Support Rep. Bush's Resolution in Solidarity with the Afro-Indigenous Garífuna Community of Honduras

In an important act of solidarity, U.S. Representative Cori Bush has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the violent and illegal appropriation of Garífuna territory and calling on the State of Honduras, the State Department, and multilateral development banks to fully comply with the IACHR rulings and to investigate the numerous human rights violations committed against the Garífuna people of Honduras.

It's been nearly seven years since the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) found the State of Honduras responsible for violating the legitimate land rights of the Garífuna communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra. Indigenous rights defenders have publicly denounced that since the ruling, efforts to violently disposes their communities has only intensified.

In 2019, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) reported the death of 16 Garífuna leaders, including six women. The following year, four Garífuna men from Triunfo de la Cruz, including community leader Alberth Sneider Centeno, were abducted at gunpoint by men wearing police uniforms and have not been since. In August 2022, OFRANEH held a mobilization in Tegucigalpa which denounced the Attorney General's inaction in regards to the July 2020 forced disappearances. The Honduran Public Prosecutor's Office announced shortly after that it had opened a criminal investigation against OFRANEH coordinator Miriam Miranda and two others.