Land Grabbing Is Killing Honduras' Indigenous Peoples

Apr 5, 2016 | Andrea Reyes Blanco and Tim Shenk
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In its February 21 report on the Situation of Human Rights in Honduras, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or IACHR expressed concern about the high levels of violence and insecurity in Honduran society, highlighting risks to Indigenous people. The report pointed out that violence against Indigenous people has emerged to a large degree from land grabs. The violence is exacerbated by a context of inequality and discrimination, in addition to the consequent barriers to access to justice. Official figures released in April 2013 by then Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi indicate that 80 percent of killings in Honduras went unpunished due to a lack of capacity on the part of investigative bodies.

According to the IACHR, the challenges that Indigenous communities face are mainly related to: “(i) the high levels of insecurity and violence arising from the imposition of project and investment plans and natural resource mining concessions on their ancestral territories; (ii) forced evictions through the excessive use of force and (iii) the persecution and criminalization of Indigenous leaders for reasons related to the defense of their ancestral territories."