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Caught Our Eye

Honduran co. implicated in murder hires lobbying team

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on July 26, 2018

Lobbying sometimes involves life and death issues but rarely does it involve a case of actual murder.

A Honduran hydroelectric-power company has hired Amsterdam & Partners to help out two of its executives accused of helping to murder a high-profile environmental activitist. The law firm is providing "counsel and guidance" to Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) for an undisclosed amount of money, according to a disclosure filed this week.

Two DESA executives, including the company's executive president, are accused of helping to kill Berta Cáceres, a prominent Honduran activist. Cáceres won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her successful grassroots campaign against a DESA-operated dam; she was murdered in her bedroom one year later.

Amsterdam & Partners co-founder Robert Amsterdam has called the murder "reprehensible" but said that his firm is "committed to finding out the truth, educating the public about what really happened in this case and in this community, and shining a light on the rush to judgement that led to the accusations against our client."