Honduras Passes 2 Laws Favoring Agribusiness, Exposing Land Defenders After 20 Killed
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 3
Honduras Passes 2 Laws Favoring Agribusiness, Exposing Land Defenders After 20 Killed
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 3
Summary
Two new Honduran laws now let authorities prioritize agribusiness claims in land disputes and broadly label groups as terrorists, a shift campaigners say puts campesino and Indigenous activists at immediate legal risk.
The measures followed a 21 May massacre that killed 20 people on a palm oil farm in Bajo Aguán, where a 30-year land conflict has already left more than 200 dead, mostly small farmers.
Human rights groups say the laws work together: protests against disputed land claims can trigger rapid police action, while the terrorism reform's open-ended wording could criminalize peaceful organizing.
Bajo Aguán's violence is also fueled by drug-trafficking networks layered onto the palm oil dispute, and Acled said May was the region's deadliest month since it began tracking in 2018.
With 9 in 10 killings and abuses in Bajo Aguán never investigated, residents say the new legal framework deepens a long pattern of impunity and state-backed repression.