Honduras: News & Updates

The Garífuna, descendants of Indigenous peoples from the Caribbean and formerly enslaved Africans, have lived on the Atlantic coast since 1797. Although they have been granted collective land ownership in several of their coastal communities, they often face legal persecution for defending those rights. For the past 30 years (and accelerated after the initiation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2006), they have been subject to forced displacement by private actors, sometimes with the collusion of state actors. The State of Honduras has already been condemned four times by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights for violating the Garífuna people’s right to collective land ownership in four separate communities: (1) Triunfo de la Cruz, Atlántida Department (2015); (2) Punta Piedra, Colón Department (2015); (3) San Juan, Atlántida Department (2023); and (4) Cayos Cochinos-Bay Islands (2026).

Garífuna communities are often at the center of what some call a corporate assault on Honduras. After two incursions by heavily armed men into the Garífuna community of Tornabé at Tela Bay (July 9 and 12),  the attitude of the police has become clearer to residents. Instead of fulfilling their obligation to protect the residents of Tornabé, they act with racism and prioritize the interests of those who seek to dispossess the communities of their territories. Garífuna communities around the Tela Bay demand an end to the violence and harassment by the police and private actors.

The Garífuna, descendants of Indigenous peoples from the Caribbean and formerly enslaved Africans, have lived on the Atlantic coast since 1797. Although they have been granted collective land ownership in several of their coastal communities, they often face legal persecution for defending those rights. For the past 30 years (and accelerated after the initiation of the Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2006), they have been subject to forced displacement by private actors, sometimes with the collusion of state actors. The State of Honduras has already been condemned four times by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights for violating the Garífuna people’s right to collective land ownership in four separate communities: (1) Triunfo de la Cruz, Atlántida Department (2015); (2) Punta Piedra, Colón Department (2015); (3) San Juan, Atlántida Department (2023); and (4) Cayos Cochinos-Bay Islands (2026).

Garífuna communities are often at the center of what some call a corporate assault on Honduras.  On July 6, over 200 police officers, with the use of tear gas, threats, and live ammunition, invaded the Garifuna community of San Juan, Tela Bay, Atlántida Department, to execute an eviction. In the process, Deinor Osmany Mejía Arzu, Irbin Rene López Cortes, Carlos Enrique Fernández Guzmán, Onil Riboberto Hernández Zelaya, and Sara Abigail Acosta were detained on a wrongful account of aggravated usurpation of their ancestral territory.  At the initial hearing on July 15, the judge transferred the case to the National Jurisdiction Court in San Pedro Sula, deeming the alleged land usurpation to be part of organized criminal activity.

The Bajo Aguán Valley in northern Honduras became a center of agrarian reform beginning in the 1970s when hundreds of families relocated to these fertile lands under the promise of economic opportunity. But its vast size and high value for agricultural production made it a highly coveted place for various agro-industrial actors, namely for the production of palm oil. The struggle of campesinos to secure land in that area has historically resulted in violence from armed groups—both state and private actors. In the past decade, there have been more than 200 victims of armed conflicts arising from movements to reclaim farmworkers’ land in the Bajo Aguán region.

A horrendous massacre occurred on May 21 in the campesino community of Rigores. Gathered in prayer on a palm plantation to begin their workday,  campesinos were met by several heavily armed men wearing Honduran police uniforms (although it is unclear whether the perpetrators were actually state security forces or private actors). They opened fire, killing all 20 (including five who were minor children of some of the workers).

Last month, approximately 300 students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) in Tegucigalpa gathered to protest proposed reductions to the university budget and to demand compliance with the constitutional mandate guaranteeing funding for public higher education. During the protest, police forces deployed tear gas, armored vehicles, and rubber bullets against demonstrators. As a result of this repression, at least one student suffered severe injuries, including the loss of an eye.

Witness accounts indicate that the protest began as a peaceful demonstration and that students were exercising their legitimate democratic right to advocate for the protection of public education. Instead of facilitating and safeguarding this constitutional right, authorities responded with disproportionate force that endangered the lives and safety of young people.

The violent response to these demonstrations reflects a broader pattern in which public dissent is met not with dialogue, but with intimidation and violence. The right to education and the right to peaceful protest are fundamental pillars of any democratic society, and attempts to silence students through force undermine both democratic participation and public trust in state institutions.