Part 7: 'Berta Became Millions'

at the hydro electric company that Berta had opposed. This led to seven murder convictions, but a critical piece of this story remains unresolved. David Castillo, the CEO of Dessa, was arrested in eighteen for plotting Berta's death, and since then his case has been in limbo. All the while a clock has been ticking. Under Honduran law, a person can be held in custody without going to trial for only two and a half years, and David's time in

prison expires on September two. It's now late August, with just two weeks to go before that day arrives, and Bart's family is growing very worried. They say David's legal team is trying to run out that clock. Bart's older brother Gustavo, tells a Honduran television show that if David goes free, the family's hopes of finding some measure of justice will slip away too. We're asking the court, let's

go immediately with the the trial. They can try and show his innocence and show that he didn't participate, and show that he didn't threaten b That's fine again, they can make whatever case they want, but we are prepared to show that David Castillo is guilty after all the evidence that's been submitted to the public Ministry and submitted to the court. That same day, the Honduran Supreme Court

makes a startling announcement. After more than a year of appeals and postponements, it decides to remove the judge who had overseen the case from the beginning. Barton's family is shocked. They see this change as a last minute delay at tactic, something to make sure no trial could be said before time runs out. They fear the Supreme Court itself is

sabotaging the case. The court doesn't give a reason for the change, and both sides seem a little baffled by it, The dismiss judge had allowed the case to drag on with little action. Some of David's supporters worry the court has bowed to pressure to schedule a trial no matter what. Barrett's family fears that it's a delay tactic, something to make sure no trial can be said before time runs out. They worry that the justice system has been fixed, and

they plead for action. But at least, does you know today the court has to demonstrate that no longer will people be set free because of their connections or because of the influence of powerful people in this country put invage of the hint. This idea that powerful, well connected people might be intervening on David's behalf has become a

theme throughout this case. As David has waited for a trial to be set, researchers with several nonprofit organizations, as well as an international anti corruption panel, have dug into his COMPANYSA. They say they've unearthed a history of corruption, the kind made possible by connections deep into Honduran government agencies. And lawyers representing Berta's family argue that it was this

system of corruption that had her killed. This is another reason they want David's murder case to go to trial. They hope to present some of this evidence in court. Victor Fernandez is a lawyer representing Berta's family. This is from an August radio interview. You can see there's a criminal structure that's linked to the highest levels of executive power. He says, putting David on trial would be an unprecedented blow against the culture of impunity that has reigned in

Honduras for years. Impunity that he says, originates with an elite group of politically and economically powerful people. He says, they want to protect David because that's how they can protect themselves. It's a group economical. This group of economic powers was able to be a part of this whole criminal dynamic, and it started with the creation of the Aguasaka project and extended all the way through Berta's assassination

and the other crimes committed along the way. So the tentacles go up to this levelogy and in Sabertas supporters, simply setting a trial date has become a critical test of a country and of its entire system of justice. Honduras has never tackled a murder case like this one. Most homicide investigations are never closed and few result in arrests. Maybe the gunmen might go to jail, but those who

might have given the orders almost never do. Berta's family and their lawyers want to face David in court because there they hope to expose and dismantle a way of

doing business that they describe as murderers. My name is montereyrel for Bloomberg Green and this is blood River in hon During President Juan Orlando Hernandez faced calls for his resignation, more than three hundred and fifty five million dollars had been embezzled from the country's social security program, and some of that money had ended up in the president's campaign chest. Under pressure, President Hernandez agreed to let an international anti

corruption panel come to Honduras. It would be overseen by the Organization of American States. It's sort of like the United Nations for the Western Hemisphere. That anti corruption panel backed numerous investigations that uncovered dents of rampant government led graft and lawlessness. One investigation charged a former First Lady of Honduras with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She was convicted and sentenced to fifty eight years in prison.

But now she's no longer in custody for the same reason that Berta's family fears David could be released. This summer, her conviction was annulled because of procedural problems. Her new trial date hasn't yet been set, but she's already been in custody longer than Honduran authorities can hold her, so she's free for now. But that's not the most important connection between David and that anti corruption panel. Last year in Tegucigalpa, the panel's members gathered to announce some newss

I think I was that is. The members of the panel revealed that its most recent investigation was called Fraud on the Gualcrate. It centered on Dessa and the Awa Zarka dam Anna Maria Calderon, a former prosecutor from Peru, said the group had looked into the business dealings behind the hydro electric project and had uncovered a wide range of crimes. They accused David Castillo and fifteen others, including government officials, of launching a project that was rotten from

the very start. The alleged crimes included fraud, abuse of authority, and falsification of documents. La Calderon said Dessa was founded in two thousand nine by two brothers who seemingly weren't involved in the company's daily operations. At that time, David Castillo was working for the Honduran government run electrical utility. He wouldn't join Dessa until but the investigators said David

was pulling the strings at Dessa from day one. They said the two brothers behind Dessa were actually low level employees who worked for David at a computer company he founded a couple of years earlier. They said one brother

had worked as a driver there. So the investigators alleged that David was the de facto head of Deessa while he was working for the State Electrical Utility, and this, they said, was the same time when the state utility signed its agreement with Dessa to purchase electricity from the proposed Ahwa Zarka damn. In other words, the investigators say David was playing both sides when the Awa Zarka projects

approvals and contracts were drawn up. They say he effectively rigged the process, making sure Dessa could sell electricity to the government at inflated prices. In addition to David, several senior officials with the Honduran Environmental Agency faced charges. When announcing the case last year, the anti corruption panel suggested a comprehensive review of the electrical utilities contracts called their own. Further warned that all government agreements tied to renewable energy

sources might have been compromised. But in early President Hernandez effectively shut down the anti corruption group. The president's critics suspect that was because anti corruption investigations have not been kind to the president in recent months. Last October, Tony Hernandez, the President's brother, was put on trial in a New York courtman Us prosecutors accused her Nandez of helping smuggle almost tons of cocaine into the United States while enjoying

the protection of his brother, President Juang Orlando Hernandez. Tony Hernandez was found guilty, and the President was named as an indicted co conspirator. He's denied involved. Prosecutors alleged the drug profits were funneled into the President's campaign, that the president helped secure drug routes and the cooperation of the Honduran police and its military. The court essentially ruled that

Honduras is a narco state. But even though the Anti Corruption Panel was dissolved this year, its case against David and the others didn't die. It was passed on to another group of prosecutors inside Honduras. David is fighting the charges. He says they're baseless, another attempt to smear him and his card. Several of the former public officials named in

the case filed appeals for dismissal this month. Those requests were denied, but it remains uncertain whether any of the information from that corruption probe will actually surface in the separate murder case against David. The only way that would happen is if prosecutors charged David with something called illicit association. This is a legal term used to describe a group of people who have come together for one underlying reason

to commit crimes. Annie Bird is a Washington, d c. Based human rights activist who's been investigating the awah's ark A project since. She says that in this case, the criminal group would be the Dessa executives, and she says the crimes would include all of the violations the Anti corruption Panel highlighted as the company pursued the dam essentially they're breaking so many laws in the process of trying to get it implemented that it's a it's a criminal enterprise.

She and others have been trying to convince Honduran prosecutors to include illicit association charges in David's murder case. Those efforts haven't worked, and she believes that's because the state is afraid to go after those at the very top of Dessa's corporate pyramid, its investors. From the beginning, what we've seen is the tendency to protect the hires up

from prosecution. While David Castillo has awaited trial, Verta's family and Copaine have very publicly been going after Death's investors in court and out of it. The Ahwazarka project cost about sixty four million dollars and its funding came from two principal sources. First was international development banks, second was a family of private investors inside Honduras. Roughly forty million dollars for the project came from three different development banks.

They included one from Honduras, one from Finland, and one from the Netherlands named f M. O. Berta had publicly criticized all of those banks, and she fought to get them to withdraw funds from the project. She believed that Dessa violated the human rights of the community members near the Gualcrt River, and she thought the banks were complicit by giving money to the company. Berta and others in Copeine reached out to Hannah sam Caldon, a Dutch human

rights lawyer. They wanted to force AMO to stop their involvement in the Aguasara project. Berta wasn't able to follow through, but after she was murdered, her colleagues in Copeine called sam Caldon again and in they filed suit against f m O. That case alleges that the bank had ignored the reports of human rights violations that bear to herself

had filed. The idea of the lawsuit has been to establish that FAMO shouldn't have govern involved in the project in the first place, and when they made the decision to support the project and they did get involved, after all, they should have properly monitored and tried to use their influence to prevent further human rights violations locally. In other words,

they're arguing that FMO was negligent. She says, if the bank had seriously investigated the complaints of human rights violations by Dessa, then they certainly wouldn't have backed the project. She says. The bank's negligence was a contributing factor to Berta's death. It's been a particular issue. Indeed that had Amo taken adequate action timely, then her death probably would

not have occurred. FMO denies wrongdoing. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment on the suit, but directed me to nearly two dozen documents the bank has released related to the case. These include summaries of the fact finding trips where the bank sent delegations to Rio Blanco. These were thorough reviews, the bank says, and they didn't reveal a history of abuses. The Dutch bank, along with those from Finland and Honduras, pulled out of the AWA's Arka

project after Barts's murder. David Castillo says FMO and the other banks forgave Dessa and its shareholders all of their debt to them loans from the show two the shareholders and to the Osaka project. We're raised they don't have to be paid back because the financial institutions behind it. They know that there was no wrongdoing from the shareholders maybe the banks had forgiven the shareholders, but Barton's family

and their lawyers have not. We met David Castillo around the maybe two thousand and ten, and uh he was looking for investors in his project. This is Danielle Atala. He and his family own a number of businesses throughout Honduras and provide financial backing for even more. As as an investor group, we saw the potential in an individual like David Castillo. We really liked his his curriculum, his his profile. We thought that who is going to be

a good investment. At that moment, Danielle would become Death's chief financial officer. His father, Jose Eduardo Atala Zabla, is a board member and also a shareholder, as are two of Danielle's uncles. In Honduras, some people like to say that a small number of wealthy families really control the country. It's impossible to prove, but a lot of people believe it. Many of Berta's supporters think that the Atala Zablas are one of those families. I met them in the offices

of a John Dear dealership they own in Tegusagalpa. The room was full of trophies, from the soccer club Motagua, one of the country's most popular teams. Jo Say Eduardo is the executive president of that team. He also served as the president of the Honduran American Chamber of Commerce, and he was a past board member of that same Honduras based development bank that partly financed the Ahazarka project.

He had left that position years before Dessa was formed, but both he and Danielle bristle at the idea that the family enjoys any political influence, much less runs the country. We don't have private jets, we don't have helicopters, we don't have nothing. I have the same car during the last eight years. Not not the wealthiest family in the country by by farm. We have, you know, a strong investment group, but it's we don't have the love being capacity.

We don't have the fund capacity. We don't have the funding capacity we were. It's a extremely limited and we and the investment that we have lost, as you know, made a big dent in in our in our finances. But they say they risk losing even more their good name. These days, if you drive around La Speranza, you don't have to look too hard to find the Itala name. It's spray painted on walls all over town, often next

to words like assassins. At Copeine rallies now there are almost always banners that say the members of the family should be in jail. One reason behind that anger has to do with the text messages that are being used against David Castillo. The Atala Zablas participated in some of those message strings. When the conflict with Copine started in Danielle used racial slurs to describe the protesters and question

the legitimacy of their indigenous identity. In another text exchange from Danielle references Berta and two other Copeine activists who were charged by police for inciting unrest in Rio Blanco. He wrote, quote, it cost a lot of money and political capital to get these three arrest warrants. Danielle says he was talking about spending money on lawyers to pursue legal action against Copaine. We don't really have any political capital to spend. We just hadn't. It was it wasn't.

It was like a base comments and it didn't really mean a lot. What I really wanted to emphasize was that we were spending a lot of money on it, and we were not sure it was gonna work, and it really wasn't in the budget, and I had to do a lot of convincing with within the board too to acquire the funds for for that, for that, you know, legal legal expenditure. There are other messages in October. There was one from Daniel's uncle that seemed to be referencing

protesters from Copeine. He wrote, let's send a message that nothing will be easy for those s O b s. And then there was another sent after Berta's murder where Danielle wrote that the Honduran security minister had reported that the murder was being pursued as a Leo de Faldi's or a skirt problem, that is that it was a crime related to a love affair. Copeine's lawyers say this is evidence that the Itala Zabla family was in close

contact with senior Honduran authorities. Danielle and Jose Eduardo say this isn't true. So well, that was bullick. I mean that that's noth That wasn't you know, privileged information that that was that was public and that's why everybody was saying that was like the initial theory in the news and everything. These and other messages have put a target

on the backs of the Atala Zablas. That was Bart's oldest daughter, Olivia, leading a chant at a press conference in She was calling out the Atala Zabla family by name, labeling them assassins. She said they were the hidden force behind her mother's death. The Atala Zablas say these claims

are baseless and dangerous. They generally have the same view of the situation that David has, that Dessa had nothing to do with the murder, that the AWA's ark A project was accepted the community, and that the texts have been misinterpreted and mishandled. They emphasize that the courts and other proceedings related to Berta's murder have explicitly stated that they've seen no evidence suggesting Dessa desas employees or its

shareholders financed Berta's murder. The family members suggest they've been the victims of a smear campaign, and they say the international activist groups aligned with Berta have made things worse. Is amazing how they can coordinate all the informations, all the round, informations just to make feel like we are the the empire in the are the rebels in the Star Wars saga. But Jose Eduardo says, if anyone represents Darth Vader's empire in Star Wars, it's those leading the

international campaign against the family. Danielle agrees that is the story that sells, you know, that's the story that people want to hear. They want to hear about how the you know, poor indigenous communities, uh, you know stood up to the bad businessmen. They read about, for example, the bear Ta Casserous Human Rights and Honduras Act. It's appending bill in the U. S. Congress. The references barts murder and would withhold military and security aid to Honduras until

quote perpetrators are brought to justice. And they see images of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meeting with the Cassarus family in Washington and during a trip to Honduras. The Atala Zablas say, when it comes to political capital and influence, they're the underdogs. This is a message that Dessa has consistently tried to exp us that the international activists, not

the business interests behind the dam hold the power. They say international activists and NGOs have more money than they do, and they argue that those interest groups have used Barton's murder to enrich themselves, to exploit a tragedy to raise funds. The activists working for those NGOs shake their heads in disbelief when they hear this. Annie Bird has been one of the most persistent of Death's opponents from that community.

I spoke to her in the office of her human rights nonprofit in Washington, d C. It's in a cramped room on the second floor of an old house. The stairs are creaky, the furniture is worn, and there's a malfunctioning burglar alarm that likes to go off at random intervals. If she's well funded, it doesn't really show. That's the discourse in hunderus that they referred to Berta and Copeine

as extortionists. It's almost as if they're unable to believe that people could operate for any other motivation than financial and you know, obviously it's it's it's a ridiculous assertion. All of us who have been involved in this work, including Berta, have chosen paths that compensate us in other ways. The quest by the Cassara's family's lawyers to go after the money has gone beyond the private investigators and the banks.

They're also trying to uncover information about David Castillo's personal finances. Last year, those lawyers filed paper hers to subpoena bank records so David and his wife Tanya. The matter is with a court in Mississippi because that's where the bank that holds the mortgage is based. The lawyers wanted to find out how the couple paid for their one point six million dollar house in Houston. They bought it months

after Barta's murder. Court records say Barta's family wants to present that financial information to the court in Honduras to quote helped secure Castillo's conviction. David describes those efforts as a fishing expedition, just one more way Copine is harassing him and his family. Tanya, David's wife, filed an affidavit last year related to that Mississippi case. She says the money came from companies that David owned, and she stated

David is a loving husband and a good father. He worked hard to be a good provider and take care of our family. David this year told me he believes that all of these accusations against him will come to nothing. That he'll be able to walk free and pick up the pieces of the life he was forced to abandon two and a half years ago when he was arrested.

I have faith that the day will come in which I will be able to rejoin with my family, and I will be able to hug my wife, hug my three beautiful daughters, and my mother, and and I will be able to join them. But after the first episodes of this podcast air, Tanya independently reached out to me, and she painted a picture that was very different from what David told me. In November, Tanya filed for divorce. Her petition sites discord or conflict of personalities. David has

resisted her filing. He countered in court, denying Tanya's accusations of discord and demanding proof. He says he and his wife are still working on reconciliation. Tanya says that's not true. She says she's cut all ties to David. She and I never spoke directly, but she sent me a recorded statement. She says she was glad to hear we were making this show and investigating Bart's murder case. She deserves justice.

Cases of violence against women and hunters occur far too often, and I, as a hunter and woman, pray that justice is served for all those involved in this case. As for my relationship with Vi Castillo, I fouled for divorce over eight months ago on November two, and I've had no involvement with this defense since before that filing. It is important to me that people know this divorce is not a legal strategy of any kind. I left David. We are not in a really sationship anymore and will

never be again. It's now Wednesday, August, exactly a week before David could be released if no trial is set for procedural reasons. The newly appointed judge must make a decision today on whether or not the case will go forward. It's a tense day on social media. Both sides worry that the system is working against them, but the court is silent. Then, minutes before five o'clock in the afternoon, the word comes down David's case will go to trial.

Barton's supporters cheer. Her daughter, Bartita Isabel writes on Twitter, we did it. Barta's mother, Austra, is with Barta's brother Gustavo at home in Lasperanza. They break into tears when they hear the news. I reached them the following morning on a zoom call. An sadly also, Barta's mother describes the past four and a half years as a tireless fight, one that takes aim against the economic powers that be in Honduras, powers that she says, can no longer resist

the will of the people. David's side has condemned to the courts actions. They vowed to keep fighting and say that all of the eleventh hour flurry of activity in the past weeks seemed to develop under quote mysterious circumstances. David's lawyer issued a statement suggesting that US politicians have pressured Honduras for a conviction against David for years. He says those foreign officials have mounted an irresponsible intervention in

Honduran judicial affairs and due process. He says isn't under pressure just from an outside government. He says that more than five hundred NGOs have been harassing the country's courts. It's not hard to imagine why they feel besieged and outnumbered. The groups that have aligned themselves against Dessa in this murder case represent a variety of causes, and they're not

always unified ones. They include self described opponents of the Honduran government, as well as prosecutors from inside that government itself. There are groups that campaign against what they label the imperial influence of the United States, and they've been joined by members of the U. S government. There are church based organizations and others that rail against the influence of religious groups in Latin America. In all sorts of matters, these groups might not get along, but in this case

they've been unified by one thing. Barretton Her campaign started as a struggle alongside a small river in western Honduras against a relatively small hydro electric dam. Now her brother says it has become something much larger than that. La was the struggle our sister undertook cross the borders of Honduras, through Europe the United States, and for that reason, there's a lot of people in the US who view all

of this with concern. It can't be the case that you can get away with killing people for defending natural resources and nature. This gets at an idea that Berta's supporters have embraced, that Berta's message did not die with her, but instead has been amplified and the small band of protesters it fought alongside her by the river has grown into an international movement. They've turned it into a rally thought. You hear it at demonstrations outside of court buildings in

Honduras and even on the radio. They seeing Berta didn't die, she became millions. You're the gas Lavandola poly sea. If you go to the Gualcarque River near Rio Blanco today, you'll find a swift stream twisting through the mountains. You won't see any boat traffic here. Rapids boiled over huge boulders. It's very hard to walk along the banks for any length of time. They're too steep. In some places, you might find a suspension bridge dangling from one side to

the other. There are gaps in the splintery boards where water shines through underfoot. A short walk from the river through a small grassy pasture, you'll find DESA's old work site. Once there was a dormitory complex here for the workers. Now cinder blocks crumble in the sun, weeds push through wide cracks and cement foundations. Nature seems to be reclaiming the site. The exact date of the trial will likely

be set in the coming days. The trial itself might last a couple of weeks as all of this unfolds in the courtroom. This case will no doubt evolve, and so will this podcast. We'll follow any new turns that arise. Blood River, We'll be back, m M. Blood River is written and reported by me Monte Reel Top Foreheads is our senior producer. Maya Cueva is our associate producer. Our

theme was composed and performed by Senia Rubinos. Thanks to Laura Carlson, Magnus Hendrickson, Carlos Rodriguez, Bob Blow, Katie Boyce, Aaron Rutcoff, Jackie Kessler, Cynthia Hoffman, Randy Shapiro, Jed Sandberg, and apple Gate Maps. Francesco Levy is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. This is a last episode in our season, but be sure to stay subscribed. We'll be back for more episodes as the trial proceeds. If you like our show, please leave us a review. It helps others find us.

Thanks for listening.