result of that purge, remember it hadn't 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:38.840 even really begun when Barta was killed. All of those 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.240 thousands of corrupt cops that would soon lose their jobs, 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:47.200 they were still on the force. So Karen Spring wasn't 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.840 being paranoid when she told Gustavo Castro not to call 0:21:50.920 --> 0:22:00.960 the police for help. She was using common sense. When 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.280 Karen hung up on that first call with Gustavo, she 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.840 could tell he was terrified. He was alone with a 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.640 murdered friend inside a house that now felt more isolated 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.480 and vulnerable than it ever had. I was repeatedly calling 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.800 Gustavo to make sure he was okay, because you know, 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:19.920 he was really scared that the assassins were going to 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:23.120 come back and finished the job, and that they if 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.119 they knew that he was alive. And so I also 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.480 told him that we need to be very careful about 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.119 who knew that he was still alive at that time 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:33.879 until he was, you know, in a safe place. Karen 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.520 started calling members of Copeine Barrett's organization in La Speranza. 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.040 One was a man named Thomas Gomez. He agreed to 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.520 drive to Berta's and get Gustavo to safety in case 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:53.679 the killers returned. Yes, Emilia, it's something like two thirty 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.600 in the morning when Tomas from Gulping arrives to get me. 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.040 I heard the horn from the Gulping pickup truck and 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:04.080 I told myself, that's Tomas coming from me. This is 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.119 Gustavo stepped out of the bedroom to meet him. The 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.560 back door of the house connected to the kitchen was open. 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.360 The killers had busted through it. That must have been 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:21.800 the first loud noise he'd heard. I went out through 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:24.560 the front door. The gate to the fence was locked, 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.359 so I decided to jump the fence and I left 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:32.960 with Domas. It was around this time when Tomas called 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.719 the police to tell them about the murder. Then he 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:39.840 and Gustavo drove to the guard station at the entrance 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.840 of the subdivision. Gustavo recognized the old man from earlier 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.639 when he and Bartsa had passed him. Tomas asked the 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.560 guard if he'd seen anything out of the ordinary. He 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:54.639 said he hadn't. Tomas drove towards the center of town. 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:57.840 On the side of the road, they spotted a cluster 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:02.160 of people walking. They were members of Berta's indigenous rights 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:07.600 organization Copeine. They'd heard about what happened. They didn't have cars, 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.840 but they wanted to help somehow, so Moss told them 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:13.080 to hop in the truck and he gave them a 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.280 lift back to Berta's house. He told them to guard 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:19.679 the place to make sure it wasn't disrupted before the 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:26.760 police got there. We dropped the people off and we 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.480 took off to leave again. The crossbar was now raised 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:39.119 and the old man, we don't know what happened to him. 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:41.920 So Mass and Gustavo found two more groups of Copeine 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:45.720 members walking along the road and offered them rides. When 0:24:45.760 --> 0:24:48.480 they returned to the house with the last group, they 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:51.359 saw that the police had now arrived inspecting the house. 0:24:52.200 --> 0:24:56.000 Many of the Copine members were also inside with them. 0:24:56.240 --> 0:25:00.320 Gustavo couldn't believe it. People were walking through the blood, 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:08.560 leaving fingerprints everywhere agreement. Obviously the whole scene of the 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:16.879 crime had been altered. That's when Berta's lawyer arrived. He 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:20.440 told Gustavo that a prosecutor wanted to speak to him 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:23.720 and that he should just wait in the truck. Gustava's 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:27.320 ear in hand were still bleeding and throbbing with pain. 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.119 More police and army soldiers were now streaming into the 0:25:31.160 --> 0:25:36.000 crime scene. The media soon arrived. They too were walking 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:39.960 into the house, but no one could see Gustavo behind 0:25:40.000 --> 0:25:46.040 the tinted windows of the trucks matros a few meters away. 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:49.280 I could hear them giving the news reports, saying there 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:53.480 was one Gustavo Castro and he's wounded because there was 0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:56.000 a lot of blood in my room. But I wasn't there. 0:25:56.520 --> 0:26:02.840 I just I couldn't be okay. They must have found 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:06.679 his suitcase in the spare room. His name was printed 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:17.919 on the luggage tack back into Gooseagalpa. Karen Spring was 0:26:18.040 --> 0:26:20.600 racing to get to the crime scene. I put out 0:26:20.600 --> 0:26:23.040 a communicate that Berta had been killed, and I got 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:25.520 in my car at I think like three o'clock in 0:26:25.520 --> 0:26:28.240 the morning, and I drove to Lesperanza. And when I 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:32.040 got there, her body had been taken from the crime scene, 0:26:32.200 --> 0:26:34.159 and it was in the back of a pickup truck 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:38.800 outside of the public Prosecutor's office in Lesperansa. It was 0:26:38.840 --> 0:26:42.240 about eight o'clock in the morning. Now crowds were gathering 0:26:42.280 --> 0:26:45.199 around that truck, people trying to get a glimpse of 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:50.760 Berta's body. Berta was probably less Speranza's most well known citizen. 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:54.879 People were mourning. They carried pictures of her. They spray 0:26:54.920 --> 0:26:58.760 painted her name on walls and sidewalks, and their sadness 0:26:58.840 --> 0:27:02.280 was edged with anger. It had been more than seven 0:27:02.280 --> 0:27:05.840 hours since the murder, and her body was right there 0:27:05.880 --> 0:27:07.960 in the back of a truck in the middle of 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:11.760 a public square, covered only with a dingy gray blanket. 0:27:12.560 --> 0:27:15.280 To Karen, this was an insult heaped on top of 0:27:15.280 --> 0:27:20.160 a tragedy. She started looking for Gustavo. Someone said he'd 0:27:20.200 --> 0:27:23.080 been taken to a local priest's house where the police 0:27:23.119 --> 0:27:27.480 were guarding him, and I insisted with the police that 0:27:27.520 --> 0:27:29.879 they let me in to see him. They wouldn't let 0:27:29.880 --> 0:27:32.960 me right away, and then they finally allowed me in, 0:27:33.520 --> 0:27:38.040 and Gustavo was in a room. He was bleeding from 0:27:38.080 --> 0:27:41.280 his ear, and he was sitting with Berta's oldest daughter, 0:27:41.600 --> 0:27:46.640 telling her what had happened. Gustavo's nerves were shot as 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:50.000 he told the story to bears his family, Karen recorded 0:27:50.040 --> 0:27:57.399 everything on her cell phone. He said he didn't know 0:27:57.480 --> 0:28:00.200 where to begin, but he went on to give them 0:28:00.200 --> 0:28:03.520 a detailed account of the evening, where he and Berta 0:28:03.600 --> 0:28:06.320 had gone out to eat, how they returned to the house, 0:28:06.840 --> 0:28:10.760 sat on the porch, went to their rooms. As he spoke, 0:28:10.920 --> 0:28:14.800 he kept his voice low, sometimes dipping into a whisper. 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:18.919 He didn't trust the government types hovering around him, the 0:28:18.920 --> 0:28:23.040 ones who had been questioning him for hours. People kept 0:28:23.080 --> 0:28:33.600 coming in and out of the room, interrupting. After about 0:28:33.640 --> 0:28:37.840 twenty minutes, Gustavo got into the details of the murder itself, 0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:41.080 how he had heard a very loud bang which he 0:28:41.120 --> 0:28:44.280 thought might have come from the kitchen, and how seconds 0:28:44.360 --> 0:28:58.200 later he heard three gunshots you. He then talked about 0:28:58.240 --> 0:29:02.120 how Berta called his name after the gunman left, how 0:29:02.160 --> 0:29:05.040 he found her on the floor, how he pleaded with 0:29:05.080 --> 0:29:09.680 her note bias, don't go and okay, that they called 0:29:09.760 --> 0:29:13.880 me go stay with me, and how she told him 0:29:14.000 --> 0:29:20.080 to call Salvador, her ex husband. Can shows you how 0:29:20.160 --> 0:29:37.880 you say that. Finally, he described how he struggled to 0:29:37.960 --> 0:29:41.719 use her phone and find her contact list, and then 0:29:42.280 --> 0:29:54.600 how he realized she was gone joy see that she 0:29:54.640 --> 0:30:24.240 wanted to see. In the middle of all of this, 0:30:24.640 --> 0:30:29.520 the police were still pressing Gustavo for more information, and 0:30:29.600 --> 0:30:31.480 so in that the couple of hours that I was 0:30:31.560 --> 0:30:34.240 with him, a person that was sent from the Public 0:30:34.240 --> 0:30:38.200 Prosecutor's office who was like going to sketch the face 0:30:38.360 --> 0:30:41.600 of the person that he could remember had shot him, 0:30:41.720 --> 0:30:45.760