Return to Main PageINDIGENOUS LAND STRUGGLES IN HONDURAS
In Honduras the indigenous people are starting to organize to take back the land that is theirs. For many years they have remained quiet as international companies have come in and taken over their land to exploit their natural resources. Recently indigenous people have become more concerned with this issue because the free market economic policies and the new global economy has made it easier for transnational companies to make their way into the region. Their lands and resources are now considered for sale even if it means devastation for the environment and the indigenous people.
In terms of numbers of species, the small tropical forest areas of Central
America are among the richest habitats on earth. Honduras has at least seven
hundred birds, one hundred and twelve mammals and one hundred and ninety
six reptiles and amphibians. Unfortunately this rich natural resource is
quickly disappearing. Only a small amount of the once thickly forested area
is still there. The speed of this deforestation is amazing. More than two
thirds of the forest area originally held by the indigenous 10,000 years
agao has been cleared since 1950 and destruction has rapidly continued the
past forty five years (Chapin 4). Overseas companies with little regard
for the region's natural environment and the livelihood of its indigenous
people, are trying to expand into the remaining lands in search of cheap
timber, oil, minerals, and resort areas. With all of these overseas companies
the indigenous find themselves trapped.
Because of these pressures, indigenous have started to establish a base
to organize themselves. In Honduras, a group of new federation have been
working togetherwith a support organization called MOPAWI. MOPAWI stands
for a moskito acronym meaning "development of Mosquitia". Together
they have been trying to secure a legal title to their lands and stall a
rising interest in colonization. Through this program the "Tawahka
Biosphere Reserve", by presidential decree, along the Patuca River.
Also the Miskito located along Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast, have formed
an organization called Miskito Kupia (Mikupia meaning heart of miskito).
They have been working for an indian managed reserve encompassing the entire
Miskito cays area.
As the many indigenous groups are organizing a communication network has
been established. Here they can discuss common problems and survival strategies.
In September 1989, the Kuna in Panama organized the first Interamerican
Indigenous Congress on Natural Resources and the Environment. Here seventy
different indigenous representatives from seventeen nation states came together
to try to find connections between land rights and natural resource amanagement.
For many of the representatives it was the first time they had left their
countries. In December 1991 a second congress was held in Bolivia and from
that many indigenous conferences and workshops have begun to furthur investigate
strategies. For example, indigenous groups of Mosquitia in September 1992
with the help of MOPAWI met to investigate strategies of blocking outside
colonization and unsustainable economic development (Chapin 6).
This activity is a good start for the indigenous but many things are still
holding the indigenous back. But the indigenous movement and organization
dealing with land protectionhas not yet received the support it needs. This
needed support spurns from many areas. First of all the indigenous population
in Central America and Honduras are located in remote places without roads,
such as the Mosquitia and the Darien. In the U.S. a majority of the indigenous
population is urban so this is not an issue. But in Honduras the trip to
indigenous sometimes takes several days by small plane, , canoe horse and
finally foot. This often discourages most representatives of assistance
agencies, government or private. Secondly, the discrimination from Columbus'
conquest continues to go on today. Indigenous people are often viewed as
a group of people holding back economic and social progress, rather than
participants in development. Often indigenous are heated like foreigners
and many countries place indigenous people under the authority of their
ministries of foreign relations. This type of disrespect has left many indigenous
suspicious to outsiders. Often they lack the self confidence to defend their
rights and are fearful of lookingto others for help. This factor combined
with lack of adequate schools and education mak eit very difficult for indigenous
to meet the standards set by assisting agencies for project proposals and
management.
In Copan, Honduras there is a legacy of the ancient Maya that mysteriously abandoned the nearby city to the jungle. Presently the Maya ruins are left behind drawing thousands of tourists and money to the city each year. The residents of Copan are not welcoming these tourists. Earlier last year the modern day Chorti Maya began a campaign to reclaim thousands of acres of ancestral lands in western Honduras (Hegstrom 8). Immediately they were met with violence. Two of their leaders were shot and killed, one in front of several witnesses. Some international human rights observers are questioning publicly whether political organizers among indigenous people are being systematically murdered to end their politcal movement. Someof the murders are extremely political and the assassins are given immunity. Local land controversies continue to rage between Maya activists and local land owners and townspeople. The Chortis Maya are joined by indigenous groups throughout Honduras. They have held a series of well publicized hunger strikes and protests designed to pressure officials into giving them their lands they have been promised by the federal government. In total indigenous groups claim historic rights to nearly 35,000 acres in western Honduras.
The Garifuna people in Honduras are fighting for their land as they are celebrating their two hundreth anniversary in the country. Their area of residence is located on the Carribbean coast of Honduras. They are fighting back against an alliance of foreign companies and national elites they say are determined to steal what remains of the territory. The Garifuna people came to Honduras 200 years ago because the British expelled them from the island of St. Vincent. They first landed in Roatan in the Bay islands and early in the nieteenth century spread to the coast. Presently there are 250,000 Garifunas residing in this area(Jeffrey 8). The Garifuna people have slowly been loosing ground. Since the end of the nineteen eighties foreign countries have took over coastal land to plant bananas for exporatation. During the height of the Cold War in the 80s communal land was seized by the Honduran military for training Salvadoran soldiers and for use by anti-sandinista contra rebels.
In the 1990s economic globalization has posed to be the principle threat because of the end of regional hostilities. The land of the Garifuna was identified as a strategic for tourism and industry that Honduran officials visualized as the fast track to developing the country's economy. Real estate speculators came to explore the Garifuna land which was owned commmunally without any legal title. The government took over huge tracks of coastal property and turned them over to big developers. Three government laws helped this conquest: the law of agricultural modernization, the tourism law, and the new municipalities law(Jeffrey 8). All of the laws passed without any consulattion with Garifuna leaders. Everything was given away to to national and foreign investors. Leaders of the Garifuna groups were especially upset including Celio Alvarez, president of the La Cieba, an organization for community development working with Garifunas. Another law allowed an end to the run around in a constitutional clause barring foreigners from owning land within 40 kilometers of the coast except in urban areas. Tourist areas were then converted to urban zones and the administration of President Callejas made it possible for foreigners to buy up beach front property.
Some Garifuna villages have benefitted from tourism. Seaside restaurants do great business, but local lagoons are rapidly losing their fish stocks to hungry tourists. Fresh water supplies are taxed by the many visitors and garbage is piling up. The government is also pushing several economic mega-projects including residential areas and resorts. Garifuna leaders complain that a nearby wildlife preservation has left them unable to hunt deer, wild hogs iguanas and other traditional Garifuna food sources. They can no longer collect wild herbs that they long used for medicinal purposes. outsiders are able to tak e over the coasts so easily because of the historic invsibility of Garifuna communities.
The Garifuna communities do not understand the dangers. They think that because the land was always theirs it will be there for them in the future. The Garifuna community possessed organizations centered around dance and other aspects of the culture but never have organized politically. They are not opposed to economic development, but the government has excluded them from the process. A march on government offices in Tegucigalpa on October of 1996 by huindreds of Garifunas was held. it was the first such protest held in Honduras. this helped to convince the president Carlos roberta reina to lend his support to the celebration of the Garifuna arrival in Honduras. It is unknown whether the increased visibilty and awareness will help the Garifuna community to project their historic lands from wealthy invaders.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapin, Mac."The View From the Shore: Central America's Indians Encounter the Quincentenary" Grassroots Development 16.2(1992):2-10.
Hegstrom, Edward. "Maya Bid to Reclaim Land at Copan Tourist Site Stirs Violence" Central America NewsPak 12.17(1997):7-8.
Jeffrey, Paul. "<<Invisible >> Garifunas fight back" Latinamerica Press 29.7(1997):7-8.
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This website was a project for Political Science 416, "Race and Politics in the Americas" at Providence College, Spring '98
Prof. Tony Affigne