The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“On Wednesday, March 4, we observed the press conference organized by the Peasant, Indigenous, and Popular Alliance of Honduras (#ACAINPH) in front of the National Congress, in which defenders from various organizations and movements defending the land, including #plataformaagraria, @copinh, @cntctegucigalpa, @viacampesina_hn, #copa, #clnph, #acilpazh, and #movimientosintierra, warned of the serious repercussions of the bill “Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-industrial Sector of Honduras,” pointing out that this initiative would not only favor agro-industrial interests but could also violate the rights of peasants, affect access to land, and weaken guarantees for rural communities.

At PBI, we support calls for respect for the peasant way of life, for the self-determination of peoples, and for the human right to access land and produce food.”

#Honduras #humanrights #peasantry #access to land”

As noted above, the organizations present at the press conference included: #plataformaagraria (the Agrarian Platform), @copinh (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras), @cntctegucigalpa (the National Union of Rural Workers), @viacampesina_hn (Via Campesina), #copa (the Coordinator of Popular Organizations of Aguán), #cinph (Indigenous coordinator of popular power in Honduras), #acilpazh (the Association of Indigenous Lenca Communities of La Paz, Honduras), and #movimientosintierra (the Movement without Land).

La Via Campesina also posted videos of the press conference on social media and noted: “The Alliance Peasant, Indigenous and Popular of Honduras (ACAINPH), integrated by social and territorial base organizations that claim the human right to the land and the territory, warn about the intention to use the National Agrarian Institute and, in addition, the pretense to approve the project titled “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-Industrial Sector of Honduras”.

MNTV.hn further explains: “The Peasant, Indigenous and Popular Alliance of Honduras (ACAINPH) denounced that the draft “Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-industrial Sector of Honduras” would represent a risk to agrarian reform and rights of access to land in the country. The organizations pointed out that the initiative, promoted in the National Congress (CN), would grant privileges to agribusiness entrepreneurs and could criminalize protests and peasant demands linked to land conflicts. …The alliance called on social and human rights organizations to monitor the legislative process and defend territorial rights.”

And El Libertador reports: “Various peasant organizations mobilized this Tuesday [March 4] in the basement of the National Congress to reject the draft bill called the Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector Honduras, promoted by the National Party, which would allegedly open the door for agricultural lands to pass into the hands of the agroindustrial sector.”

“The demonstrators described the initiative as ‘a violent attack’ against the historical struggles for land and pointed out that it violates the Constitution of the Republic and international human rights treaties signed by the country.”

That article adds: “[Raul Ramirez of ACAINPH] warned that, if the law is approved, the organizations will defend their territories. ‘They may approve it, but it is unfair, illegal and unconstitutional. Our defence will be in the streets and on the land’, he said, assuring that the peasant sector will maintain permanent mobilizations.”

We continue to follow this.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has posted on social media:

“This Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day, we were present observing the feminist march organized by different organizations in Tegucigalpa.

The struggle of women defenders in Honduras continues to be vital for the fulfillment of rights and access to justice.

At PBI, we continue to express our concern about the high rates of violence against women and recall that, at the international level, Honduras received recommendations from the UPR to move toward the construction of a legal framework that protects women and the LGTBI+ community.

#8m #internationalwomensday #justice”

On November 7, 2025, Canada commented on the human rights situation in Honduras during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Honduras at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The UN has explained: “The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years.”

Speaking on behalf of Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, Joseph Flores Ayala stated:

“Thank you, Mister President.

Canada thanks Honduras for its participation in the Universal Periodic Review. We welcome the positive steps taken by Honduras toward eliminating violence against women and girls, supporting survivors of intimate partner violence, promoting safe and dignified human mobility, and the reintegration of returnees.

Canada recommends that Honduras:

1. Fully implement the National Protection Mechanism by establishing robust accountability measures for state authorities who fail to provide adequate protection to human rights defenders, including Indigenous rights defenders, environmental rights defenders, and journalists.
2. Strengthen enforcement of Article 118-A of the Penal Code, which defines and penalizes femicide, by improving prevention, investigation, and prosecution of gender-based violence.
3. Enhance the independence and integrity of the justice system by establishing a transparent judicial appointment process in line with the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary.”

We continue to follow this.

On March 3, PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada visited with the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) in the village Loarque, a community has been affected by the pollution caused by the poultry company El Cortijo, including the contamination of the Choluteca River.

ARCAH has now posted on social media: “Yesterday we received in Aldea Loarque a delegation from PBI Honduras who observed the situation of the Choluteca River and listened to community stories about the fight against pollution generated by the El Cortijo Poultry Company. We recognize the work of PBI Honduras, who have been with us on the territory since 2021.”

Choluteca River

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.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) since September 2022.

Berta Cáceres, an Indigenous Lenca environmental defender and the co-founder of the Civic Organization of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) was shot by assassins in her home in La Esperanza on the evening of March 2, 2016. She died in the early hours of March 3, 2016.

Cáceres was killed for defending the Gualcarque River, where the company Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA) intended to build the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam without free, prior and informed consent.

The Spanish news agency EFE reports: “In November 2024, the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice ratified the sentences against seven convicted of the murder of Cáceres and the attempted murder of Mexican environmentalist Gustavo Castro, who was the only witness, as he was a guest of the indigenous leader that day.”

But while the material perpetrators have been prosecuted, the intellectual, political and business authors have not been brought to justice.

The Madrid-based Vida Nueva reports: “COPINH points to several members of the Atala family, owners of the dam, demanding that the investigation go further. On the 10th anniversary of the events, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) has wanted to contribute to this, which has published an extensive report in which it denounces that the murder ‘was carried out by a structure in which hitmen and paramilitaries participated, as well as personnel and directors of the DESA company, in addition to counting on the omission of the State of Honduras by not guaranteeing the rights to life and personal integrity of the Berta Cáceres’.”

COPINH’s coordinators, including Berta’s daughter Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, have been accompanied by Peace Brigades International since May 2016.

On March 1, 2026, PBI-Honduras posted on social media: “Today, we talk about Berta. Berta, defender of water, earth, life. Berta, who multiplied and is still alive in the hearts and actions of millions of people. This weekend, we accompany Copinh Honduras [the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras] in the tenth anniversary of the sowing of Berta Cáceres. Ten years without Berta. Ten years without justice. But also ten years holding on to the hope that one day the Gualcarque River will be free and the rights of the Lenca people will be respected.”

And on March 4, PBI-Honduras also posted on social media: “On Monday, together with @pbicanada, we accompanied @copinh in Tegucigalpa during the mobilization for the anniversary of the assassination of Lenca leader Berta Cáceres. On the same day, we brought our concerns and recommendations related to this case to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, reflected in the following words: ‘In Honduras, 10 years after the murder of defender Berta Cáceres, it is concerning that foreign investments in extractive projects continue to contribute to violence. A Group of Independent Experts from the IACHR concluded that financing from international development banks was used for the murder of the leader and to monitor her organization, COPINH. We urge the UN to ensure compliance with the expert group’s reparation plan, including prosecuting corporate responsibility for the murder, revoking the hydroelectric project, granting title to the ancestral territory of Río Blanco, and reforming the National Protection Mechanism.’”

Along with these PBI-Honduras social media posts, here are some news excerpts to provide context and additional photos taken by PBI-Canada.

SUNDAY MARCH 1 – morning gathering in Utopia, La Esperanza.

EFE reports: “[Bertha Zuniga Caceres, the daughter of Berta, stated] that several activities began on Sunday, the first in La Esperanza ‘to demand the process of justice and to continue bringing the memory and thought of Bertha Cáceres,’ who was the coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and opposed a hydroelectric project because it was causing environmental damage.”

Bertha speaking at the gathering.

Gustavo Castro.

Afternoon, ceremony in the cemetery, La Esperanza.

Berta’s children Salvador, Bertha and Laura.

Cultural evening at Utopia, La Esperanza

MONDAY MARCH 2 – morning, getting on the buses at Utopia, La Esperanza

Morning, protest outside an Atala related business in Tegucigalpa.

Morning march on the highway to the Supreme Court of Justice.

Morning, rally at the Supreme Court.

EFE reports: “The tenth anniversary of the murder of Honduran environmentalist Bertha Cáceres was commemorated on Monday [March 2] in Tegucigalpa with protests in front of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in which her daughters Bertha and Laura Zúniga demanded justice against the intellectual authors of the crime.”

Afternoon, rally at the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office).

EFE reports: “During the protest in front of the Prosecutor’s Office, the demonstrators made a pedagogical exercise of justice because, according to Zúniga, ‘it seems that the Honduran authorities are afraid to initiate an action and a requirement, it seems that they do not have the necessary commitment to set a precedent of justice not only for this country, but a precedent of justice for the world.’ For her part, her sister Laura said that in spaces such as the Prosecutor’s Office, they are denied entry and justice, and the authorities ‘refuse to investigate the murderers’ of their colleagues.”

TeleSURtv.net adds: “Bertha Zúniga, current coordinator of COPINH, said that a decade after her mother’s planting, which occurred on March 2, 2016 in La Esperanza, Intibucá, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has pending the execution of key fiscal requirements. ‘That is the requirement and the specific request that we have in the Public Prosecutor’s Office,’ Zúniga stressed, referring to the identification of those who planned the murder.”

TeleSURtv.net adds: “Laura Zúniga denounced that the institutions of the State continue to close the doors to the families of the victims: ‘We are doing an exercise of collective and organized justice, we are doing an exercise of memory because we are here remembering our comrade Bertha and our comrades and comrades who have fallen,’ she stressed.”

We continue to follow this.

Video: On March 8, 2016, people gathered in front of the Embassy of Honduras in Ottawa, Canada to demand justice just days after the murder of Cáceres. PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson participated in that gathering and was in Honduras ten years later for this commemoration of Berta’s life.