“The case of Berta Cáceres, or the Agua Zarca initiative in Honduras, is paradigmatic. In concrete terms, it demonstrates how development resources generated by European banks, theoretically destined for interventions with a positive impact, end up financing human rights violations. In this case, even the payment to hitmen,” explains to DW Pedro Biscay, anti-corruption expert from the International Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which over the course of a year, under the mandate of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Human Rights (IACHR), and in agreement with the State of Honduras and the family of the environmentalist murdered in 2016, carried out an exhaustive study.
Following the money route, “it was determined that the syndicated loan from the Dutch development bank FMO, together with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), allocated 43 million dollars to the Agua Zarca initiative, of which 18 million were executed. Approximately 12.5 million, around 67%, were diverted for illicit purposes. These included bribes, media campaigns, payments to informants, security forces, lobbyists and hitmen,” details Pedro Biscay, executive director of the Center for Research and Prevention of Economic Crime.
Key moment for an investment mixed with development aid
The extensive report comes at a key time for the company’s new investment initiatives. European Union in Latin America and the Caribbean. These combine financing from Official Development Assistance with private investment and state contributions from each country where an intervention is launched. Development banks are, in this European strategy called Global Gatewaymain actors.
It must be made clear that the murder of the defender of the Gualcarque River happened ten years ago and that the Agua Zarca hydroelectric plant long predates the Global Gateway plans. However, “it is a witness case. Why? Because it shows how the resources intended for development, since they were granted for that purpose, end up being subject to improper use and fraudulent maneuvers by local business groups that operate in the recipient countries,” underlines Pedro Biscay.
“The most relevant thing about the GIEI report is that it not only reveals the operation behind a murder, but also a structural practice installed in international banks that finance companies in Latin America,” Berta Zúñiga Cáceres, daughter of Berta Cáceres and general coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), tells DW.
The Honduran activist presented the results of the report (published in March 2026) to the European institutions this month in Brussels. “We address the Global Gateway policy and point out the importance that the clauses related to human rights, prevention of money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorism, as they exist in international law, are mandatory. They should not remain simple standards or discretionary criteria of the banks,” warns Berta Zúñiga Cáceres.
With emblematic initiatives throughout Latin America and the Caribbean – for the energy and digital transition, connectivity and urban sanitation, as well as the production of alternative energies and the extraction of critical minerals -, the Global Gateway strategy, in three years, has managed to convince partners of its benefits.
Lack of control in matters of human rights and the environment
However, there are skeptical views. “One of the main risks of this strategy is the absence of a single, binding and standardized due diligence framework in matters of human rights and the environment,” Magdalena Bordagorry, coordinator of Red EULAT, a platform for European and Latin American civil society organizations, told DW.
“In practice, this due diligence depends on the internal procedures of development banks, financial institutions and companies linked to these investments. Such procedures vary from case to case and, as we have seen, are sometimes insufficient. Specifically, the case of Berta Cáceres constitutes a particularly relevant warning, since one of the banks that financed the Agua Zarca initiative is part of the financial architecture of the Global Gateway,” highlights Bordagorry. It should be noted that the development bank in question accepts the report, regrets what happened and announces reforms.
Why are development banks so important in this context? Because they channel Official Development Assistance (ODA), financial resources that European governments make available to developing countries to promote economic and social progress. “At the moment, around 50% of our ODA funds are fully or partially linked to Global Gateway,” Udo Bullmann, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on this topic, told DW.
“According to European treaties, it cannot be evaded that these resources must contribute to reducing poverty, they are committed to sustainable development and respect for human rights. They must not finance investments that destroy the environment, deteriorate the living conditions of people or harm their means of subsistence,” he says.
Since these are public funds and are within the budget of the European Union, the European Chamber has a supervisory function. Do you exercise it? “There are still shortcomings in the control systems,” responds Bullmann, MEP for Germany. “There is a committee for the Global Gateway, where there are representatives from the foreign affairs, trade and development commission, but it is not a solid control body nor does it meet frequently enough,” he says.
Investment in a region plagued by illicit flows
Thus, with the case of the Honduran leader as a basis and with a view to future investments, “clear failures are evident at several levels,” analyzes Pedro Biscay. “On the one hand, the control systems over illicit capital flows have failed. Also, the accountability structures in the execution of development initiatives. In addition, the institutional devices to supervise the corporate governance of development banks in Europe have not paid the necessary attention,” he warns, focusing on the growing circulation of illicit flows that are channeled through banking systems that receive financing for development.
In any case, in the case of Agua Zarca and the murder of Berta Cáceres, with an international mandate, the investigators were able to trace the movement from the bank’s disbursement and its diversion until reaching the payment of the material authors of the crime.
