Dixon Morales

The Afro-descendant community (Garífuna) arrived in Honduras and Central America in the year 1797 — twenty-four years before the country’s independence, in 1821. This happened when a contingent of Garífuna natives from the Island of San Vicente, located in the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean, arrived on Honduran lands in a place known as Punta Gorda, in the Bay Islands. Since then, the Garífunas have developed their negotiation and leadership skills. This allowed them to negotiate with the Spanish in the city of Trujillo, obtaining the right to the land and the subsequent mobilization along the entire Atlantic Coast, reaching Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize.

The Garífuna people of Honduras are settled along the North Coast, in five departments: Gracias a Dios, Colón, Atlántida, Cortés and Islas de Bahía. Similarly, there is an increase in the presence of Garífunas in urban centers such as San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba, La Lima, El Progreso and Tela, among others. They are a resilient people whose main struggle is focused on nonviolent civil resistance, one of the strategies proposed by the Community Ethnic Development Organization, Odeco.

The Garífuna people have suffered great conflicts in their territory: monoculture plantations, deforestation, the illegal sale of land, social displacement due to the illegal concessions of rivers and water sources for hydroelectric and mining projects. Add to this the presence of hotel complexes on the coastline where this warrior commune lives. All these actions that harm Garífuna rights have been carried out without the observation and opinion of the Free and Informed Prior Consultation (CPLI).

It should be noted that the original Honduran Lenca, Miskitu, Tolupán, Maya Chortí, Nahua, Tawahka and Pech peoples are not oblivious to the socio-environmental conflicts generated by power groups that, given the biological diversity and the potential of the natural assets of the aforementioned peoples, have suffered the loss of territory through a series of devices and operations outside of morality and ethics, two elements that are essential to develop all social, economic, political and cultural activities, according to their own worldviews.

Throughout history there have been great initiatives to unify efforts between the two Afro-descendant peoples —Garifunas and English-speaking blacks— and the seven indigenous populations to raise their voices and establish strategies of struggle within the framework of peace and nonviolence. Great achievements have been recorded, among which stands out, mainly, a high level of empowerment and belonging when establishing strategies to face existing territorial challenges.

One of the actions to demand human rights carried out by Afro-descendants and indigenous people in Honduras was the march of the drums, which took place on October 11, 1996, with the participation of the Popular Coordination of Atlántida (COPA), the Union of Workers of the Beverage and Similar Industry (STIBYS), the Union of Medicine, Hospital and Similar Workers (SITRAMEDHYS), organized teachers, indigenous communities, Garífuna communities, Afro-Honduran organizations, the Garífuna Catholic Pastoral Ministry, the Catholic Church , the Women’s Movement, peasant organizations and patronages. For the first time in history, a government, that of the late President Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez, signed the agreement for the titling, regularization and expansion of the lands of the Garífuna and black communities in general. Likewise, it promised to support the commemoration of the Garífuna Bicentennial, on April 12, 1997. This march was one of the most far-reaching events in the life of Afro-descendants in the country. In 1996, many visits were made to the communities in order to make people aware of the need, and importance, of participating in this organizing effort. Buses traveled from the different areas to Tegucigalpa with a view to carrying out a series of actions aimed at finding a solution to important community problems. It was the first time, in a long time, that a dialogue process with the government had begun through a group as representative as the National Coordinator of Black Organizations of Honduras.

Advocacy actions carried out by indigenous peoples with their community-based organizations have served as the main pillar of representation before local, regional and national governments, to assert their rights. This is the case of the regulation of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), in which a process of dialogue and analysis was carried out to generate a regulation according to the self-determination of peoples and, in this way, become in a draft law proposal by Congress (Legislative Branch). However, due to the lack of political will, the regulation of prior consultation continues to be a desire of these peoples, who hope to reduce the threats, persecutions and murders of indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders. It must not be forgotten that Honduras is among the five countries with the greatest risk to defend the environment and the territories —which belong to indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. Currently, these towns are accused by the Honduran justice as usurpers of these lands on the grounds that the community titles have been sold illegally.

In Honduras, indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples are excluded, and their human rights in general are violated. One of the aspects that we could analyze has to do with the role played by the municipalities, of which indigenous and Afro-descendant territories are a part. Currently, the mayors do not belong to these towns, therefore, there is no option to be actors and subjects of transformation of their territorial domains because they have been displaced by third parties, creating null participation in decision-making instances.

One of the most common cases by state authorities is that they issue land possession documents without any prior review to determine whether or not they belong to indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples. In parallel, it also happens that legal professionals enjoy the power to make transfers privately, and without any review, so they take advantage of this situation in an ignominious way. Another issue has to do with the Property Institute, a dependency that has been disastrous for its actions in these cases in recent decades. This state institution issues public deeds, while the National Agrarian Institute is in charge of delivering community titles. One of the great findings by the organizations and community leaders is that both institutions act separately and that has generated enormous problems in these territories.

Another problem faced by indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples is the invasion of their spaces or domains already established to be inhabited by people outside the community, violating the right of access to their community territories. Many times the sale of these lands is forced through intimidation of the population.

The people who make decisions in local and national governments have the responsibility of guaranteeing access to land for indigenous peoples and protecting them against any intent to usurp. These cases are common in our territories and have been the reason for persecution, intimidation and murder, such as the one that occurred against Berta Cáceres, a Lenca indigenous leader who defends the Gualcarque River.

Dixon Morales

Graduated in Natural Resources and Environment currently. He is vice president of Odeco and director of Radio ODECO. In addition, he is a promoter of human rights and the defense of Afro-Honduran territories.

Translated by Damian Vasquez