On July 20, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted on social media:
“78 organisations are calling for a National Day of Protest against the Law on Strengthening and Protecting the Agro-industrial Sector, with work stoppages and peaceful protests taking place across the country.
‘This and other laws represent the continuation and intensification of a project of land dispossession (…) granting privileges to industrial and extractive sectors, weakening public institutions, restricting civic space, and persecuting and criminalizing defenders,’ according to the joint statement.
Among the signatories are OFRANEH [the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras], Plataforma Agraria, CMDBCPT [the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Assets], CNTC [the National Union of Rural Workers] National and CNTC El Progreso, @bufetejusticiaparalospueblos [Justice for the People Law Firm], @redefensorashn [the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras].
Also @arcahhonduras [the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication], which today held a demonstration – under the observation and accompaniment of PBI – outside the poultry company El Cortijo, which it accuses of polluting the River Choluteca.”
El Cortijo
On March 3, 2026, PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with ARCAH outside the El Cortijo plant in the village Loarque.
In January 2023, PBI-Honduras posted on social media: “Last week we visited again with ARCAH the community of Loarque. The Choluteca River and the people living around it in Tegucigalpa are heavily affected by the pollution, including the children who study in a school located nearby, as well as livestock. Since 2017, the year in which the poultry company ‘El Cortijo’ installed a chicken processor, people residing in the area are struggling to safeguard their health due to toxic waste and bad smells.”
In April 2024, the HCH TV channel reported: “Residents of the Loarque sector came out to defend the Choluteca River because they claim that a company in the sector is destroying it. …The residents denounce that this company is causing them discomfort in their nose and skin as a result of the contamination. They hope that authorities will regulate this company that operates in this sector.”
At that time El Heraldo also noted: “The demonstrators claim that the Choluteca River, which passes through the sector, is being affected by waste, so they demand the intervention of environmental authorities.”
The “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector of Honduras”
Grassroots and civil society groups have denounced the “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector of Honduras” warning the law unconstitutionally favours agroindustrial companies to the detriment of small producers and campesino communities, risks weakening land rights, environmental protections, and the right to democratic participation, and could facilitate further violence and dispossession in the Bajo Aguan region.
After the passage of the Agro-industrial Law on June 4, 2026, El Heraldo reported: “The forces of public order will be obliged to intervene immediately in cases of strikes, demonstrations or protests on public roads. In such crisis scenarios, the National Police and road authorities must enable safe logistics corridors and clear accesses, ports and routes without delay.”
After that, the National Congress further expanded the legislation’s protections to the energy and tourism sectors on June 8.
The ranching industry is also protected by the law.
Accompaniment
We continue to follow these various struggles.
Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) since September 2022.
Additional reading
–PBI-Canada and PBI-Honduras visit with ARCAH and learn about the struggle to save the Choluteca River (PBI-Canada, March 4, 2026)
–Israeli military exports linked to eviction of CNTC farming community, violence against human rights defenders in Honduras (PBI-Canada, April 22, 2026).
