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Honduran Congress shields agro-industry from land invasions amid UN concerns
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Honduran Congress shields agro-industry from land invasions amid UN concerns

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Honduras's Congress approved a law to protect the agroindustrial sector from land invasions, despite UN warnings.
  • The law declares agroindustrial lands "inalienable" and mandates immediate eviction of illegal occupants.
  • Critics, including the UN Human Rights Office, fear the law could criminalize social conflicts and negatively impact indigenous and peasant communities.

The Honduran Congress has enacted a law designed to shield the agroindustrial sector and its lands from invasions, overriding concerns raised by the United Nations. The legislation, approved Wednesday, aims to bolster legal security for investments and production lands within the sector.

The "Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector" designates the comprehensive protection of all Honduran agroindustrial activities as a matter of "public order, national interest, and priority." This protection extends beyond production investments to include productive infrastructure, logistics chains, and the transportation of goods.

Declare inalienable, immediately and mandatorily, the lands and improvements that are effectively destined for agroindustrial activity and the cultivation of plant species used as raw materials (...), whose ownership or title is legally defined and duly registered in the Property Registry.

— Honduran CongressStating the core provision of the new law protecting agroindustrial lands.

Crucially, the law declares lands and improvements "effectively destined for agroindustrial activity and the cultivation of plant species used as raw materials" as "inalienable, immediately and mandatorily." This applies to properties with legally defined and registered ownership. The legislation mandates that judicial and police authorities must execute evictions of illegally occupied lands.

That is what has brought us that legal insecurity: unemployment, less investment, and less production in the country.

— Tomás ZambranoThe Parliament Speaker justifying the law due to increased land invasions.

Parliament Speaker Tomás Zambrano defended the law's urgency, citing an increase in invasions of productive lands. He accused the previous administration of encouraging illegal occupations by instructing police and prosecutors not to act on complaints or evictions. Zambrano stated this insecurity has led to unemployment, reduced investment, and lower production, particularly affecting key sectors like palm oil, coffee, oranges, and sugarcane.

However, the UN Human Rights Office (Acnudh) expressed concern that the law could negatively impact the economic, social, and environmental rights of peasant, indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. Acnudh warned that the legislation might "deepen the criminalization of social conflicts, collective claims, protests, and strikes linked to demands for recognition of rights over ancestral land and territory."

deepen the criminalization of social conflicts, collective claims, protests, and strikes linked to demands for recognition of rights over land and ancestral territory.

— UN Human Rights Office (Acnudh)Expressing concern about the law's potential impact on community rights.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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