Honduran police evict Garifuna community in Tela

By William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 9, 2026

   Dozens of Garinagu were tear-gassed by Honduran National Police, who forcibly evicted them from their homes in the San Juan community in the city of Tela, in Honduras’ northern province of Atlántida, where police also arrested 5 persons, sparking an international outcry on Tuesday, July 7.

   The Honduran Garifuna community is protected by a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), but the police declared that the residents were the “invaders”. The armed officers claimed they were enforcing a law protecting agro-industrial and tourism land, which is being claimed by a local hotel complex. The police action resulted in multiple injuries, arrests, and the destruction of property.

   The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) resisted their eviction, citing that their land is protected under an IACHR ruling. OFRANEH condemned the police action as institutional racism and ongoing collusion between the state and private land developers.

   In sympathy and solidarity with the plight of their Honduran brothers and sisters, the National Garifuna Council (NGC) of Belize and other regional observers have expressed deep concern about armed military personnel entering ancestral Garifuna lands to intimidate the residents. The NGC is concerned about people’s safety and rights, as San Juan has a painful history, where many Garifuna people were killed there in 1937.

   In an effort to prevent a repeat of such tragedy, the NGC has called on the Honduran government to protect and respect the Garifuna community’s ancestral lands, and ensure that Garifuna rights are protected. The NGC has similarly called on regional leaders, including the Government of Belize and CARICOM, to monitor the situation closely and to support the rights of the Garifuna people in Honduras.

   This latest action draws an unfortunate parallel to a similar eviction in November 2022, when Honduran military and police riot squads evicted 110 Garifuna people from their homes in Punta Gorda, Roatán. Their eviction was ordered by a local judge as “preventive dislodging” for alleged “usurpation” of private land.