Video still from Prensa Comunitaria.
Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met Garifuna leader Mabel Robledo in October 2024 during a visit to Honduras.
It was during that visit to that Robledo first told us about the situation on Cayos Conchos, an archipelago of islands northeast of La Ceiba on the northern shores of Honduras where a Spanish TV reality show is filmed.
From Ottawa, PBI-Canada is following the situation on Cayos Conchos through updates from the PBI-Honduras team, social media and media reports. We express concern that the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) says “a military-type action” is possible against the people who maintain the protest in at beach camp there.
On September 18 at 7:33 pm ET, Prensa Comunitaria posted on social media: “The #GarifunaResistance has mobilized to Cayos Cochinos to protect the environment and prevent eviction. This morning, Honduran armed forces were deployed to clear the territory and allow the filming of a television show.”
This morning, September 19, El Salto reports: “The communities of Cayos Cochinos, in protest against the presence of the production of the Spanish reality show, resisted throughout the day September 17 against a contingent of more than 200 riot police officers of the Honduran police who arrived in boats to the beach where the gala of the program was to be recorded, which changed location at the last minute.”
That article quotes Mabel Robledo, “a Garifuna leader originally from this paradisiacal territory, from the beach of Cayos Cochinos.”
Robledo says: “We are in a sit-in against the recording of the reality show Survivors, which was going to take place despite the fact that the state of Honduras was sentenced for violating the right to prior consultation that we have over our territory.”
Yesterday, Friday September 18, Reportar Sin Miedo reported: “In the early hours of today, agents of the National Police showed up in Cayos Cochinos with a court order to evict some 40 Garifuna people who maintain a peaceful camp in the area. The objective of the protest is to defend ancestral territories and reject the filming of the reality show Survivors during the sea turtle nesting season.”
That article continues: “Garifuna leader Mabel Ávila Robledo denounced that Judge Warner arrived at Playa Agua, in Cayos Cochinos, with an eviction order that declares Cayo Menor as the property of Sociedad Ecológica S.A.”
“She recalled that this company never presented documents to the Inter-American Court that would prove ownership of the island.”
“In addition, she cited Article 617 of the Civil Code: beaches are public, inalienable and imprescriptible, and no one can claim ownership of them. The Court has already recognized the right of the Garifuna people to their community territory and the habitat they have historically used to survive.”
“Robledo pointed out that the presence of the National Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the executing judge confirms what they have been denouncing: they have been expelled and forbidden to be in the archipelago during the filming of reality shows.”
“She clarified that they do not plan to stay and that they will withdraw if the recordings are stopped: ‘Only if the reality shows leave, we leave.’ Finally, she denounced reality shows because they promote the rape, harassment and criminalization of defenders of land, life and the environment.”
We continue to follow this.
Additional reading: PBI-Honduras issues ALERT warning of the imminent eviction of the Garifuna communities of Cayos Cochinos (PBI-Canada, September 17, 2026).
