Garifuna land rights abuses persist in Honduras, despite court ruling

On the northern Caribbean coast of Honduras, Garifuna Afro-Indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim their ancestral lands have been subjected to threats and violence by private developers, drug traffickers and state forces.For more than two decades, the territory has been threatened by the expansion of palm oil, tourist developments, mining projects and drug traffickers.In 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared Honduras responsible for violating the Garifuna peoples’ territorial rights and ordered the government to return the respective lands to its peoples.The state has still not complied with the ruling; meanwhile, Garifuna residents and human rights organizations say threats, criminalization and violence against them have increased.

Since the early 17th century, the Garifuna Afro-Indigenous peoples of Honduras have lived on the country’s northern Caribbean coast, where they collectively own large tracts of rich coastal land and sustain their livelihoods on subsistence agriculture and small-scale fishing. But ever since palm oil plantations, tourist developments and other harmful practices have expanded across their ancestral lands and their way of life and territory have been under threat.

Garifuna human rights activist Rony Leonidas Castillo Güity was 8 years old when he first noticed changes in his community. It was the early ‘90s and the government had just built a highway to improve access to his community in Iriona, a municipality in the Honduran department of Colón. “That’s when we started to see movements of strange people we didn’t know,” he told Mongabay over the phone.

Today, the coast is covered in luxury developments, such as the five-star Indura Beach & Golf Resort and the Rosa Negra tourism complex in Tela, a municipality in the department of Atlántida. Hotels and apartments, created without the consent of the Garifuna peoples, sit directly on top of the community’s ancestral burial grounds and agricultural lands.

On April 12, Garifuna communities and the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) carried out protests in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Image courtesy of Carlos Ortiz.

“Our communities are facing a war,” Miriam Miranda, a Garifuna human rights defender and leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages. “Today, we no longer plant corn, beans and rice on the coast,” she said. “Our territories have been filled with African palm oil.”

Honduras is the second-largest palm oil producer in Latin America, behind Colombia, with about 193,000 hectares (476,913 acres) of land under cultivation, particularly in the departments of Atlántida and Colón, which have been the largest producers since 1940. The president of the Industrial Association of Palm Oil Producers of Honduras, Héctor Castro, told Mongabay Latam that most of these are owned by the company Palmas Atlántida, which belongs to the Litoral group, a society of producers that has been denounced by the Garifuna for owning lands of dubious origin.

Land purchase agreements on Garifuna territory have been supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Other agencies, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), have also provided loans to expand plantations in the area.

A World Bank spokesperson told Mongabay that its projects do not involve any activities that concern the demarcation or titling of Garifuna lands. IMF officials told Mongabay that its programs are “not orientated towards specific projects” and they have “no involvement” in issues that involve the fragmentation of communities or encroachment of their ancestral lands. The IDB did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment.

A red dirt road cuts through expansive oil palm plantations en route to the Garifuna settlement of Vallecito. Image by Christopher Clark for Mongabay.

The territory has also been infiltrated by criminal groups that transport drugs via the coast. Miranda said this has led to many deaths and has destroyed the social fabric of some communities. It has also “condemned us to hunger,” she added, as areas that were previously used for subsistence agriculture have been taken over for the cultivation and production of coca and other drugs. “Every day, we are fighting to survive in a country totally captured by drug mafias.”

Garifuna leaders and human rights organizations, such as OFRANEH, have denounced the Honduran state for selling their ancestral lands to private developers, agribusiness and drug traffickers without their consent and argue that the government has failed to recognize, respect or protect their fundamental rights.

A favorable ruling, ignored

For almost two decades, Garifuna leaders with the support of OFRANEH have filed complaints about rights violations that have taken place on their lands. In 2003, after years of filinglawsuits in national courts to no avail, they took the issue to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, “to demand respect for our territories and our lives,” Miranda told Mongabay.

On Oct. 8, 2015, the Inter-American Court ruled that the Honduran government had violated the rights of the Garifuna communities of Triunfo de la Cruz in Atlántida and Punta Piedra in Colón and ordered the restitution of land rights to the communities. A third sentence was delivered in 2023 for damages to the community of San Juan in Atlántida. But it has been almost 10 years since the first ruling and the government has not yet complied with sentences.

“This is one weakness of this international court,” Castillo told Mongabay over the phone. “It does not have a coercive body that can sanction the state if it does not comply.”

Property titles on Garifuna land have continued to be sold to private investors, such as the owners of the Rosa Negra tourist complex, who have been accused of harassing and threatening Garifuna leaders, according to a public statement signed by the Washington Office on Latin America and 12 other international organizations. Groups aligned with Rosa Negra reportedly barred the entrance to the Triunfo de la Cruz community and launched a smear campaign “aimed at generating divisions among the community,” the statement said. The owners of Rosa Negra did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment.

Garifuna peoples carry out a march in the capital city of Honduras, demanding the state comply with a 2015 international court sentence that ordered the restitution of land rights to the communities. Image courtesy of Carlos Ortiz.

In April, after members of the Garifuna community and OFRANEH formed a protest in the country’s capital and a three-day encampment outside the Presidential Palace of Honduras, a high-level commission was formed to ensure compliance with the international court sentences. It is headed by the Honduran Foreign Ministry and is made up of several government institutions, such as the National Agrarian Institute and the Secretariat of Human Rights, as well as members of OFRANEH and community members from Triunfo de la Cruz, Punta Piedra and San Juan.

“At the moment, we are holding several meetings to define the route of compliance with the sentences,” Miranda told Mongabay. But two parallel community boards, or patronatos, which are community associations that allow members to self-manage and defend their needs and interests, have been created by private investors and other non-Afro-Indigenous settlers, with support from the mayor of Tela and the municipal government of Travesía, where another Garifuna community lives. According to Jalileh García from the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective, a workers’ organization that focuses on peace and justice in Latin America, the goal is to block state efforts to comply with the 2015 international court ruling.

Both the mayor of Tela and the Puerto Cortés government did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment. Meanwhile, leaders and community members continue to face an increase in threats, criminalization and violence by Honduran military forces and police who provide security to non-Afro-Indigenous settlers.

Community threats

Since 2018, more than 150 Garifuna peoples have been killed, 37 criminalized and five forcibly displaced. In 2023, four Garifuna leaders were murdered, including Martín Morales Martínez, a member of the commission set up to ensure the state complies with the 2015 Inter-American Court ruling. Morales was also a part of the Committee for the Defense of the Land in Triunfo de la Cruz. Earlier, in 2020, four Garifuna leaders had disappeared after a group of 30 heavily armed men in police uniforms were seen entering their homes. These leaders were never seen again.

Garifuna peoples, along with the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), march toward the Presidential Palace of Honduras on April 12 to demand a high-level commission to ensure compliance with a 2015 international court sentence. Image courtesy of Carlos Ortiz.

Castillo has been arrested “many times,” and he told Mongabay the police frequently monitor his movements and try to intimidate him. Castillo said his mother and sister have also received death threats. Miranda has also been arrested and threatened on several occasions, such as in September last year, when four unknown men with assault rifles entered her home in Vallecito. The men fled after a confrontation with Miranda’s security team.

The Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz. Image by Christopher Clark for Mongabay.

According to Miranda, ever since the court sentences, racism toward Garifuna peoples has increased. On June 24 and 26, the Honduran police and military raided the community of Trujillo and tried to evict and imprison Garifuna residents. The police were reportedly sent to protect the interests of Randy Jorgensen, Malik Zoharan and Darren Wade, three Canadian tourist investors charged with money laundering and fraud relating to sales of Garifuna lands earlier this year. “The police act in favor of the businessman’s principals,” Castillo explained.

The Honduran military, National Police and Directorate of Police Disciplinary Affairs did not respond to any of Mongabay’s requests for comment.

“All we want is to live in peace,” Miranda said. “We want a future for our youth and for our youth to not leave; for them to have the ability to survive here. We have the right to that.”

Banner image: Protesters marching to the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa. Photo courtesy of Carlos Ortiz.