Lenca

Yarumela, in La Paz department, holds evidence of organized human presence dating to around 1000 BCE, serving as a political and ceremonial capital during the Formative period with astronomical alignments and trade networks reaching Mexico and the Caribbean.

Evin Noel Sales Ayala was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for the January 2022 murder of Pablo Hernández Rivera, a broadcaster, indigenous Lenca leader, and human-rights and land-rights advocate in Lempira.

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.