Honduras: Fear for safety

Index Number: AMR 37/005/2006
Date Published: 13 August 2006
Categories: Americas, Honduras

Jessica García, a leader of the Afro-descendant Garifuna community in the village of San Juan Tela, Atlantida department, northern Honduras, has been threatened and forced at gunpoint to sign over land belonging to the community to a real estate company. Jessica García, and other leaders and members of the Garifuna community are in danger as the company continues its attempts to acquire the community's land. Concerns have been heightened by the kidnap and murder of a member of the Garifuna community, 19-year-old Mirna Isabel Santos Thomas, on 6 August.