Land Rights

A Garífuna encampment in Tegucigalpa has maintained a protest for over 70 days demanding that Honduras drop criminal charges against five land defenders arrested during a July 6 police eviction in San Juan and comply with four Inter-American Court rulings.

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.

Honduras's judiciary and the UN human rights office are convening civil-society groups to discuss creating a specialized court to handle land, territory, and environmental disputes affecting indigenous peoples, Afro-Hondurans, and rural communities.

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.

Garífuna communities on Honduras' Caribbean coast fighting to reclaim ancestral land face intimidation from drug traffickers and organized-crime charges from the state, two years after a 2024 government land-demarcation mission was abandoned under threats.

The ethnic-community organization Odeco launched a project to strengthen land rights, local governance, and economic sustainability in Atlantic-coast Garífuna communities in Colón and Atlántida, with training in human rights and women's leadership.

Honduras's Public Ministry and Security Secretariat have ordered law-enforcement to prioritize complaints of illegal seizure of property under a new agricultural and energy law (Decree 107-2026), raising concerns about resource allocation as the country faces persistent violence.

An international solidarity delegation called on Honduras to enforce four Inter-American Court of Human Rights rulings favoring Garifuna communities, which have faced long delays in implementation.

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.

Indigenous, Garífuna, and peasant leaders protested at the National Agrarian Institute in Tegucigalpa, demanding a halt to forced evictions under the 2026 Agro-Industrial Law and an end to criminalization of land-rights defenders, while calling for the removal of the INA director.

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 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.

A forced eviction in Choluteca under Honduras's 2026 Agroindustrial Law has triggered UN and legal scrutiny over whether the law violates constitutional due-process protections and international human-rights standards, with lawyers arguing it prioritizes corporate interests over peasant land rights.

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.

A Honduran research center presented a historical analysis of socioterritorial conflicts in Honduras from 2022 to 2026 at a Central American history conference in El Salvador, examining trends and challenges.

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.

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.

Honduras's Property Institute distributed 1,141 property titles to families in San Pedro Sula on Saturday, with another 5,797 titles available for pickup, regularizing land rights for about 7,000 households across 240 neighborhoods.

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.

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.

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 new report on Honduras's territorial conflicts argues they stem from deep inequality in land access and resource control rather than security issues, rooted in unresolved agrarian reform and indigenous land-rights disputes.

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.

Congress on June 4 passed a law declaring agribusiness lands exempt from expropriation and land-reform programs, and ordering police to act immediately against occupations or protests, while peasant groups say it criminalizes rural organizing in the conflict-torn Bajo Aguán region where 20 people were killed on May 21.

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.

Congress approved a law prioritizing agroindustrial activity as a national interest, expediting evictions and broadening criminal penalties for land occupations and blockades, drawing warnings from Cespad, a democracy-studies center, that it criminalizes peasant land-defense organizing.

Environmental and human-rights organizations are calling on President Asfura to veto a newly approved law strengthening agroindustry protections, arguing it weakens environmental controls, blocks land reform, and criminalizes peasant land claims under the guise of fighting land invasions.

Members of OFRANEH and Garífuna communities intensified protests in Tegucigalpa by blocking a major road near the Supreme Court, demanding the dismissal of criminal cases against five land-rights defenders from San Juan, Tela.

Garifuna and indigenous leaders warn that Honduras's new Agroindustrial Law, designed to strengthen property rights and attract investment, risks displacing ancestral communities whose territorial claims and international protections remain unresolved.