Impunity in emblematic cases, such as the murder of Juan López, Berta Cáceres, and other environmentalists, reflects the connection between organized crime, corruption, and politics.
In the heart of northern Honduras, in the Bay of Tela and Trujillo, Garifuna communities face a growing wave of land dispossession, forced displacement, structural racism, and systematic violence under the guise of tourism and megaprojects.
We support the processes of territorial recovery and actions that reclaim their ancestral collective rights and reinforce their cultural identity. The Garifuna rebellion and the commitment of OFRENEH inspire us to continue the fight for a Central America free from extractivism.
Therefore, the communities, organizations, and movements that form part of the ACAFREMIN articulation demand:
• That the government of Honduras take immediate measures to ensure compliance with the sentences of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favor of the Garifuna people. • That the governments of the Central American region urgently order the environment ministries to conduct a strategic environmental assessment per country, to analyze the state of essential common goods for life – water, air, soil – and the biodiversity of the Central American territory, and to begin the rational management of our territory for the benefit of the people. • That the governments respect and implement the international conventions signed and ratified on the protection of the human rights of Central American peoples, especially the rights of access to information and free, prior, and informed consent. • That the governments of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador sign and ratify the Escazú Agreement, to guarantee respect for the rights of access to information, citizen participation, access to justice, and the protection of environmental defenders. • To the resistance and social movements of the Central American region, to continue the struggle against metallic mining, in defense of the territory and natural goods, water, life, biodiversity, in safeguard of the natural heritage for future generations.
"Environmental impunity, never again!" "Mining companies, out of our borders!"
The struggle for land defense remains at the center of the conflict, and although there have been no new mining permits, corporations with active permits continue to operate with impunity. This is reflected in the continuation of violent evictions against indigenous and peasant communities.
In Panama in 2023, thousands of citizens took to the streets to reject a mining contract approved in less than 36 hours, which violated 25 articles of the Constitution. Despite this scenario, the Panamanian people managed to repeal the mining contract and force the political system to implement a mining moratorium that remains in effect to date, despite attempts by the government and companies to resume mining activity.
El Salvador: Since Nayib Bukele came to power in 2019, the country has transitioned to a permanent state of exception, under which thousands of people have been detained without due process, including human rights and environmental defenders. At the same time, the door has been reopened to metallic mining, prohibited since 2017, which represents a serious setback for the environment and society.
Honduras faces a profound institutional crisis, marked by a fragmented political system controlled by a tripartisanship that paralyzes and polarizes the main public institutions. Environmental defenders and community leaders, such as the Garifuna peoples and territorial organizations, face criminalization, threats, and violence, while the state does not guarantee their security or the protection of their rights.
Rejection of open-pit mining is growing in Central America.
Bayano digital reproduces in this section the text of the pronouncement approved and issued by all the delegates participating in the X Regional Meeting of the Central American Alliance Against Mining (ACAFREMIN), held in Honduras.
04 and 05 November, 2025 – Tela, Atlántida, Honduras
For nearly a decade, the Central American Alliance Against Mining has walked alongside communities in resistance to the impacts of the mining industry, weaving networks of solidarity against the advance of extractive models that promote the plundering of our natural resources.
Protests were also held in 2024 and 2025 over demands such as: changing the Social Security Fund law, the reopening of the FQM mine and the Indian River dam.
We have also stressed the urgency of building alternative development models where peoples can freely choose sustainable models that rationally use the natural resources of our countries.
Despite the complaints and the social conflict generated by these extractive projects, the governments of the region continue to consolidate authoritarian political models that guarantee plunder for large multinational corporations.
Guatemala is experiencing a profound democratic crisis marked by corruption, authoritarianism, and the exclusion of large social sectors. However, the state's response has been the criminalization of protesters, persecution and attacks against the union movement and the Single Union of Construction Workers, the dismissal of teachers, and a wave of violence that left deaths and injuries, evidencing the deterioration of democracy and the use of the judicial apparatus to suppress dissent and resistance.
In this journey we have denounced the destruction of biodiversity, the displacement of the population, the violation of human rights, and the criminalization of land and territory defenders that are generated from mining operations.
Although President Bernardo Arévalo was elected as a symbol of a "second democratic spring", his government lacks territorial base, legislative representation, and indigenous inclusion, while his cabinet—formed mostly by young urbanites—does not reflect the indigenous and peasant communities who made his victory possible.
The current government came to power amid rejection of the so-called "pact of the corrupt," which had captured the government.
Socio-environmental conflict is a central axis of the Honduran crisis and is expressed in hydroelectric, mining, and oil exploitation projects without consultation or respect for indigenous and local territories, despite international sentences and decrees that protect environmental areas and collective lands.
Cases such as those of the five leaders of Santa Marta, the detention of lawyer Ruth López and jurist Alejandro Henríquez, reflect the use of the judicial system as a tool for political persecution.
Said contract, drafted by powerful law firms, was perceived as a new form of plundering the country.
With the Foreign Agents Law, approved in 2025, it seeks to control and dismantle social and community organizations that have historically resisted the impacts of extractivism.