National Garifuna Council Raises Alarm Over Military Presence in Honduran Community

The National Garifuna Council of Belize is raising the alarm over a heavy military presence in the Garifuna community of San Juan, Honduras. The Council says reports and videos circulating on social media show armed security forces entering the community amid an ongoing land dispute.

In a release today, the NGC expressed grave concern for the safety and human rights of the Garifuna people of San Juan, calling for an immediate end to what it describes as acts of intimidation and militarization.

In an interview today with Alex Nolberto, the president of the National Garifuna Council, he highlighted past occurrences of said aggression in 1937.

Alex Nolberto, National President, National Garifuna Council: “The Garifuna were never enslaved and we are known to defend our spaces. We are a peaceful people but when our backs are against the wall then we are forced to defend ourselves. And so we’re trying to appeal to the authorities in Honduras to be reasonable so that there is no violent exchange or any abuse of authority beyond what has already happened. But essentially, yeah, they’re trying to force the people off their property. This is not the first time that has happened. And we would recall in the early 1937, there about, there was a massacre as well as a consequence of the territorial spaces. We had some people had to move from Honduras and settle in Belize. So we are running out of spaces to run and I think that’s the challenge because whenever we are aggressed within our territorial spaces we tend to move away and move away and now we are at that point where there is nowhere else to run and so we ultimately will be forced to stand and defend ourselves and that’s where this has led to and so we are standing in solidarity. This is the first action by the National Garifuna Council. We continue to meet on this matter and we continue to brainstorm as to what our next steps are.”

The organization says it stands in full solidarity with the Garifuna people of Honduras and with the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, known as OFRANEH, in their fight to defend ancestral lands. The NGC is also voicing concern over reports of detained community members, calling for their full legal protection and due process.

The Council is calling on the Honduran government to withdraw military forces from San Juan, prevent further escalation, and honor its obligations under Inter-American Court of Human Rights rulings that protect Garifuna ancestral territories. 

Alex Nolberto, National President, National Garifuna Council: “We are in consultation with our regional brothers and sisters who are also monitoring this situation very closely and we are organizing ourselves so that we can stand and defend what is rightfully ours. Such as in Honduras such as in Guatemala such as in the US so we have sister agencies across the diaspora and we have been meeting regularly updating each other and planning our next courses of actions so that the interests of our people are protected.”

The NGC is also urging CARICOM, the Government of Belize, regional leaders, and the international human rights community to closely monitor the situation and take action to protect the lives and land of the Garifuna people.  The Council closed its statement with a message of unity, saying, quote, “An attack on one Garifuna community is an attack on the entire Garifuna nation.”