PBI-Honduras accompanies Indigenous Lenca community seeking to stop the threat of dispossession and eviction from their lands

On November 22, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“Last week we accompanied the Lenca Indigenous Community Tierras del Padre to present an appeal for amparo before the Supreme Court of Justice. Although it has been suspended, at PBI we show our concern that the eviction will take place later.”

Criterio.hn has reported:

“A little downcast, waiting to be evicted on November 23.

This is how Marina Corina Díaz, a woman over 60 years old, from the Tierras del Padre community, presented herself. Corina, like 120 other families, faces this sad story that is summed up in a territorial conflict like many in Honduras.

Precisely to avoid this eviction ordered by the Criminal Court of Francisco Morazán, the Justice for the Peoples Law Firm filed an appeal on Thursday [November 17] before the Court of Criminal Appeals, denouncing violation of the right to due process, the right to defense and the right to indigenous land. For this reason, the application of a precautionary measure was requested to suspend the eviction.

The inhabitants of the community in conflict have lived under constant threats of being dispossessed of the lands they occupy by court decisions. That is why, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 16, they filed a complaint with the Public Ministry against Judge Gladis Alejandra Ochoa Sierra, of the criminal court of Francisco Morazán for the crime of judicial malfeasance.”

Proceso Digital adds:

“The Criminal Court of the Judicial Section of Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán, ordered, since last July 26, the execution of an eviction, in the Lenca indigenous community of “Tierras del Padre”, Municipality of the Central District, scheduled for November 23, at 6:00 in the morning.

The Court in question orders that the National Police be notified and demand the presence of no less than 1,000 police officers and the Military Police of Public Order, so that they can order the corresponding person to provide all the cooperation required by the Executing Judge.”

Agence France-Presse has explained: “According to the court decision, the families occupy this land called ‘Tierras del Padre’ of about 200 hectares, owned by a businessman carrying a real estate project to build 10,000 homes. But community representatives say they have a deed of ownership registered in the national archives dating back to 1739.”

Conexihon has also noted: “For some years, the families that inhabit the place, approximately 200, have been living in anxiety since Mario Facusse, a businessman, landowner known in the country, through his legal representatives threatens to evict them claiming to be the owner of the land on which they live.”

And IM-Defensoras further explains: “The Facussé family has been linked to business activities that violate the rights and common and public goods of the Honduran population, highlighting among them that derived from extractivist activity and illegal contracts with state institutions for more than 40 years.”

Past accompaniments of Tierras del Padre

On February 8, PBI-Honduras had also tweeted: “PBI accompanies the Lenca indigenous community Tierras del Padre before the eviction ordered for today. @OACNUDHHN [the Office in Honduras of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights] urge the State to suspend its execution since guarantees and conditions for the effective protection of human rights are not observed.”

And on November 11, they tweeted:

“PBI accompanies to the Tierras del Padre Lenca Indigenous Community to file an amparo appeal to stop the eviction order filed. The community requests that ILO Convention 169, which establishes their property rights over ancestral lands, be respected.”

We continue to follow this.