Indigenous Rights

UN human-rights experts have urged Honduras to immediately stop executing over 1,000 eviction orders against peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities issued under a 2026 agroindustrial law that overrides land-reform claims and ancestral land rights.

A criminal court confirmed a three-and-a-half-year sentence against retired military officer Óscar Finlander Armijo Uclés for threats and property damage against a Tolupán family in San Francisco de Locomapa, though more than 35 related complaints filed since 2013 remain without prosecution and over ten people have been killed defending the territory.

A coordinator at a Honduran civil-society organization warned that the recently approved Agro-Industrial Law threatens territorial rights of Garífuna, Indigenous, and other communities, citing concerns over Article 77's land regularization rules and violations of Inter-American Court rulings.

Land dispossession and threats are forcing indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities from their ancestral territories, with Honduras's human rights ombudsman documenting 48 land-defender killings and 227 forced-displacement complaints over the past decade.

More than 40 peasant, Indigenous, and popular organizations filed a citizen-initiated impeachment complaint against 16 lawmakers, including Congress President Tomás Zambrano, over Decree 107-2026, an agro-industrial law they say violates land rights and enables evictions of rural and Indigenous communities.

Honduras's Constitutional Court admitted a legal challenge to a 2026 law that broadly expanded the definition of terrorist association, with critics warning its vague language could criminalize legitimate protest, strikes, and indigenous territorial rights.

Over 70 rural, indigenous, and Garífuna organizations held nationwide road blockades and demonstrations on July 20 demanding the government repeal three decrees that criminalize land claims, broaden the definition of terrorism, and shield agricultural and energy-sector lands from legal challenges including agrarian reform.

New Land LLC, a foreign-controlled firm, announced plans for a "smart city" tech park in Honduras's Moskitia region without consulting indigenous communities, prompting local leaders to warn of similarities to controversial autonomous economic zones.

Indigenous peoples of the Moskitia region protested in Tegucigalpa against a proposed agribusiness law they say would legitimize illegal land seizures, and demanded the government fulfill a 2019 commitment to formalize land titles in ancestral territories.

Environmental organizations and indigenous leaders are demanding transparency in an oil contract signed for Honduras's Caribbean region, citing undisclosed terms they say harm local communities.

Indigenous representatives in La Moskitia say a newly approved agroindustrial law will legitimize illegal occupation of their ancestral territories and accelerate forest destruction, and they are demanding enforcement of a six-year-pending land survey.

Rural, indigenous, and human-rights organizations filed a constitutional challenge seeking to suspend Decree 107-2026, which they say enables land seizures and strips protections from campesino and indigenous communities to shield agribusiness, energy, tourism, and ranching projects.

A civil-society watchdog warns that the Asfura administration is advancing laws that criminalize peasant and indigenous land claims while protecting agribusiness interests, citing passage of a sweeping anti-terrorism statute, an agroindustrial-protection law, and a self-defense expansion tied to property defense.

Indigenous Maya Chortí communities in Copán are filing a nullity action against Minosa's 30-year mining concession extension, arguing the company improperly invoked an automatic administrative approval (afirmativa ficta) without meeting legal requirements or consulting affected populations.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that Honduras's newly approved agroindustrial law could harm indigenous and rural communities' land and territorial rights and deepen social conflict, urging Congress to align it with international standards.

Residents of Azacualpa, Copán, elected a Maya-Chortí Indigenous Council to defend their territory against Minosa, which continues operating despite its concession expiring in 2023 and having destroyed the community's ancestral cemetery.

A judge in San Pedro Sula convicted four indigenous leaders of usurpation despite the National Agrarian Institute granting the Lenca community legal title to the disputed land in El Cacao, prompting rights groups to appeal and take the case to international bodies.

Honduras granted a 2013 oil concession covering 35,256 square kilometers of Caribbean waters in La Moskitia, a UNESCO World Heritage site, without consulting the four indigenous peoples living there, violating international law.

A report warns that 77 territorial conflicts, most described as high-intensity, remain active in Honduras amid what analysts characterize as a shift toward punitive government responses.