DAY THIRTY-THREE: Trial Against David Castillo
/Last updated: June 9 at 7:00 pm
Main Points of the Day
Melissa Cardoza, one of Berta’s close friends and compañera testified that she had not witnessed the level of organized and systematic attacks against Berta like she saw in 2013 when COPINH began the struggle in Rio Blanco. She described the efforts to attack and threaten Berta and COPINH members and create a general sense of insecurity in Rio Blanco. Cardoza testified that Berta had told her not to trust David Castillo and that he monitored her, making use of his intelligence training. According to Cardoza, by the end of 2015, Berta insisted to her closest friends that individuals associated with DESA - the Atalas and Castillo - were going to kill her.
Expert witness Harald Waxenecker continued on the stand. He presented an analysis of telecommunications that demonstrates a strategy to compartmentalize information shared between the group of DESA executives and the group of assassins - Douglas Bustillo being the “bridge” between both groups. He argued that this was a military strategy to keep information sharing at a minimum and suppress evidence of the involvement of DESA executives. Waxenecker will present his conclusions tomorrow.
Trial is convened tomorrow for 9 am.
More Details
Melissa Cardoza, Berta’s Close Friend and Human Rights Defender, Testifies
NOTE: The transmission on Facebook didn’t start right at the beginning of Cardoza’s declaration and parts were missed.
Cardoza’s Declaration
The Intensity of the Attacks Against Berta Began With The Struggle In Rio Blanco
Cardoza began by stating that in the years of friendship with Berta, she had never seen the efforts to criminalize and discredit her, like she had since COPINH started the struggle in Rio Blanco.
In 2013, there were two events that Cardoza remembers that highlight her previous statement: In 2013, Juan Ramón Martínez, a columnist in La Tribuna, wrote an article attempting to discredit Berta. It was filled with attacks against her for being a woman, for having a family - a “failed family” - and painted Berta as a woman filled with frustration and resentment. The article said that Berta was against development. After the article was published, Berta and Cardoza discussed it. Berta commented to Cardoza: “What importance do I have to deserve an article like that?”
A few months later, Aline Flores, the president of COHEP [the business lobby] made similar comments on TV. Flores stated that Berta was opposed to development and projects that can improve the conditions in communities. These were all efforts to discredit her and the struggle in Rio Blanco.
These attacks were also related to Berta being a woman leader. Feminists know that these are strategies to discredit the struggles of women.
A second event occurred which made Cardoza realize the seriousness of the attacks against Berta. In 2013, Berta asked a group of women that work in education - Cardoza and the organization Paso a Paso - to go to Rio Blanco because there were a lot of problems with children in the community. Cardoza and others went in December 2013 to do a series of workshops and activities because the children were terrorized. They were living in a state of violence that they had never seen before. Families would tell Cardoza that the Honduran military would arrive to their homes looking for their parents and when they didn’t find them, the military would tell the kids that they were going to kill their parents. This would occur in states under war. Cardoza remembers in those days as well, sometime between December 27 and early January 2014 (which was the time they stayed in Rio Blanco), that people couldn’t even go to the store two blocks away because of the tense security situation in the community. People knew that DESA was paying individuals to attack others associated with COPINH.
Berta Told Her At the End of 2015, That They Were Going To Kill Her
In 2015, Cardoza was one of the people that accompanied Berta to receive the Goldman Prize. Cardoza thought the attacks would stop after she received the Goldman Environmental Prize, but they didn’t. At the end of 2015, Berta started to say to her closest friends, that they were going to kill her.
Cardoza found out that Berta was killed when someone called her around midnight. She was sleeping in Tegucigalpa. Cardoza asked “What Berta?,” and the person responded, “our Berta".
The night of March 2 had a lot of characteristics that left impressions on Cardoza. Berta was unarmed in her home and when she heard the assassins inside the house, she yelled at them, with confidence and bravery, “who’s there?”
They tried so hard to discredit her and now since her murder, they still haven’t been able to achieve their goals because Berta lives in all rebellious actions and struggles.
Meeting David Castillo in 2014
In 2014, Berta called Cardoza on the phone. She was in Tegucigalpa and Berta said that she was going to stop by. Berta said she needed Cardoza to meet someone. Cardoza saw David Castillo in the Miraflores neighbourhood in Tegucigalpa and Berta introduced Castillo to her.
After the meeting, Cardoza asked Berta why she introduced him to her? Berta responded that it was important that she knew who Castillo was. Berta told her that he came from a military school and was specialized in intelligence. When Cardoza asked Berta why she meets with him, Berta responded that she was the coordinator of an organization and that she had to defend her people. Berta knew very well who David Castillo was. She knew that he was going to work to neutralize and control her.
An example of Castillo’s efforts to monitor and control Berta occurred once when Cardoza was with Berta one day. They were meeting with various compañeras and the company had filed a legal complaint against Berta. In her defense, the Network of Women Human Rights Defenders published a communique saying they were accompanying Berta. While sitting in the meeting with Berta, Castillo sent her a picture of the Network’s communique with a comment like “look, these are your friends protecting you.” Berta knew very well who Castillo was, she knew was he was playing.
Questions By the Private Accusers
Q: You mentioned that you were a friend of Berta Cáceres - what did Berta do? A: Berta had children she loved and she took care of her mom. She defended against the violations of peoples around the country, the Lenca people, but also others.
Q: Who did Berta work or struggle with? A: With a lot of people. From the end of the 1990s, she organized COPINH and she struggled in all spaces. Berta was a woman that dialogued with everyone. She was with students, feminists, in territorial struggles, and indigenous peoples. She struggled against racism, not just in Honduras but internationally
Q: What work did she do with COPINH? A: Berta and COPINH did organizing, communication, territorial and natural resource defense, food sovereignty, emancipatory struggles and projects. Territorial struggles were a central focus
Q: Where did this primarily occur? A: In the headquarters of the organization in La Esperanza and in communities. COPINH is at the service of indigenous communities and they try to respond to the struggles for justice, land, health and education in all parts of the country.
Q: You lived in La Esperanza between 2008 and 2013? A: I went to live in La Esperanza, not for Berta, but by my own decision. We lived and worked together.
Q: You mentioned that Berta had a lot of adversaries because of her struggle? A: Berta, together with other people, worked collectively and denounced men for violence and aggression. On the radio in La Esperanza, they would say that Berta and COPINH were trying to stop development. There were a lot of efforts to discredit her.
Q: What type of threats did Berta receive? A: I can talk about one incident, in 2015. In January in the evening, we were returning to La Esperanza from Rio Blanco. On the way in the middle of nowhere, a group of people detained and surrounded the bus. They asked for Berta to get out but she wasn’t on the bus. We told them that. So they said they were going to come on the bus which they did. They searched the bus with flashlights and then they said that they weren’t going to let us go until Berta showed up there. In the middle of the violence and fear, there were voices in the darkness that were saying “we are going to kill that whore, that bitch, Berta.” We were scared at the level of aggressiveness and hostility. I later spoke to Berta about it and she said that she could never get off that bus, because they would have killed her. She called a designated representative from the Ministry of Security. There was a North American person on the bus with us, who took pictures, got off the bus, and they finally let us go. We told the mob that the Embassy would come and look for him if they tried anything so they let us go. That’s when I lived in first person, the threats Berta experienced.
Q: During this experience, do you know what community these people were from? A: I don’t know, we were leaving Rio Blanco. It happened on a curve in the road, maybe near Agua Caliente, but I didn’t know the people. It was dark.
Q: Who was in the bus? A: We were coming from a community assembly in Rio Blanco. In 2015, documentary film producers were doing a video about the struggle in Rio Blanco and Berta Cáceres. They were preparing for the Goldman award. We did an assembly in Rio Blanco and they were filming it.
Q: In 2013, you mentioned that Berta was denounced, what occurred in this process? A: Berta was criminalized. She was accused of illegal possession of weapons. I was outside the court during the judicial hearings. She was criminalized along with Tomas and Aureliano Molina and they went to trial. The criminalization was related to the Agua Zarca project.
Q: Why was it related to the project? A: Because I understand that the company facilitated the detention and their confrontations were intense. They said there was a weapon in her car. The Agua Zarca project was the hardest struggle COPINH has ever faced.
Q: Why was it the most conflictive year? A: Because they were pushing the project forward. There were public statements against the struggle.
Q: In the process of criminalization, do you know how it turned out? A: The case was dropped.
Q: Why did they accuse Berta of being against development? A: This is an argument that they use a lot when a company arrives to a community with a lot of promises like building schools, which the state of Honduras should be doing, not companies. So to oppose this, the company says that the people are against development. And Berta had a position that their type of development focused on economic wealth but she said that development was the protection of natural resources. She had other arguments, other understandings about life and what development is.
Q: Why did they consider the river sacred? A: Berta said it in front of millions of people in 2015 when she won the Goldman. The Lenca people come from corn and land and are custodians of the rivers. Rivers are the life of people - it’s where water and life comes from, where people swim, etc. The project would have imprisoned the river.
Q: You said in 2013 that you were doing a study with Paso a Paso, in what communities did you do that? A: No, it was not a study. In 2013, I was doing work in Rio Blanco that involved workshops with children that were affected by the violence produced by the presence of the dam.
Q: In what communities? A: In Rio Blanco
Q: How many children did you interview? A: We didn’t interview any, we did workshops with games and crafts. There were 80 kids or so. Piñatas, games, etc, so a lot of children participated. We were invited by the people of Rio Blanco to help with the fear they felt.
Q: What activities what did DESA officials do with state security forces? A: The people in Rio Blanco would say they worked with the army and that there were people in the community paid by DESA. I can’t guarantee that myself but the Armed Forces weren’t operating independently. I saw that very clearly. Not just the army but the police as well. There was a relationship there that showed the power that the company had.
Q: When Berta won the Goldman, why did you think the attacks against her would stop? A: She became an important actor on an international level. There was a lot of press that wanted to talk to her. She was recognized as a woman that fights for the environment. I thought this would protect her life and they wouldn’t dare kill a woman that had received such an award.
Q: Why did she say they were going to kill her? A: Berta started to say they were going to kill her, she was talking about the owners of the company. Because the economic damage that she and COPINH had caused them. She had denounced their behaviour and the international banks had to pulled out of the project. The international banks care about their profit and money - they think about their money, not people’s lives.
Q: [missed the question] A. Berta knew that the banks had money in the projects. But the banks are based in countries that talk about human rights but they were still financing a project where there were threats and a total disrespect for human rights. She denounced them because of this.
Q: Let’s talk about the meeting with David Castillo, can you specify what was involved in this meeting? A: I met him in the street, in the Miraflores neighbourhood where I was that day. Berta just introduced him. She always had a practice of advising people that she was meeting with him and she often met him in offices of organizations.
Q: What was the reason for the meeting? A: I don’t know. She didn’t tell me
Q: (missed the questions). A: Berta wrote me to ask me what I thought about the fact that David Castillo wanted to go and be apart of the award ceremony because he admired her a lot. She also told me that he would invite her places like to a concert somewhere in the US and that he wanted her to go with him. He would offer her money to support her like when her mom was sick or to help her children.
Q: What reaction did Berta have to these proposals? A: She thought “how can anyone believe that?”, almost like it was a joke. she knew that Castillo was the manager of the company that COPINH was fighting again. She didn’t believe it - she thought it was a joke. And her reaction was surprise - how could he offer her money? She was surprised, really.
Q: What was the reaction in Rio Blanco when Berta was killed? A: When they killed Berta, there was a lot of indignation because the people in Rio Blanco considered Berta as part of their community. Rosalina from the community ensured that the murder was related to her resistance. And people in the community [that were associated with DESA] would say, just like we killed Berta, we’re going to kill the people from COPINH. That hate stayed there - this tension and violence is still there.
Public Prosecutor Questions Cardoza
NOTE: The transmission signal cut out for approximately 10 minutes at the beginning of this interrogation. Several questions were missed.
Q: You mentioned that there was a lot of hate against COPINH, why did this hate exist? A: I think that the hate was expressed against COPINH had to do with the protection of economic interests in communities where COPINH has a presence.
Q: What did you observe exactly in December 2013 about the insecurity that made it difficult to go to the small store in Rio Blanco? A: there was a lot of fear. There were murders that had already occurred, confrontations, and fear that they would attack more people. There was an environment of insecurity - you could feel it.
Q: You said other murders had occurred, what murders? A: They murdered Tomas García in 2013
Q: You spok eabout some actions against Berta in December 2015, from January to November, did you observe any actions against Berta? A: At the end of 2015, after April [when she was awarded the Goldman Prize], Berta started to say that they were going to murder her. People in the community told her that people were organizing to kill her. Her works are what I noted.
Q: You said she referred to national bankers that wanted to kill her, what did she say exactly? A: She referred to the Atala Zablah family, FICOHSA - the owners of the Agua Zarca project.
Q: Where were you when you found out about Berta’s murder? A: In Tegucigalpa
Q: Why did you say that the motive of the murder was racist? A: The murder was an act against a woman, a feminicide, it was a feminicide linked to a territorial struggle that was led by an indigenous Lenca woman. This murder is about gender and racism because Berta represented the Lenca people.
Q: You saw a photo that Bustillo sent to Berta, what other types of messages and photos did he send her? A: I only saw one. But Berta told me that Bustillo would make sexual comments about her body, her beautify. He would say “you look pretty with those clothes or driving that car”. They were sexist expressions.
Q: Why did you say Berta knew that David Castillo had intelligence knowledge? A: Berta knew he was a military officer specialized in intelligence and that he was a professional in that. Similar to the idea of the photo that Castillo sent Berta.
Q: What photo was it? A: It was the photo that Castillo sent Berta with the communique published by the Network of Women Human Rights Defenders
Q: What emancipatory projects did COPINH do? A: They are projects in the communities so that they can decide what they want in their territory. They can say how they want to live, in what manner, and what they want for their lives.
Q: Let’s talk about the bus incident, who is Purdott? A: She is a representative from the Ministry of Security that Berta called when she had security incidents. She sent police.
Q: What did they do? A: Really nothing.
Q: After that incident, what did you do? A: I spoke with Victor Fernandez, and Berta told me to file a legal complaint. I didn’t do this personally. They also presented a complaint to the Network of Women Human Rights Defenders. There is documentation of the incident.
Q: Who is Aureliano and Tomas? A: They were compañeros of COPINH at the moment of the criminalization process against Berta. They were very visible in the struggle against Agua Zarca and were judicially persecuted as well.
Q: In what struggles did Aureliano and Tomas participate? A: I don’t know.
Q: What role did they play in COPINH? A: Tomas was the sub-Coordinator but I don’t know what position Aureliano had.
Q: You said that the people that detained the bus wanted to talk to Berta, why? A: they said they had a lot to talk to Berta about, but they wanted her to be there.
The Defense Questions Cardoza
Q: What direct aggressions did the company carry out against Berta? A: I think .. what Berta said, was more about the topic of Castillo’s control of her. He was the manager of the company and that was an aggression. The aggressions from Bustillo were sexual in nature.
Q: What relationship did Berta have with Douglas Bustillo? A: Douglas was the head of security. None.
Q: In this context, did he send sexual messages to her? A: I saw a picture that he sent Berta about the clothing she was wearing
Q: What access did you have to the judicial processes where Berta was accused? A: I was outside of the court room during the hearings.
Q: Why do you consider that when the Attorney General’s office presses charges, that it is criminalization? A: Because it is persecution when they are pursuing charges against people that are defending their territories, their water, etc. I’m a human rights defender and there are interests to criminalize defenders. But we have the right to struggle and to be persecuted for that, is a form of criminalization.
Q: What are the concrete reasons or charges against her? A: They said she had a gun on her but they couldn’t prove it and the charges were dropped.
Q: What responsibility did DESA have in the charges related to the gun that was found? A: You have to ask David Castillo that, not me. I don’t know.
Q: When you say that Berta received threats from different places, where were some of the projects that COPINH worked on? A: I remember, just by the history of COPINH, that they worked in Montaña de la Flor against logging projects, others close to La Esperanza - those are the ones I remember.
Q: How many dams were operating in Rio Blanco? A: In the community of Rio Blanco? What I understand is just Agua Zarca
Q: In the communication you had with Berta, what knowledge did you have in January 2015 about threats from a project in Agua Caliente? A: I don’t have that information
Q: How well do you know Rio Blanco? A: I went maybe three times to Rio Blanco before Berta was killed and then again another time. I know the people from the community a little bit - those that are close to COPINH.
Q: How many communities are there in Rio Blanco? A: There are various but I don’t know exactly how many
Q: What year did COPINH arrive to the community of Rio Blanco? A: In 2012, but I’m more aware of 2013. The community requested COPINH’s presence.
Q: From what community was COPINH from? A: COPINH is an organization that is in many communities. It has a central office in La Esperanza but in the COPINH assemblies, there are diverse communities from Intibuca and Santa Barbara
Q: What actions did COPINH carry out in Rio Blanco? A: I understand they did informative assembles, debates, they organized gatherings to talk about the project. They started a community radio.
Q: With the incident in the bus, were they people from the community or from DESA? A: In the community, there is a faction. There are people according to what I’ve been told, that have been paid by the company to create an environment of fear. They do these types of actions. In the form that they operate, they are constant aggressions and confrontations against people. I don’t know all the people from the community
Q: What percentage of the community in Rio Blanco are against COPINH? A: I don’t know
Q: You said that people wanted to kill Berta in the community? A: I didn’t say they were organizing to kill her, I said that there were people at the bus incident that said they wanted to kill Berta.
Q: When you talk about the supposed military arriving to the homes of the people, how do you know this? A: Many people told me.
Q: After you lived in La Esperanza, how many times did you go there? A: I went a lot of times and maintained contact with Berta on the phone.
Q: What was the reaction of the people in Rio Blanco, when Berta won the award? A: I was there when Berta came with the award and she took it to the community to celebrate. They had food and firecrackers.
Q: What knowledge did you have of the real relationship between Berta and David Castillo? A: I don’t understand, can you explain what you mean
Q: How often did they meet? A: I don’t know
Q: When Berta came to Tegucigalpa, how often would you meet? A: We would see each other frequently. I don’t know how many times - we tried to see each other but I can’t say exactly
Q: What do you know about Aureliano Molina, what relationship did Berta have with him? A: They were compañeros from the same organization
Q: What knowledge do you have about the legal complaints filed by Berta against Aureliano? I don’t know.
Q: Let’s talk about the article written by Juan Ramon Martinez, what knowledge do you have that DESA had a relationship with this man? A: I don’t know. I just said that it was curious that he wrote the article.
Q: When you met David Castillo, how did the meeting happen? A: I was in Miraflores and he arrived by car. Berta called me to ask me where I was and that’s why they came there.
Q: What information did you have about their meetings? A: I know that he invited her to go out and to go to a concert in San Francisco. But I don’t know how many times and I don’t know how real the invitations were.
Q: What was Berta’s relationship with mayors in the region? A: There is a video of a discussion between Berta and another man, but I don’t know if it’s a mayor. There was a conflictive relationship
Q: What knowledge did you have of the threats against her that came from the mining sector? A: Threats … I don’t know. She never mentioned any
Waxenecker Continues His Expert Analysis of Power Networks
Waxenecker continued his presentation from where he left on discussing 4.2.3 Third Stage (June to October 2011)
August 2, 2011: Potencia y Energia de Mesoamerica, S.A. (PEMSA) did not only become an owner of DESA in 2011, but it had also financed it’s operations since at least 2010. In an DESA assembly, the capital invested in DESA by PEMSA was 3,999,900.00.
4.2.4 Fourth Phase (October 2011 to present)
October 11, 2011: There was an agreement between PEMSA and Inversiones Las Jacarandas.
November 7, 2011: In an assembly, DESA’s social capital increased to a minimum of 50 million Lempiras which PEMSA contributed 16.65 million (16,650 shares) and Inversiones Las Jacarandas 33.35 million (33,350 shares). Inversiones Las Jacarandas was represented by José Eduardo Atala Zablah
DESA’s administration council was named in this meeting: Roberto David Castillo Mejía (President), Jacobo Nicolás Atala Zablah (Vice President), Jorge Corea Lobo (vocal primero [not sure how to translate this], José Eduardo Atala Zablah (vocal segundo), Roberto Pacheco Reyes (secretary), Tanya Romero Baca (vocal suplente), Pedro Atala Zablah (vocal suplente), and Karla López Matarmoros (commissioner).
Since this date, the DESA’s executive body did not change from Agua Zarca’s implementation process on November 2011 to the end of 2017.
December 1, 2011: The administrative council gave Roberto David Castillo Mejía (President) and Jacobo Nicolás Atala Zablah (Vice President), two general administrative power of attorneys
May 24, 2012: Carolina Lizeth Castillo Argueta’s legal mandate was expanded and she was given special representation authority for DESA.
August 27, 2012: PEMSA was registered in Panama using the meeting minutes of the investors meeting, listing Castillo as President, Roberto José Pacheco Reyes (Treasurer) and Carolina Castillo Argueta (Secretary)
December 23, 2013: In DESA’s assembly, it’s minimum capital was increased to 143 million Lempiras. PEMSA took over 48,620 shares for a total value of 48.62 million Lempiras and Inversiones Las Jacarandas, 94,380 shares for a total of 94.38 million Lempiras.
Action Related to the Agua Zarca dam at this time
November 17, 2011: DESA requested an expansion of the Agua Zarca project to a capacity of 21.7 MW to authorities at the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SERNA)
December 27, 2011: Municipal authorities in Intibuca granted a construction permit to DESA to build the Agua Zarca dam for one year.
January 17, 2012: The Operation Contract for the Agua Zarca project was modified between DESA and SERNA
March 6, 2012: SERNA and DESA sign an addendum to the exploitation contract for the Agua Zarca project
May 10, 2012: DESA presents an environmental impact study for an expansion to the environmental license.
October 31, 2012: Municipal authorities in San Francisco de Ojüera grant a construction permit to the Agua Zarca dam.
January 24, 2013: SERNA grants the expansion of the environmental license requested by DESA. These respective changes were not modified on the Operations contracts and were not ratified by Congress.
January and July 2013: The construction of the project began and was led by SINOHYDRO. On July 15, 2013, the construction was temporarily suspended and SINOHYDRO terminated the contract.
December 13, 2013: President David Castillo informed the company that the process of development of the Agua Zarca dam had resulted in problems provoked by leaders of COPINH which had caused delays in the construction, the termination of the contract with SINOHYDRO and other situations.
In the conditions, negotiations with international banks began
November 20, 2013: A direct contract was signed between ENEE, FMO, CABEI, and DESA
November 22, 2013: A direct contract was signed between SERNA, FMO, CABEI, and DESA
From December 2013 to April 2014, a series of contracts were signed that include: DESA, PEMSA, Inversiones Las Jacarandas, BCIE, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Banco LAFISE (Honduras), FMO, and FINNFUND
April 9, 2014: Trust Guarantee and Administration Contract (Contrato de Fideicomiso de Garantía y Administración). The FMO, together with FINNFUND contribute $15 million and CABEI bank grants $24 million.
4.2.5 The Network Around PRODERSSA
April 28, 2013: PRODERSSA’s shares are held by: Roberto Arturo Mejía Salgado (2500 shares), José Miguel Mendoza Rubio representing Inversiones Agroindustriales del Pacifico (2500 shares).
This company, through its shareholders are linked to the Rivera Maradiaga family (Los Cachiros) who have been convicted of drug trafficking in US courts.
David Castillo holds 1 share in PRODERSSA and in August 2014 was named as President.
January 16, 2014: PRODERSSA signs a contract with the ENEE for the Agua Fría solar project located in Nacaome, Honduras. The project received international backing through PRODERSSA’s relationship with Norway’s KLP Norfund Investments and Scatec Solar.
November 29, 2017: PRODERSSA revokes the general administration power granted to David Castillo.
March 5, 2018: The Public Prosecutor’s Office seizes 58 assets linked to the Rivera Maradiagas (Los Cachiros) and PRODERSSA is one of them.
5. David Castillo’s Relationships and Power Resources (Recursos de poder)
5.1 Flow of Economic Resources: The general availability and flow of economic resources to materialize Berta Cáceres’s murder.
Early stages (2010 to 2013): PEMSA and Inversiones Las Jacarandas have shares in DESA; two bank credits (from FICOHSA $5 million and FICENSA $8 million). Then on December 19, 2013, the CABEI and FMO international banks approve $44.4 million in funding for the Agua Zarca dam.
Waxenecker quotes the Sentencing court’s sentence of the seven hitman and intermediaries: “The motives of the accused individuals individuals to commit the crime was the promise of an offered payment by members of DESA, specifically Roberto David Castillo …” He then states that it’s important that Honduran courts expand their financial investigations of the project including international financing.
5.2. Communication Network
5.2.1. Global Network and Temporary Development. Waxenecker does an analysis of the position of the telephone numbers (nodes) in conjunction with the relationship between the calls. He breaks the phone calls into periods of time starting on March 5, 2015 and ending March 9, 2016. He notes communication between Douglas Bustillo and Sergio Rodriguez with an informant in Rio Blanco named Salvador Sanchez.
Waxenecker shows that the intensity of the communication between Jorge Avila and Douglas Bustillo increases in period 12 (February 1, 2016 to March 2, 2016) and David Castillo, Daniel Atala, Sergio Rodriguez and Mariano Diaz Chavez maintain their role as central figures in the communication network.
Sub-networks are identified. These sub-networks maintain a compartmentalization and interconnection in the broader communication network. These sub-networks include: An executive (or superior structure) network where the decisions are made, and an inferior network (operative network) including Bustillo, Mariano Diaz Chavez, and Henry Hernandez, and the other assassins.
5.2.2. k-Neighbors/compartmentalization: These two subnetworks have a modus operandi of compartmentalization and hierarchy. This is a sign of a highly specialized military logic. It’s intention is to not compromise information and the structure of the network. It proactively hides all criminal activity.
The superior structure of the network is significant as you can clearly see the interrelationship between DESA’s executives and the material actors or hitman that carried out the murder.
In this communication structure, David Castillo maintained a position of power and hierarchy.
5.3. (In)formal Security and Capacity for Violence. There are circles of formal and informal institutional security in different moments that surrounding the dam’s operations. Waxenecker analyzes communications between informant Salvador Sanchez in Rio Blanco and Sergio Rodriguez and Douglas Bustillo. And between Clementino (another informant), Douglas Bustillo and Jorge Avila.
In the timeframe analyzed, Castillo and Bustillo’s communication never changed (despite Bustillo not working with DESA any longer)
In the Whatsapp chat group “Security PHAZ”, David Castillo, Daniel Atala, Sergio Rodriguez, Jorge Avila, and four other DESA executives were constantly informing each other about the monitoring of Berta Caceres.
