The Micos Golf and Beach Resort is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it’s already forced out one community in Tela Bay and is now threatening others in the Barra Vieja area. International human rights groups have called for Honduran officials and the IDB to suspend the project until all outstanding land, environmental and territorial issues have been addressed with the Garifuna communities. They have urged for compensation to be paid to the Garifuna for the distress and loss and damage of property and land already suffered.
Despite a fifteen year-struggle to defend the rights of the Garifuna in Honduras, 36 communities are now under severe threat because of the project. The first phase of the multimillion dollar development includes luxury hotels, a golf course and shopping centres built on Garifuna land. The resort will also extend into the Jeanette Kawas National Ecological Reserve. However, the IDB is insisting that it is an ecologically sustainable project.
The Garifuna are being squeezed out
The Garifuna are being increasingly squeezed out as the resort is developed. Communities in Miami in the West of Tela Bay have already been forced out by tourism developments. Now a four-lane tourist road linking Barra Vieja to the Miami resorts is threatening the communities there. Local people and campaigning groups have stood up to the bulldozers and road graders in the past, but are now too afraid of potential negative repercussions from powerful interests.
Barra Vieja and Miami are one of the five Garifuna communities that settled in Tela Bay back in 1798. The three remaining communities in San Juan, Tornabe and Triunfo de la Cruz are also being pressured to sell their land and threatened by interests allegedly linked to the Micos project and the IDB.
“While Garifuna communities do not oppose tourism in itself, they want to be able to make use of their own land to develop a truly sustainable project”
- Teresa Reyes from Triunfo de la Cruz community
Heavy-handed tactics
Powerful business interests involved in major tourist projects have used heavy-handed tactics, from land invasion to intimidation and violence, in order to secure possession of land to sell on for considerable profit. The growth of tourism has also seen a dramatic rise in threats to Garifuna leaders who seek to protect the rights of their community. Promociones y Turismo (PROMOTUR), a wealthy and politically well-connected real estate company, has long been engaged in a land dispute with the local Garifuna community of San Juan. Garifuna activists and their supporters believe PROMOTUR is behind much of the intimidation and threats aimed at community leaders.
There have been increasing concerns over the security of Garifuna community members and leaders who have suffered acts of intimidation, including harassment and threats at gunpoint to sign over community land. Amnesty International has issued several urgent appeals in this regard. Most recently, one community leader was reportedly abducted, beaten and threatened with death by ten men, thought to be private security guards working for a local real estate company.
The Garifuna achieved legal recognition in the courts for their communally-held land in 1992. Their struggle, however, started only two years later when powerful interests moved in to the area. Legislation favouring privatisation has rendered the collectively-held land titles of the Garifuna obsolete and allowed them to be broken up into individual deeds, making it easier for developers to target individual landowners. In Miami, most residents eventually sold their plots, opening the way for investors. Many believed that the land would be stolen anyway if they did not sell.
“All this privatisation is illegal, and if it continues – we are going to die as a people…To lose our land is to lose everything. We are in a struggle for our life and we will do what it takes to defend ourselves”.
- Garifuna community leader, Alfredo Lopez.
Garifuna communities, with the help of OFRANEH, have taken their case to the inter-American commission of human rights and have a string of petitions before the inter-American court on human rights.
Further reading:
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Mega Resort Threatens Local Communities In Honduras
The Micos Golf and Beach Resort is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it’s already forced out one community in Tela Bay and is now threatening others in the Barra Vieja area. International human rights groups have called for Honduran officials and the IDB to suspend the project until all outstanding land, environmental and territorial issues have been addressed with the Garifuna communities. They have urged for compensation to be paid to the Garifuna for the distress and loss and damage of property and land already suffered.
Despite a fifteen year-struggle to defend the rights of the Garifuna in Honduras, 36 communities are now under severe threat because of the project. The first phase of the multimillion dollar development includes luxury hotels, a golf course and shopping centres built on Garifuna land. The resort will also extend into the Jeanette Kawas National Ecological Reserve. However, the IDB is insisting that it is an ecologically sustainable project.
The Garifuna are being squeezed out
The Garifuna are being increasingly squeezed out as the resort is developed. Communities in Miami in the West of Tela Bay have already been forced out by tourism developments. Now a four-lane tourist road linking Barra Vieja to the Miami resorts is threatening the communities there. Local people and campaigning groups have stood up to the bulldozers and road graders in the past, but are now too afraid of potential negative repercussions from powerful interests.
Barra Vieja and Miami are one of the five Garifuna communities that settled in Tela Bay back in 1798. The three remaining communities in San Juan, Tornabe and Triunfo de la Cruz are also being pressured to sell their land and threatened by interests allegedly linked to the Micos project and the IDB.
Heavy-handed tactics
Powerful business interests involved in major tourist projects have used heavy-handed tactics, from land invasion to intimidation and violence, in order to secure possession of land to sell on for considerable profit. The growth of tourism has also seen a dramatic rise in threats to Garifuna leaders who seek to protect the rights of their community. Promociones y Turismo (PROMOTUR), a wealthy and politically well-connected real estate company, has long been engaged in a land dispute with the local Garifuna community of San Juan. Garifuna activists and their supporters believe PROMOTUR is behind much of the intimidation and threats aimed at community leaders.
There have been increasing concerns over the security of Garifuna community members and leaders who have suffered acts of intimidation, including harassment and threats at gunpoint to sign over community land. Amnesty International has issued several urgent appeals in this regard. Most recently, one community leader was reportedly abducted, beaten and threatened with death by ten men, thought to be private security guards working for a local real estate company.
The Garifuna achieved legal recognition in the courts for their communally-held land in 1992. Their struggle, however, started only two years later when powerful interests moved in to the area. Legislation favouring privatisation has rendered the collectively-held land titles of the Garifuna obsolete and allowed them to be broken up into individual deeds, making it easier for developers to target individual landowners. In Miami, most residents eventually sold their plots, opening the way for investors. Many believed that the land would be stolen anyway if they did not sell.
Garifuna communities, with the help of OFRANEH, have taken their case to the inter-American commission of human rights and have a string of petitions before the inter-American court on human rights.
Further reading:
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