Garifuna Rights

The Viva Berta encampment in Tegucigalpa, set up by Garífuna communities defending their ancestral lands from drug traffickers and commercial developers, confronts organized-crime pressure and state criminalization of land activists.

Garífuna activists and their allies have maintained a two-month encampment outside Honduras's judicial headquarters in Tegucigalpa to demand state compliance with prior court rulings on land rights and the release of five detained defenders arrested in a violent eviction.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said a reality-show production linked to Mexican businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego at Cayos Cochinos in Honduras must comply with environmental protections and indigenous land rights, after Garífuna communities protested their exclusion from the beach.

OFRANEH warned of a new eviction attempt against the Garífuna community of Cayos Cochinos and demanded the government enforce an Inter-American Court ruling recognizing their territorial and collective rights, alleging a private investment firm linked to the Salinas Pliego family is behind the action.

Garífuna leaders in Honduras allege a systematic plan to dispossess their territories and erase their cultural heritage, and say they will take their case to international courts, citing non-compliance with prior Inter-American Court of Human Rights rulings.

Honduras's Supreme Court president said the judiciary remains committed to dialogue with Garífuna representatives and OFRANEH over implementing international court rulings on indigenous land rights, after both groups did not attend a scheduled meeting Friday.

Five community leaders in Tornabé are facing criminal proceedings after publicly defending their ancestral territory, as the Organization of Fraternal Black Hondurans reports armed operations and intimidation against the Garífuna community.

The Garífuna community of San Juan, which won a 2023 Inter-American Court ruling on territorial rights, has occupied a coastal camp called Tuba Mena after a violent police eviction on July 5, drawing indigenous and peasant groups to oppose Honduras's Agroindustrial Law.

Garífuna communities in Honduras launched sustained protests on July 15, demanding the government annul trials against five territorial defenders and repeal Decree 107-2026, which authorized the first eviction from ancestral lands in San Juan, Tela on July 5.

OFRANEH set up an indefinite roadside camp on the CA-13 highway in Tela to demand the release of five San Juan community members facing charges under the 2026 Agro-Industrial Strengthening Law, which they say criminalizes land-rights defenders.

Police carried out the first enforcement of Honduras's new agroindustrial protection law to evict Garífuna residents from ancestral land in San Juan, Tela, resulting in five usurpation charges and accusations that the law violates an Inter-American Court ruling protecting the community's territory.

Armed men, including a foreign national whose identity remains unconfirmed, arrived in four unlicensed vehicles at Tornabé on July 12; police seized ammunition but made no arrests, prompting community accusations of unequal enforcement.