The Honduran Government pledges land to the Maya Chortí

During the week of holidays, there was a peaceful protest carried out by all the local Maya Chortí communities in an attempt to obtain more land for the indigenous population. Families from San Rafael, and some of our students, were involved in the demonstration which lasted for two days when hundreds of people took over the site of the famous Copán Ruins and successfully attained more terrain from the State.

Part of the land in San Rafael, where we work, is community-owned but a large proportion of it is privately owned and the indigenous community cannot afford to buy it.

Land is an important asset to the community as they can use it to generate wealth by farming it or use it to grow simple vegetables and crops to feed the family, and if they are able to buy the land on which their house is built then they are not left open to being evicted from the land.

For this reason, winning more land from the State was a big achievement for the Mayan descendants as it will further empower them and mean that they are less vulnerable to decisions taken by private land owners.

The Honduran Government pledges land to the Maya Chortí