The eviction by the police of a hundred families from the Lenca indigenous community, who claim ownership of a piece of land in Honduras, was stopped on Thursday February 10 at the request of the new left-wing president, Xiomara Castro.
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Accompanied at dawn by a judge with an eviction order, many riot police stationed themselves at the entrance to a field located 10 km south of the capital Tegucigalpa. According to the court decision, the families occupy this land called “Tierras del Padreof around 200 hectares, owned by a businessman with a real estate project to build 10,000 housing units. But community representatives say they have a deed of ownership recorded in the national archives dating back to 1739.”Please Xiomara, eyes closed I give you my vote. You are a mother, please don’t take us awayThis land, shouted in front of the police Ingris Vivas, an occupant in tears, carrying two children in her arms.
The right to defense and protection
Amid the confusion, Human Rights Minister Natalie Roque and Presidential Advisor Pedro Amador, sent by Xiomara Castro who took office on January 27, arrived at the scene. “We will not tolerate any assault on a pregnant woman, child or citizen“, launched Pedro Amador in a video circulating on social networks showing him alongside a pregnant woman. “We are here because this community has the right to defense and protection“, declared Natalie Roque, adding that it was not a question of political interference but of”the government’s commitment to defend the rights of the most vulnerable populations“.
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According to Danilo Cerrato, a spokesperson for the Lenca community, discussions are underway to postpone the eviction and find a solution to the dispute. “How is it possible that they support these landowners who are neither from here nor from Honduras. How is it possible that we, who were born here, in Honduras, cannot have the right to a piece of land on which to sow what we can eat tomorrow?“, lamented to AFP Olga Briones, an occupant of Tierras del Padre. According to the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (Conpah), some 600,000 members of the Lenca ethnic group, recorded since pre-Columbian times, live in Honduras.