‘Danger no longer only comes from the hitmen, but from the state’: the Honduran farmers labelled terrorists for protecting their land
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- The Rigores massacre killed 20 people on May 21 at a palm oil farm in Honduras's Bajo Aguán valley; 15-year-old Orlean was among only three survivors of his family, and the month was the deadliest since conflict monitors Acled began tracking the region in 2018.
- The 30-year Bajo Aguán conflict has claimed more than 200 lives per the Honduran Commission for Human Rights (Conadeh), with Honduras consistently ranked among the world's most dangerous countries for land defenders by Global Witness.
- President Nasry "Tito" Asfura's government passed a penal code reform allowing criminal groups to be designated as terrorist organizations—against the Honduran supreme court's advice and with an open-ended definition critics say could cover peaceful protest.
- A second agribusiness law prioritizes corporate land claims over those of campesino, Indigenous, and activist groups and justifies immediate police or legal intervention against any protest, according to Centre for Justice and International Law lawyer Lucas Mantelli.
- Former president Juan Orlando Hernández, a convicted drug trafficker pardoned by Trump in December, invested nearly $72m in the palm oil industry during his tenure despite allegations of human rights abuses; under his successor Xiomara Castro (2022–2025), violent state evictions decreased.
- Conadeh estimates that nine out of 10 killings and abuses in Bajo Aguán are never investigated, shaping a community response where families retrieve bodies before police arrive to avoid an alleged $300 release fee.
- Yoni Rivas, spokesperson for the Plataforma Agraria, said the new terrorism law means "danger no longer only comes from the hitmen who follow me around, it comes directly from the state"; he now travels in an armored car on IACHR protective orders.
Why it matters: The Asfura government's twin legal changes—a 'terrorism' designation with an open-ended definition and a law prioritizing agribusiness land claims—give state authorities explicit tools to prosecute the campesino communities defending Bajo Aguán land. With more than 200 dead since the conflict began and 90% of killings never investigated, the surviving activists now face criminal prosecution, not just violence, for their activism.
