Carlos Solano, a Spanish Jesuit who works with indigenous communities in the northern Honduran province of Yoro, had been present with the indigenous demonstration since it began May 5. The 3,000 Honduran indigenous were camped out in front of the office of President Carlos Roberto Reina, demanding that Reina give them 20,000 hectares of land they claim has been stolen from them by large landowners. The group, which included representatives of Lenca, Pech, Chorti, and Tolupan indigenous communities, also demanded an end to violence against their leaders. On April 12, Chorti leader Candido Amador, a leader in the struggle to recuperate lands that once belonged to the indigenous, was assassinated near Copan.
Indigenous leaders blame large landowners for the killing.
The demonstration in Tegucigalpa, which included several dozen people on a hunger strike, had convinced the government to sit down and negotiate indigenous demands. According to Solano, the negotiations were close to concluding when the government sent as many as 2,000 soldiers and police to evict the demonstrators at 4 am, an hour when few witnesses or journalists were present. Caceres was injured in the melee. Solano said one of the officials directing the eviction sent soldiers to drag him off to a nearby police car, where he was kept prisoner until the initial violence subsided. It was totally unacceptable.