Land 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.

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.

Congress passed legislation declaring legally registered agricultural properties exempt from seizure and ordering police and judicial authorities to respond immediately to illegal occupations affecting sectors such as palm oil, coffee, sugar cane, and citrus.

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.

The Alianza Campesina, Indígena y Popular de Honduras and allied social organizations formally challenged a proposed legal reform on Thursday, arguing it would criminalize protest and curtail civil liberties.