Caribbean & Central America - August 2026

In late June a contentious piece of legislation to strengthen and protect the agricultural sector took effect in Honduras. An initiative of the conservative Partido Nacional (PN) government led by President Nasry Asfura which took office in January, the legislation, which also extends to protect energy and tourism projects, was justified by the PN on the grounds that there had been a rise in invasions of productive lands in recent years. However, it has been criticised by rights groups due to its potential impacts on afro-descendent, indigenous and rural campesino communities, in a country where agrarian conflict has long fueled violence.

Approved on 3 June by Honduras’ 128-member unicameral legislature, which following the November 2025 general election is now effectively controlled by the PN, the law took effect on 26 June. It contains 10 articles designed to provide legal protection for agro-industrial, agricultural, livestock, energy, and tourism activities. For instance, under the changes, land designated for agro-industrial activities, where ownership has been legally defined and registered, is exempt from agrarian reform processes, while it also authorises security forces to enforce the eviction of land occupiers.

Proponents of the law say it is necessary to tackle the problem of land invasions, where productive land is occupied illegally. In February, Olvin Mondragón, the legal adviser to Honduras’ largest private sector lobby, Consejo Hondureño de la Empresa Privada (Cohep), was cited by the local press as saying that over 66,000 manzanas of land (one manzana = 0.7 hectares) were illegally occupied. Meanwhile the president of the legislative assembly, Tomás Zambrano, accused the left-wing administration of Asfura’s predecessor, Xiomara Castro (2022-2026), of facilitating these occupations by ordering the police and attorney general’s office not to act on complaints or court-ordered convictions.

This law has proved highly controversial, drawing attention from institutions such as the Honduran branch of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACHR), which on 4 June issued a statement warning of “the possible negative impacts that this initiative could have on… the rights of local and rural communities, as well as of indigenous peoples, the Garifuna people, and the English-speaking afro-Honduran community.” The statement emphasised that “all legislative initiatives must comply with international human rights standards and, in this case, must respect the rights of access to land and ancestral territory.” Meanwhile, on 30 June a coalition of over 30 social organisations across Honduras, including prominent indigenous group Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (Copinh), filed a legal appeal with the supreme court’s constitutional chamber against the law, describing it as “manifestly incompatible” with international human rights treaties that apply to Honduras as it “presumes, without any judicial process, that any situation related to land constitutes an invasion when it originates from communities, indigenous peoples, or peasants claiming their territorial rights.”

This all comes as a report published on 23 June by local think tank Centro de Estudios para la Democracia (Cespad) revealed that 77 socio-territorial conflicts remain active in 13 departments of Honduras, 80% of which are described as “high intensity”. In its report, Cespad describes the Asfura administration as “characterised by a business-oriented approach to public management that prioritises economic growth over democratic processes”, and warns the new law “deepens the vulnerability of rural communities by strengthening punitive control mechanisms and reinterpreting conflicts as mere violations of public order or legal security.”

Evictions

According to the annual report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), published on 23 April, Honduras’ human rights ombudsman’s office (Conadeh) received 221 complaints from indigenous persons between 2016 and May 2025 reporting that they were at risk and had been victims of displacement. It cited the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as identifying 34 active territorial conflicts arising from land tenure insecurity and a lack of legal clarity, and documenting 22 forced evictions, “several of which were conducted without a warrant”. The IACHR also noted “ongoing tensions in connection with the alleged illegal occupation of ancestral lands by international companies linked to tourism and agro-industrial and media projects”.