The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:
“Members of OFRANEH (Honduran Black Fraternal Organization) state that their protest is being held to advocate for ‘respect for our ancestral territorial rights’ and to continue demanding compliance with the four Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) rulings concerning the communities of Triunfo de la Cruz, Punta Piedra, San Juan, and Cayos Cochinos. For several weeks, members of the organization camped at Uva Beach on Cayo Menor (Cayos Cochinos) as part of a protest defending collective rights recognized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and demanding environmental protection for their historical territories.
The conflict stems from the filming of the program Survivors, produced by the Spanish network Telecinco. Reports from Cayos Cochinos indicate environmental damage linked to the production infrastructure, including harm to the seabed within a protected area. Police also attempted to evict the camp twice; OFRANEH members report that the first attempt involved acts of violence against Garifuna community members, as well as the seizure and destruction of property.
PBI was present at the camp in the capacity of international human rights observers. We expressed our concern regarding the criminalization of land and territory defenders, the need for free, prior, and informed consultation processes in accordance with ILO Convention 169, and the Honduran State’s obligation to implement the Inter-American Court’s rulings on this matter.”
In this 4-minute video clip, El Salto Diario reports: “Survivors is recorded by [the Spanish company] Telecinco de Mediaset and is a production of Cuarzo Producciones [based in Madrid, Spain], in collaboration with the French [and Italian] audiovisual giant Banijay. In addition, this territory is guarded by the Cayo Cochinos Foundation, whose largest shareholder is the Mexican magnate Raúl Salinas.”
Garifuna leader Mabel Robledo says in this El Salto Diario video: “Here we are in what is the archipelago of Cayo Cochinos, defending life and the environment. We defend this territory because before Honduras was a state, who lived in this space, apart from pirates, were our ancestors. When they start bringing the reality shows so that they come to make their signings, neither the consultants allow it to a group of foreigners so that there is a facade that they are on an island that is totally deserted.”
Robledo adds: “The people who have the power, the members of ecological society, as well as the directors of the television programme of Survivors of Canal 5, have given the order to stop me. Because they have that plan that if they stop me, possibly my colleagues will stop doing this job. This is not the first time that I have been attacked by the national police. We have seen how defenders of the environment, like Berta Cáceres, like Juan López, have lost their lives and have remained impunity.”
PBI-Canada met with Robledo in October 2024.
We continue to follow this.
