Public Letter to the Attorney General of Honduras Regarding the Criminalization of the Black Islander Community of Diamond Rock, Roatán

Description: The McLaughlin family speaking on the criminalization case they face.

March 18, 2025 

Johel Zelaya 

Attorney General of the Republic of Honduras

Public Prosecutors Office

Tegucigalpa, Honduras 

Dear Mr. Attorney General Johel Zelaya, 

We address you as national and international human rights organizations expressing our grave concern over the process of criminalization and dispossession faced by Native Black Islander community of Diamond Rock, Santos Guardiola in Bay Islands, among them members of the McLaughlin family.

The McLaughlin family state that they have repeatedly denounced the powerful Cooper-McNab family for the crime of usurpation, after they took possession of the ancestral territory of this Black community. Exercising their self-determination, on January 5th, 2025, the McLaughlin family re-occupied their ancestral territory. 

We are concerned that on January 28th, 2025, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministerio Público in Spanish), through Prosecutor Yescenia Canizales, filed a case (file number 015-2025), calling for arrest and detention warrants to be issued against 13 men and women, members of the McLaughlin family and community, who were charged with the crimes of ARSON, VIOLENT ROBBERY, and DAMAGE to their own ancestral property.

As human rights organizations, we join the demands of the Native Black Islander community of Diamond Rock, Bay Islands and the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) and declare the following:

1. We recognize the McLaughlin family as defenders of the English-speaking Black people of Diamond Rock. For this reason, we urge authorities to guarantee the protection of the rights of the McLaughlin family and their defense work, in the face of the unfounded accusation of the crimes of ARSON, VIOLENT ROBBERY, and DAMAGE - an accusation implicating the collective property of the McLaughlin family.

2. We believe that the accusation presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office once again constitutes the abusive use of criminal law to criminalize the defense of ancestral territories.

3. We wish to highlight the previous international lawsuits against the State of Honduras won by the Garifuna people. These lawsuits ultimately aim to prevent the repetition of acts that violate the ancestral rights of these peoples, as established in Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, and other international treaties and conventions that the State of Honduras has signed and ratified. The current conflict gives rise to another possible international lawsuit for the same practices and omissions.

As stated above, as organizations dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, we publicly raise our concerns regarding the development of this criminalization process because irregularities persist, sustaining an unfounded accusation against the Diamond Rock community, among them members of the McLaughlin family.

Finally, we reiterate our call for public institutions, especially the justice sector, international institutions and the diplomatic corps in Honduras, to guarantee a fair trial that vindicates the rights of the country's indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

Signatory Organizations

1. Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (Honduras)

2. Calan Institute for Transterritorial Justice (EE.UU.)

3. Denver Justice and Peace Committee (EE.UU.)

4. Grassroots International (EE.UU.) 

5. Latin America Working Group - LAWG (EE.UU.) 

6. Honduras Solidarity Network (EE.UU. / Canada)

7. Midnight Books (EE.UU.)

8. Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (EE.UU.)

9. Global Exchange (EE.UU) 

10. Movimiento Político Rebelión Verde – ReverdES (El Salvador) 

11. Asociación Mujeres Ambientalistas de El Salvador (El Salvador) 

12. Centro de Derechos de Mujeres - CDM (Honduras)

13. Foro Honduras Suiza (Suiza)

14. Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras - RNDDH (Honduras) 

15. Rights Action (EE.UU. / Canada) 

16. Coalición Ambientalista Copán (Honduras) 

17. Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas y Negras de Honduras - CONAMINH (Honduras) 

18. Plataforma Agraria del Aguán (Honduras)

19. Asociación Asamblea Abierta de Migrantes y Promigrantes de TARAPACÁ - AMPRO (Iquique, Chile) 

20. Cross Border Network (EE.UU.)

21. Corporación con Sentido Cultural (Colombia) 

22. Unión de Empresas y Organizaciones de Trabajadores del Campo Regional Indigena y Campesina de la Paz - UTC La Paz (Honduras) 

23. Asociación de Apoyo Mutuo entre Mujeres - APOMUH (Honduras) 

24. Centro de Estudios de la Mujer-Honduras CEM-H (Honduras) 

25. Nicaragua Center for Community Action (EE.UU.)

26. Movimiento Ambientalista Santabarbarense - MAS (Honduras) 

27. Central Nacional De Trabajadores Del Campo - CNTC (Honduras) 

28. Asociación ENTREPUEBLOS (España)

29. La Asociación por la Democracia y los Derechos Humanos - ASOPODEHU (Honduras)

30. Alternativa de Reivindicación Comunitaria y Ambientalista de Honduras - ARCAH (Honduras)

31. Collective Diaspora - (EE.UU)

32. Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (Regional)

33. Ecuménicas por el Derecho a Decidir - EDD (Honduras)

34. Oficina Ecuménica por la Paz y la Justicia - (Alemania)

35. HondurasDelegation - (Alemania)