by Eugene Walker
I never imagined that a camp like this could generate so much hope. It has opened up new nationwide conversations about water, mining, palm oil, luxury real estate expansion, and extractive tourism. It is no longer just about people seeing us mobilize against the law; it is driving the discussion around other issues as well. I listen closely to people, and I hear them beginning to conclude that it is possible to resist the tiny group of business leaders who have seized control of the country in such an abusive manner.
–Míriam Miranda of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (Ofraneh)
As La Jornada reports, for more than 50 days, Garifuna protesters and their supporters have been camped out in “A Camp for Life” in front of the Honduran Supreme Court. Men and women are demanding justice for the activists facing charges following a violent, illegal eviction in the community of San Juan, Tela, located on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. At the root of the problem lies an old issue: dispossessing peoples of their territories, their common resources, and their means of survival.
A HISTORY OF STRUGGLE
Ms. Miranda, a leader of Ofraneh, spoke of the history of protests by the Garifuna, an Afro-Indigenous people of Central America: “We’ve been at this for years—relentlessly. And not just through protests, but through an intense legal battle. We have filed 56 legal actions with public prosecutors, the Supreme Court of Justice, and various state institutions. As the Garifuna people, we are saying ‘no’ to the State. And we’ve been joined by campesinos, social movements, and organizations representing women, human rights, and migrants.”
Camp for Life. Photo: Luis Enrique Aguilar / Desinformémonos.
With the election of a Trump-endorsed candidate for president, Nasry Asfura, last December, the Garifuna have faced a new campaign to evict them from their territories. Together with endorsement, Trump threatened to stop aid to Honduras if Asfura wasn’t elected, and pardoned ex-President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been convicted of drug trafficking in the U.S. President Asfura issued a decree, the Agro-industrial Development Law, which was designed to carry out evictions within a two-month window. It favors domestic and foreign private interests at the expense of various peasant projects and rural or urban communities. Its first use was against the Garifuna people, who have a long history of resistance. The Camp for Life was set up in protest.
United States interference in Honduras is nothing new. When a mildly progressive President, Manuel Zelaya, was overthrown in 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did nothing to stop the coup, enabling the oligarchy.
It was Berta Cáceres and the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations (COPINH)—who organized opposition during the intense grassroots struggles that erupted in 2009 following the coup against Zelaya. In 2016 she was murdered.
Trump’s interference in the Honduras elections is part and parcel of his Monroe Doctrine domination of Latin America that has seen a sharp shift to authoritarianism throughout the area. Can the resistance of the Garifuna people be the spark for a new beginning in Honduras and perhaps reaching further?