DAY ELEVEN: Trial Against David Castillo
/Last update: May 8 at 5:00 pm
Main Points of the Day
An examination of data extracted from Sergio Rodriguez’s cell phone included several messages sent to the “Security PHAZ [Agua Zarca hydroelectric project]” Whatsapp chat group and others. The chats read in court today demonstrate the level of monitoring, intelligence gathering and actions related to security strategy and promotion, conducted by DESA’s executives - Daniel Atala, Jose Eduardo Atala [Daniel Atala’s father], and Pedro Atala - David Castillo, Sergio Rodriguez, paid informants, DESA’s employees, and police and military in Rio Blanco. The discussions inside these chats include: Details about Berta and other COPINH leaders’ whereabouts and activities in Rio Blanco and other parts of the country; divisions within the communities; visits by foreign delegations; media strategies; positions of different individuals in Rio Blanco about the project, etc. The group chats also discuss requesting and receiving security and support from the National Police including several police commissioners and the Minister of Security.
The trial was suspended at 10 pm and will continue on Monday, May 10 at 8:30 am. The same data extraction expert will continue reading messages extracted from Sergio Rodriguez’s phone.
COPINH writes and publishes the following chats: “Berta Cáceres was persecuted and monitored by David Castillo. This is what conversations extracted from Sergio Rodriguez’s cell phone (convicted) show. They coordinated with their informants to know every activity that Berta was involved in”
Below are the translations of the highlighted messages in the pages posted above and published by COPINH.
PAGE ONE: February 13, 2016 at 9:37 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to seven other people including David Castillo: “Good morning. For today at 2 pm, Berta convened the people from Tejera [a community in Rio Blanco] … On the other hand, both informants have told me that we should be on alert because they can do something principally in the evening, like attacking the guards or burning machinery. The most credible informant believes that those that went to La Esperanza [the city where COPINH’s headquarters are located] don’t have the nerve to do something against the project but he/she thinks that they called them to show other people sent by Berta, other routes. The other informant says that in the last meeting, Berta said that if we continue working there, they will stop us after. The sites they mentioned are the dam site and canal 3. I’ve already spoken with the [military] Major so that the guards on ready.” …. “We , along with the Major, are seeing if we can get another informant into Roland'o’s group, that young man is family of Olbin Mejía [a local hitman hired by DESA] and lives in Tejera”
February 14, 2016 12:51 am from 9457-0137 [not saved in the phone and therefore sender not identified]: “Good afternoon: The Major just left with the police from the Catorce Varas [the name of a specific location that is not clear], there were no incidents because COPINH didn’t come down, Sub-commissioner Sanchez sent me two patrols cars with 12 police and even the Departmental Sub-Commander, Sub-Commissioner Garcia Mendez was there.”
PAGE TWO: A Whatsapp chat with seven people including David Castillo dated February 14, 2016 at 4:21 pm from 9457-0137: “I’m informing that there is no news in the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.”
From David Castillo: “Thanks JM” “Copied”
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COPINH writes: “Violent actions against Berta Cáceres and COPINH were coordinated by the DESA’s associates, employees and executives. Here is the proof”
PAGE THREE: November 10, 2015 at 3:52 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to four unidentified people and David Castillo. Sergio writes: “Major, this week they say that COPINH doesn’t have any plans to go to the river. Maybe on the weekend they might try and put down a bridge. From there, one can coordinate blowing up what they have perforated, while we figure out the permission to get the explosives in the future”
From 9452-8319: “Received Sergio”
From 9457-0137: “Yes, its possible that they executive the explosives today or tomorrow.”
PAGE FOUR: November 10, 2015 at 4:30 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to four unidentified people and David Castillo. Sergio writes: “The Spanish guy is in the conference [referring to an international observer from Spain that accompanied COPINH for years in Rio Blanco and elsewhere. He would be later expelled from the country by the Honduran government.]
From 9457-0137: “Yes, don’t tell him who you are and try and get information from him.”
PAGE FIVE: November 10, 2015 at 5:36 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to four unidentified people and David Castillo: “He said his name is Luis Raul Tiran”
From 9457-0137: “And what other last names, where is he from?”
From Sergio Rodriguez: “I couldn’t get more”
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COPINH writes: “The company’s group chat communications directed by David Castillo, Pedro Atala, Daniel Atala and José Eduardo Atala show actions to monitor, follow, profile and attack. Look at the proof.”
PAGE SIX: February 17, 2016 at 1:49 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to a group chat with six unidentified people and David Castillo: “Berta came with tomas gomez, sotero and gaspar of copinh. To do the same as always, film and do interviews where the people are. He/she/one says that they aren’t in agreement and that desa lies. Of the main people in [community of] tejera, only clementino and Felipe gomez and pascual, Joel is the new one and the same women as always. Berta, sotero and the Spanish guy left today and tomas gomez and gaspar stayed behind to take care of the other group of foreigners that the Major informs me, have already arrived. For tomorrow, we don’t expect any efforts to cross the river without the same as today. What Berta did say is that for saturday, she wants all the people to be ready at 6 am in el roble. She hasn’t said where she wants to go but we must be on alert. I have the informant trying to investigate the plans for that day with pascual that appears to be a new person that Berta doesn’t trust.”
PAGE SEVEN: February 16, 2016 at 3:46 pm from 9457-0137: “Informing you that there is no news in PHAZ [Agua Zarca hydroelectric project]”
From 9457-0137: “Letting you know that a bus just passed with copinh and 21 foreign snitches headed to [community of] La Tejera. The police are on alert and we have collaborators if by chance, they fail. The Major has provided a radio in order to be in permanent contact”
From 9457-0137: “The Major tells us that today, Tuesday 16 at 13:40, Berta Cáceres arrived, two police from Intibuca that provide her with security [these police were assigned by the state in order to implement her protective measures ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights], the Spanish guy Luis Raúl Tiran, Selvin, four foreign women and 12 copinhes, for a total of 23 people. Of the unknown copinhes, you don’t see the same people as always (Francisco Javier, Clementino, Adolfo and others). They went for a swim and took pictures and video. I kept the two police patrol vehicles and 12 police men ready to move close to PHAZ [Agua Zarca hydroelectric project] so that they wouldn’t be seen, photographed or filmed by the foreigners. They left at 15:45 pm Below are the photographs.”
PAGE EIGHT: February 14, 2016 at 11:51 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to six people and David Castillo: “Good afternoon. Tomas Garcia and gregorio from the Rolando Mendez’s group arrived to the meeting with Berta en el roble [‘the oak tree’ - a gathering place where the Rio Blanco community blocked the access road to the river]. Clementino will remain in the organization. She asked if they were going to continue in the struggle and the people didn’t answer until after she asked them to raise their hands and everyone did. She said again that some of their people tell us everything but she didn’t refer to anyone in particular. She said that David Castillo knows everything when she goes there. She asked them not to go out alone because Olvin [an assassin that works with DESA] from valle de ángeles [a community] hangs out with more or less 20 people and all are armed with desa’s guns. She also told them that we are sending information to all of the organizations that support them telling lies and that in some, we have put that various copinh members like tomas gomez support us and she said that was false. I think Tomas is in the dossier. They didn’t have a bigger amount of people. She didn’t speak separately with Rolando’s group. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 21 foreigners are going to the river to see the abuses we have caused and to do different reports.”
From Sergio Rodriguez: “Yesterday she arrived around 2;15 and left at 6 pm”
From 9457-0137 [unidentified]: “Sergio, if Berta goes to the intake construction area, you will have to mobilize our collaborators in Valle de Angeles [community] so they intercept them and the observers can see that the communities are against Berta and in favor of the project.”
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COPINH writes: “INFLUENCE TRAFFICKING: The conversations extracted from Sergio Rodriguez’s phone from the group chat ‘Security PHAZ [Agua Zarca hydroelectric project]’ lay out the coordination that company employees of the Atala family had with public officials including from SERNA [The Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines], MiAmbiente, all working towards criminalizing Berta and other COPINH members in order to slow down the struggle in defense of the Gualcarque river.”
“‘Don’t go sending serna or the Environmental Ministry please” reads one message.’”
PAGE NINE: February 2 at 1:39 from unidentified number 9452-8310 to to a group chat containing six people and David Castillo: “lets make use of all our fiscal and legal influences to try these criminal and vandalic actions carried out by specific people and the organization.”
PAGE TEN: February 21 at 2:50 pm from unidentified number 9457-0137: “I suggest creating and implementing both plans and for [police] commissioner Sanchez to participate, taking advantage and compiling private information about Berta and create uncertainty between them, sending out and maximizing all the information from yesterday, and giving it to all the NGOs that help them. Also, always have a prosecutor and a notary at our disposal”
From Sergio Rodriguez: “Don’t go sending SERNA [Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment] or the Minister of the Environment please."
PAGE ELEVEN: February 21 at 5:49 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to six others and David Castillo: “They might get scared signing”
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COPINH writes: “Days before Berta Cáceres’s murder, Sergio Rodriguez informed the Whatsapp group chat ‘Security PHAZ [Agua Zarca hydroelectric project]’ about actions to monitor Berta. “I already asked the informant to go in order to find out what it’s about, the other informant, I haven’t been able to communicate with him. Both participated in the event last Saturday.”
PAGE TWELVE: February 26 at 4:21 pm from Sergio Rodriguez to six unidentified people and David Castillo: “Tomorrow, Berta will sent for a group from Tejera [a community in Rio Blanco] to San Pedrito to meet them in La Esperanza. I already asked the informant to go and find out what it’s about. The other informant, I haven’t been able to communicate with him. Both participated in the event last Saturday.”
From Sergio Rodriguez: “Today, a group of approximately 15 people left for La Esperanza for a training for the radio. They informed me that Francisco Javier is in that group and he’s going to put in his resignation to copinh’s coordination team in La Tejera [community] in front of Berta. They assure me that the decision is irrevocable.
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COPINH writes: “The conversation demonstrate Jacobo Atala’s participation in coordinating with the Ministry of Security. One of the messages says: “It would be good to meet before in order to discuss our unified position about the support from public forces” to which he responds: “Correct, at 7:30 in CAMOSA [John Deere tractor and equipment dealership], according to an email sent by Mr. Jacobo”
PAGE THIRTEEN: October 8 at 3:36 pm from David Castillo: “Correct, at 7:30 in CAMOSA, according to the email sent by Mr. Jacobo”
From 9452-8319: “Ok”
More Details
Messages Extracted From Sergio Rodriguez’s Phone
Several additional messages were read by the data extraction expert, many of which are translated above.
Towards the end of the proceedings, the court interrupted the expert and expressed concern that the messages being read on request from the private accusers, were redundant and did not add new elements to the case. The private accusers explained that the public, the Cáceres family, and the Rio Blanco community have never heard these messages. The prosecutors argued that some are redundant but they are not against continuing to read additional messages provided they bring new elements. The defense argues that the private accusers have ulterior motives and that the responsibility of the court is not to please people outside of the legal process or procedures.
The court deliberates and decides that the private accusers must identify the messages they have asked the data expert to continue to read, that highlight new details then suspend the proceedings for the day.
The data extraction expert will continue to examine the messages found in Sergio Rodriguez’s phone on Monday, May 10 at 8:30 am.
