PBI-Honduras attentive to the court hearing of Garifuna ancestral land defender Leonard Brown

On January 28, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “From PBI we are very attentive to the hearing of the Garífuna and human rights defender Leonard Brown. @OFRANEH [Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras] warns of rumors of eviction in the recovery of Wabato, territory that is part of the ancestral title granted to the Garífuna people since 1901.”

OFRANEH also tweeted: “The hearing continues today in the Court of Trujillo, where the defender of mother earth Leonard Brown, is accused of invading a community land given decades ago by the Municipality of Trujillo to a foreigner. The hearing will take place today [Friday January 28] at 1 pm.”

OFRANEH coordinator Miriam Miranda has tweeted about this court case: “We are not invaders. We only defend what is ours!”

And Honduras Now has tweeted: “Charges against him are linked to his defense of ancestral Garifuna land titles. OFRANEH denounces the systemic dispossession of land suffered by Garifuna communities in Trujillo Bay.”

The InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF) has noted: “For generations, the Afro-Honduran Garífuna community has resided along the northern coast of Honduras and in La Mosquitia in the east. Many of the core Garífuna religious and cultural practices are inextricably linked to the land, including their collective claim to certain territories.”

They add: “However, because the Garífuna live on a prime section of coastal territory, the growth of the tourism industry threatens their way of life and encroaches on what they regard as their ancestral lands.”

Further reading:

PBI-Honduras accompanies Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) as Garifuna land defenders criminalized (January 17, 2022)

PBI-Honduras observes march in Tegucigalpa demanding the return of four missing Garifuna land defenders (July 20, 2021)