Major incidents of violence perpetrated against the Garífuna have included the following.
The shooting of Gregoria Flores Martínez, the General Co-ordinator of OFRANEH, the main Garífuna community organisation fighting the Los Micos development. Ms. Flores was shot after a series of warnings regarding her campaigns for Garífuna land rights and while collecting testimonies regarding the alleged false imprisonment of another community leader.[1] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a resolution acknowledging the precarious situation for Garífuna activists and asked for protective measures for Ms. Flores and her family, which were not implemented.[2]
The false imprisonment of Alfredo López Alvarez, a leading member of several Garífuna rights organisations, who was arrested in 1997 on drugs charges, found guilty in 2000, exonerated in 2001 and January 2003, but not released until August 2003. In February 2006 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Honduran authorities for their detention of López and ordered them to pay reparations, which have not been forthcoming.[3]
The burning of the house of Wilfredo Guerrero, the President of the Committee to Defend the Lands of San Juan, the site of the Los Micos complex. Although no-one was hurt in the fire, documents vital to the Garífuna case were destroyed.[4]
Threats to the life of Jessica García and her children. Ms García, a Garífuna community leader, was approached at home in June 2006 by a man who offered her money to sign a document surrendering Garífuna land rights to the development company PROMOTUR. When she refused, the man put a gun to her head to force her to sign, and threatened her life and those of her children if she publicised the document’s existence.[5] The document, a copy of which was obtained by a US human rights group, is said to hand the disputed territory over to PROMOTUR, guarantee that the Garífuna would abandon legal actions or complaints, and that PROMOTUR would have the right to evict and relocate Garífuna communities. The document is said to have been co-signed by PROMOTUR owner Jaime Rosenthal Oliva.[6]
Jesús Alvarez died following the second of two murder attempts.[7] Jesús was a colleague of Alfredo López and had accused the municipality of Tela of embezzlement in relation to earlier tourist developments.
2006: Community Radio station Faluma Bimetu completely destroyed by fire.[8]
January 2010: the Faluma Bimetu community radio station in the Garífuna village of Triunfo de la Cruz was set alight. Much of the building was destroyed and equipment lost.[9]
7 April 2011: Unidentified arsonists set fire to the home of Teresa Reyes and Radio Faluma Bimetu director Alfredo López at midnight.[10]
[1] Human Rights First (16-17 October 2006) Report to the Human Rights Committee on its consideration of the Initial Report by the Government of Honduras under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, 88th Session.
[2] Human Rights First (6 July 2006) ‘Garífuna Community Leader in Honduras Threatened with Death’, www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_women/alert070606_garifuna.asp
[3] Human Rights First (16-17 October 2006) Report to the Human Rights Committee on its consideration of the Initial Report by the Government of Honduras under the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, 88th Session.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Human Rights First (6 July 2006) ‘Garífuna Community Leader in Honduras Threatened with Death’, www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_women/alert070606_garifuna.asp
[7] Rights Action (31 August 2005) ‘The Tourist Industry and Repression in Honduras’, Rights Action, sourced from www.upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/66/46/
[8] Dick and Mirian Emanelsson (23 January 2011) ‘Radio del Pueblo Garífuna cerrado por terror’, http://vimeo.com/19128569 (accessed 4 February 2011).
[9] OFRANEH (6 January 2010) ‘Urgent! Attack against Garífuna Community Radion in Triunfo de la Cruz’, http://hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com (accessed 6 August 2010).
[10] Reporters Without Borders (13 April 2011) ‘Community radio stations fighting to survive in Honduras’, www.rsf.org/honduras-community-radio-stations-still-13-04-2011,40023.html (accessed 17 April 2011).