Estrategias y resistencias ante el despojo y el desplazamiento forzado de las comunidades garífunas en Honduras. El caso de la bahía de Trujillo

• Main Author: Miguel Ángel Navarro-Lashayas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de los Andes 2021-04-01
• Series: Revista de Estudios Sociales
• Subjects: dispossession; forced displacement; garifuna; honduras; psychosocial
• Online Access: https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/doi/full/10.7440/res76.2021.05

This article analyses human migration, taking forced displacement as the concept that best defines the events occurring in Honduras in recent years. To this end, it examines the dispossession to which the Garifuna communities in the Atlantic zone of Honduras have been subjected as a result of the implementation of tourism projects. The paper analyses the objectives, strategies, and impacts of dispossession and, based on the case of the community of Guadalupe, exemplifies these practices and examines the resistance mechanisms that have been developed. Based on community-based research, various typologies of dispossession are discussed. These have in common the use of legislative instruments accompanied by practices that tend to break down the social fabric and create an atmosphere of fear and distrust among the local population. Concerning the forms of resistance, we highlight the connections of local communities with national and international organisations—drawing on transnationalism—, the use of social networks, land re-appropriation practices, and psycho-legal tactics.