Over the past decade, the Garifuna people of Honduras, primarily organized through OFRANEH, have denounced increasing pressure on their ancestral territories linked to tourism and real estate projects, palm plantations, and other economic interests.

Despite the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognizing the territorial rights of communities such as Triunfo de la Cruz, Punta Piedra, and San Juan and ordering the Honduran State to adopt measures for their protection and restitution, communities maintain that these rulings have yet to be fully implemented. In this context, those defending their territories have faced threats, attacks, intimidation, and criminalization; among the most serious incidents was the disappearance of four Garifuna youths from Triunfo de la Cruz in 2020. Pressure intensified again in 2024, with territorial recovery efforts and reports of police intervention and violence against communities.

In 2025 and 2026, the conflict took on new dimensions of stigmatization and hate speech, including complaints filed by OFRANEH against Corporación Televicentro and, more recently, against a journalist over statements considered racist. In 2026, the dispute once again reached the Judiciary, following proceedings against five San Juan defenders, while OFRANEH maintains the “Viva Berta” encampment outside the Judiciary and calls for compliance with the Inter-American Court’s rulings. The organization has also rejected dialogue initiatives that it considers insufficient while judicial proceedings and non-compliance with international decisions continue. Taken together, the documented events point to a long-standing pattern of territorial conflict, corporate pressure, violence, criminalization, lack of effective access to justice, and stigmatization, in which the defense of ancestral territory continues to put both communities and those who represent them at risk.