Police operation in San Juan, Tela detains community
members — including children — as Honduras defies
international order to protect ancestral land
rights
San Juan, Tela, Honduras, July 8,
2026 — The Honduran National Police carried out a
forced eviction on July 6 against the Garifuna community of
San Juan, in the municipality of Tela, department of
Atlántida, resulting in the detention of several people,
including young people and children. Garifuna leaders report
the use of tear gas and say they suffered violence during
the operation. The eviction occurred despite the fact that
the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) had already
found the State of Honduras responsible for violating this
community’s right to collective property.
The
community of San Juan, with a population of more than 4,200
residents, has for decades endured the sale and allocation
of its ancestral territory to third parties, alongside a
climate of threats and violence. The IACHR issued its ruling
on August 29, 2023, finding the State responsible for
violating the right to collective property and for failing
to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the community’s
participation in public matters that concern it. The
reparations measures ordered by the Court remain
unfulfilled.
A report published in January of this
year by the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ), the
Honduran chapter of Transparency International, documented
at least 103 killings of environmental and land defenders in
Honduras between 2015 and 2025. Land tenure conflicts are
among the leading causes of confrontation, along with
illegal logging. The report also notes that around 90% of
cases remain unpunished. In this context, Honduras is one of
the
most dangerous countries in the world for those who
defend their territory.
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The July 6 operation left
multiple arrests in its wake, which Afro-descendant
organizations describe as part of a pattern of
criminalization of the Garifuna population defending its
territory.
The International Coalition of
Territories and Peoples of Afro-descendant Latin America and
the Caribbean (CITAFRO) stated:
“We express
our total and absolute rejection of the eviction from the
ancestral territory of the Garifuna community of San Juan.
An eviction in this context is not simply a property
dispute: it is the continuation of the territorial
dispossession that the State has already been ordered to
redress, and it adds to the conflicts that Garifuna and
Afro-Honduran communities have suffered on the Atlantic
coast in the face of tourism and extractive projects that
overlap with binding international rulings.”
Data from
the
CITAFRO Afro-descendant Atlas are stark: across the 16
countries mapped, including Honduras, rural Afro-descendant
communities occupy at least 205 million hectares, of which
barely 5% (9.4 million) are titled. This gap reflects the
historical inequality faced by Afro-descendant peoples in
their right to land tenure and in their dignity to remain in
their ancestral territories, maintaining their customs,
traditions, and contributions to biodiversity
conservation.
CITAFRO demands:
- The
immediate cessation of eviction and repression actions
against the San Juan community. - Full compliance with
the IACHR ruling and its reparations
measures. - Guarantees of life and physical integrity
for those detained and for those defending the
territory. - An immediate investigation, by the
competent authorities, into the abuses committed during the
police
operation.
